Corsa N.EXT, new nylon carcass tyre from Vittoria

The Corsa N.EXT is Vittoria’s first road tyre with a nylon body. Will it live up to its promise of speed, puncture resistance, grip and durability?

Vittoria has finally joined the tyre mainstream with the Corsa N.EXT. Famed for their cotton bodied tyres – they were my tyre of choice many years ago – does this spell the end of their wonderfully supple tyres? In short, no. These tyres are aimed at “enthusiast” cyclists, rather than being full-on race tyres. The type of tyre that can take some serious mileage, shrug off punctures yet still feel fast. No mean feat.

So what have Vittoria done to achieve this holy grail of speed, puncture resistance, grip and durability? Well first off you have the carcass, which is nylon like the majority of other high end tyres from the like of Continental and Schwalbe. This immediately provides greater cut resistance to the Corsa N.EXT, especially on the sidewalls.

Construction

The body of the tyre is constructed from a single piece of nylon. This is folded in such a way that there are three layers underneath the centre tread. This is the first layer of puncture protection; or last depending on where you start. On top of this is added a high-density protection belt. And finally a combination of Silica and Graphene compound are added for improved rolling efficiency, grip and to improve durability.

This compound is what Vittoria say gives the Corsa N.EXT it’s speed, grip and improved wear. Graphene is the wonder material that appears on many of Vittoria’s tyres. And scored into the surface is the very recognisable Corsa tread that you’ll see on Vittoria sponsored teams in the World Tour.

On the bottom of the tyre is a bead shield, to protect it during fitting. The last is handy if you have a tight rim/tyre combination. This quite often leaves you struggling to get the levers in and rubbing the tyre too hard.

The Corsa N.EXT comes in six sizes; 34mm, 32mm, 30mm, 28mm, 26mm and 24mm. It’s also tubeless ready and is compatible with hookless rims, as long as they’re over 28mm. We’ll be trying the Corsa N.EXT out soon and will let you know once we’ve ridden them. In the meantime take a look at the Vittoria website.