Tyre choice for Flanders

shing83

I'm off to Ghent in three weeks time to fulfill one of my dreams of tackling the hills of Flanders a la De Ronde. So of course, with the train booked (fingers crossed Eurostar get my bike there in once piece) my thoughts now turn to getting my bike set and ready to go. I've got some LizardSkins bar tape to help take some of the buzz off, but where I want to make the bike change is the tyres.

I'm currently running my winter tyres, which while hardy, are heavy and transmit every imperfection on the road up to my body.

My current thinking is a pair of Vittoria Open Pave (27mm), but what are the other options out there that I should consider for Flanders?

Cheers,

Shing

imposter2.0

Without knowing what bike they are going on, I would just fit the widest...

bigmat

Open Pave would be ideal. Personally I think 25mm is fine for Flanders cobbles but if you can fit wider it can't hurt. If its is dry you would probably be fine with most top end race tyres - Conti GP4000S, Schwalbe Ultremo / One, Vittoria Open Pave /Corsa or even Rubino Pro, Michelin etc etc. Basically something that has decent levels of grip and comfort is preferable to hard-wearing and puncture resistant in my opinion.

bendertherobot

Can you fit Schwalbe S-One?

kafkathedog

bendertherobot wrote:

Can you fit Schwalbe S-One?

You will have to find some first.... :?

I would like to try them but nowhere seems to have any.

shing83

I have the Genesis Croix de Fer which will allow me to fit I think up to 35c.

I did consider the S-One, but getting a hold of them is problematic, not to mention going over to Tubeless which I've no experience of.

I guess for me, the most important think is grip and comfort in that order, especially in case it rains.

mamil314

Following Ugo advice, i bought these at 31mm for Paris-Roubaix challenge and they were excellent:

http://www.vittoria.com/tire/cross-xn-pro/

imposter2.0

Specialized Roubaix Pro would be my choice then - either in 25/28 or 30/32.

slowbike

I'd definately go for the wider tyres - being width restricted I "made do" with 25mm - and didn't have time to fit the double bar tape - TBH, it was fine (medium distance). It was a dry day and the Conti 4000's were good (but then, they're good in the wet on normal roads too - no idea on cobbles!) - I would've gone with 28mms had I had space (already had the tyres) - we had people in our group on 23mms who were finding it a bit uncomfortable....

There were plenty of mountain bikes doing it and they flew (probably more comfortably) over the cobbles - but did that (comfort) detract from the spirit of the event?

bigmat

Big difference between Roubaix cobbles and Flanders cobbles. 25mm were fine in Flanders, only issue was I never got round to letting my tyres down so at 110PSI I did feel the bumps! Roubaix you need wider tyres.

philbar72

you are doing flandrian climbs/ roads right? I've done it on 23mm tyres before on an alloy frame, no bother... but if you wanted comfort go bigger than 23mm and run at a slightly lower PSI rating. vittoria paves are great for these kind of roads.

shing83

I have the Paves on the bike, but now I'm wondering what pressures to run. Total weight of bike and rider is a whopping 110kg. Any thoughts?

matt-h

i used Schwalbe One 28mm Tubeless on my Genesis Volare.
They came up near 30mm at 75 psi

Dodger747

I live in Belgium and so ride around Flanders a lot. 25mm is preferable but 23mm is also fine. Normal tyre pressures to what you usual run is also fine. Unless, and it is a big unless, you are planning on riding up the Muur!

It is too steep and slippy for high tyre pressure which makes it near impossible to ride up. If you are, drop your pressure a lot to compensate!

shing83

So, I did the route on the Open Pave and they were great, though I proved to be the barrier going up the Koppenberg more than the tyres for sure. I think I had the tyres are too high a pressure, which made it very slippy. But what an experience! Already planning next trip so that I can get up on the bike and not on my feet.