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Old 05-20-21, 07:48 AM
  #98  
PeteHski
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My limited experience with road tubeless has been great so far.

First set were Giant Gavia AC1 28 mm which came with my 2019 Giant Defy. They were hard wearing and had no punctures over 2500 km of nasty, rough pot-holed local roads full of debris. Reasonably comfortable, reasonably grippy and seemed to roll fast enough. Honestly hard to fault. No idea how hard they are to seat as they came on the bike, but they came off easily enough. I only replaced them because I wanted to try something else this season. They look like they still have loads of life left in them.

I've recently fitted a pair of Pirelli Cinturato Velo 32 mm. They were easy enough to mount by hand, but seating them was seriously hard work. No chance with a standard track pump (tried the soapy water tricks etc) and then took half a dozen blasts with a boost pump to get them seated. One was particularly stubborn, but got there in the end. I've ridden them for only about 250 km, including a local 150 km GF event on pretty rough roads. So far, so good. The extra volume makes them very comfortable and they seem to roll just about as well as the 28 mm Gavia did. Grip is excellent and no punctures. I'm sure there are faster tyres out there, but puncture protection is my main priority out on the road and these appear to be the best tubeless tyres on the market in that respect. They seem ideal for our local roads, which are in a pretty poor state of repair. I can't imagine running some delicate lightweight race tyre in these conditions!

To conclude, I would definitely recommend the Giant Gavia AC1, even though they don't sound very exotic. They just seem to get the job done without any fuss. It actually makes me want to try their newer Gavia Fondo tyres that are now fitted as standard (in 32 mm) this year on the Defy. The Pirellis are looking good too, but need more mileage on them before making any conclusion. I rode past a lot of guys fixing flats on my last event (roads were appalling) so they are certainly living up to their puncture protection claims.
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