RH Clark

I'm looking for new 25mm tires for my 86 Trek 560. I want blue accent tires for this build but not if I am giving up too much to keep the color scheme. The Vittoria Rubino Pro is my current choice. My priority is riding comfort over flat mitigation. I ride 5-7 days a week and have gone a year without a flat before. I am probably not going to fool with tubeless. I do own a set of these in 23mm on another bike and they seem fine, but I don't have as much experience with these narrower tires. Is there anything that is vastly superior to the Vittoria Rubino Pro G2 for just a little more money that I should be considering.?

delbiker1 

The Rubino’s are definitely comfortable, not sure about mileage, but I have found the Panaracer GK slick and semi slick to offer better flat protection. I really like GK SS in 28mm, the GK 26 mm I have seen only in slick, they are very good. For a bit less money, the latest Zaffiro Pro G2 is really good. I have not had them that long, maybe 500 miles, but a nice ride, no flats so far, and the tread looks almost new. I bought a set last year that I saw on sale, $17 each. I have been a bit surprised by how much I like them.

Iride01 

Vittoria Rubino Pro's were my first decent tire I ever bought for a bike. Usually I'd been buying the cheapest things I could find. But the difference between it and the Continental Ultra Sports that were on my '78 Raleigh Competition GS were night and day. The ride was so much more comfortable and my legs were thanking me for the less effort they took to move. That was about 2016. When Vittoria quit making that particular model I was riding and went to the other models of Rubino Pro, I changed to Continental GP5000's and have never looked back. GP5000's were everything and more that the original Rubino Pro was.

RH Clark

Mileage and flat resistance are less important than comfort on this build. This is a bike I've had in the shed for 2 years and just now rebuilding. It's probably number 6 or 7 in the lineup. It's getting more attention right now just because I am currently rebuilding it and setting it up as a 2X9 with different wheels, cassette, bars and derailleur. Probably not going to be able to go larger than 25mm though 26mm could possibly fit. It currently has the cheap 24mm Fixie Pop tires that were on the used wheels.

t2p

Conti Ultrasport might be avail with blue sidewall stripe (?) - and good chance this would be an upgrade over the Vittoria Rubino

wheelreason

I'd ride on the rims before I ever ride an Ultra Sport again, and the Rubino (in most of it's forms) is a good tire over all, and very good bang for the buck.

13ollocks

I’ve ridden Rubino Pros exclusively for at least 15 years (I like to color coordinate yellow -aesthetics matter) - they’ve been great and I see no reason to change (there was a brief dalliance with a pair of Vittoria Open Corsas on clearance, but we don’t like to talk about that…&#128512
Numbers: I ride 25s at 90-95psi, 17mm width rims which give the tires an actual 26mm diameter, I’m ~180lb, and get ~3500 miles out of a new rear tire on reasonably good roads. I rotate the front to the back and put a new tire on the front. The “used” front tire is still good for ~3000 miles on the rear. Maybe one flat/year.

Aardwolf

I've been using Rubino Pro Graphene 2.0 tubular 28mm (75 psi) with Orange Seal for about 2 years.
I really like them and only got a flat when I forgot to top up the Orange Seal.
But they're only in all black I think - need to step up to Corsa Control to get tan sidewall.

Didn't know the folding clinchers came in so many colours
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vittoria-Ru...BNL/ref=sr_1_1

3alarmer 

...yeah. There was a bad batch of Conti Ultra Sport tires that I ran into, where they were breaking sidewall fabric layers. I think I had three of them fail in the same way. I presume they fixed that problem, but they were a low budget product anyway. The various iterations of Vittoria Rubino Pro are a lot of tire, for what they cost on sale, at the various online marketing sites.

veganbikes

Nope not an upgrade over Vittoria with the Graphene. Maybe old Vittoria's might be a wash but between the UltraSport and the newer Rubinos (in the past 6-8 years or more), Rubino's would win handily.

I love Conti they make fine tires but the ultra sports have always been a cheapie tire that I would recommend if you were on a deep budget or just had to get something to get you through a ride. GP5Ks or Gatorskins would be their road tires I would say are decent with the GP5Ks being ones I would generally want to ride on a road bike and Gatorskins if I needed puncture protection over ride quality.

