Vittoria Open Pavé CG

Simon Whiten

Preview of the Vittoria Open Pavé CG open tubular, clincher tyres

If there’s one tyre I remember from the 90’s it’s the Vittoria Open Pavé CG and its distinctive green tread, which is as recognisable as Eddy Merckx…

 

 
A lot of riders have used these Vittorias, and the same green can still be seen adorning many a wheel in the Spring and Autumn Classics today, where the Pave CG offers that specialist performance.
 
Back in the day of course, we all rode tubs and today’s pros still ride the tubular, but here we have the clincher version of the Pavè CG, which will appeal to many more riders and is still a hand-made, ‘open tubular’ with an impressively high 320 TPI Corespun casing, designed to be supple enough to float across the roughest of road conditions, such as Flemish cobbles.
 

 
Corespun refers to the Pave CG’s cotton yarn casing, which Vittoria use to make really the tyre casing very supple. The theory is that the casing will deform more readily, closely mimicking the road surface, meaning you get a smoother ride, less rolling resistance and more grip on any given surface, no matter how rough.
 
The Corespun K 320 TPI casing of the Open Pave CG also has ‘an admixture of Kevlar® threads for casings where strength is of the essence’, which is reassuring given what these tyres are designed to do.
 

 
Vittoria reckon that the wear-resistant tread of the Pave also has low rolling resistance and they employ their special Isogrip compound in centre of the tyre to give extra grip on those greasy Spring and Autumn roads.
 
No such tyre would be complete without puncture protection and to that end Vittoria employ the PRB 2.0 breaker, plus there’s an Aramid folding bead to keep the tyre locked to your rim.
 
Weight of our tyre was 247g for size 25c (you can also get a 28c version) which whilst not lightweight is bang on the money for a durable Classics’ tyre.
 

 
My memories of using these tyres are all positive and writing this Preview has made me a bit nostalgic for a time when I was a good deal younger, a lot lighter lighter and certainly faster, bikes were made of steel and I had few responsibilities. Shame I won’t be reviewing these but to produce a decent, unbiased review and perhaps fittingly, I am passing these tyres over to a younger, lighter, faster man. He’ll get the most out of them over the winter in training and winter crit races, so we can then tell you if your bike should be wearing these come next Spring. Check back for a full review soon…
 
Vittoria
 
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