I am currently on my road bike running Rubino Pro's coming off of some Corsa G+s which were fantastic tires and would still be using them but one got a little cut in the tread (that didn't go all the way through) and I decided as winter was coming I wanted something a little more durable and easier to clean and I just never took them off and put my other Corsa's back on because I enjoyed riding the bike in all conditions now and not having a really dirty looking sidewall. I have some Corsa G+s on my vintage road bike and they look great but that is a show queen mostly and doesn't go out if there is any chance of bad weather or has been bad weather at any point recently.

delbiker1 

More costly, but they are really good, Hutchinson Fusion 5 Performance. Just the Performance model. One caveat, IME, they are a bit wider when fully inflated, on both Hed Belgium and Zonda Wheels. My 28mm measure 29.2 with calipers @ 88psi. I think the mileage is going to be just okay, but damn, they ride nice! I latex tubes. I have tried the all weather model, a good tire, not as smooth riding as the Performance.

Mackers

Big difference between Rubino and Rubino Pro tyres.

While I wouldn't ride either, the Rubino non Pro is easily the worst tyre I've ever used.

Maelochs

I had two sets of these and had some weird tread separation issues ... I posted pics in some thread here but that was a few years ago. I am not sure if I just got a bad batch ... but yes, they did run big, and yes, I really liked them until they failed.

delbiker1 

That is a shame, I am curious as to the amount of mileage when the separation happened, and, if not many miles, was Hutchinson was contacted about the issue. I admit to hardly ever doing this,myself. Fortunately, I have never experienced this with Hutchinson. I find the mileage to be reasonable, not as good as Gravel King or Rubino Pro, but man, I love the ride.

Maelochs

No I did not call the manufacturer .... I figured I got a bad batch or something, or maybe they were old, had been sitting in some warehouse in an uncontrolled climate or something .... not a lot of other people had similar issues (based on some online research,) so i just don't know .... maybe less than 1K miles ....

I might try another set later on just to see .... as I said, while they were okay they were good. i liked them until they went bad. Who knows?

RH Clark

Now I am curious to know what tires you prefer.

t2p

Conti GP4S (and more recent GP5K AS) is a good option between the GP5K and Gatorskin

but I believe the Ultrasport is the only Conti tire with the colors OP is looking for (?)

veganbikes

Oh yeah 4 seasons forgot about those! A very good choice between 5K and Gators.

Oh yeah I don't go for special colored tires as you rarely find those in good tires usually towards the lower end. A tiny bit like slums in Brazil they paint them fun colors to hide how bad it is.

Viich

I know you said you didn't want to fool with tubeless - but tubeless lets you run a lower pressure (comfy) without pinch flatting. Especially if you run an insert.

I love my Rubino Pro tires. They set up tubeless very easily on my Kinlin XR31 rims. (Mine are 28s)

If I were you I'd go Rubino Pro tubeless with the Vittoria Air-liner small...

79pmooney

Not an answer to the OPs question but ... I've been running Vittoria's Corsa and Pave tires for years. When Vittora went G+ on the Corsa, wow! Great tire. Very comfortable, even at higher pressures. Very good grip. Not quite rain tire grip but not scary in wet weather. And for all the joys of riding those tires, not a lot of flats. No armor but it is a tread that doesn't attract glass.

I haven't ridden Rubinos in years but I gather much of the graphene boost the Corsas have seen is true on the Rubinos as well. In my view, that stuff is a game changer.

Edit: most of my graphene experience is on the G+ tires. I have a bunch of G2.0 tires but my G+s haven't worn out yet! I'm guessing the G2.0s are going to be just as good or better.

Aardwolf

So anybody want to explain how 'plain' / G+ / G2.0 relate ?
I've got a set of "Rubino Pro G 3C" from 2.5 years back and a set of "Rubino Pro Graphene 2.0" from 5 months back.

bblair

I did not have good luck with Vittoria tires, flat/longevity wise. Had one set last under 100 miles.

For me, Conti tires are my first choice. GP 5000 on my road bike, Gatorskins on the tandem.

Currently running Schwalbe Pro One on my new wheels, but I will probably go back to Conti. The Schwalbe seen to wear very fast.

RH Clark

I guess it depends on how and where you ride. I've been riding a set for 2 years that came on my Lemond without a flat. I just don't have much experience with road tires and wondered how they stacked up against others.