THE VELOFLEX CORSA RACE TLR TYRES ARE THE USABLE, SUPPLE, PERFORMANCE TUBELESS TYRE MANY HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Words and Images - James Raison

Italian tyre masters Veloflex are taking on a difficult task: developing a usable performance tubeless tyre with the ride virtues of a supple cotton clincher with their Corsa RACE TLR. Do they succeed? Generally yes. You can colour me quite impressed by that achievement.

Making a tubeless tyre that mimics the feel of premium cotton clinchers is no mean feat. The stiffening and re-enforcing of sidewalls and beads to make workable tubeless are design necessities fundamentally at-odds with ride quality derived from supple casing. Tubeless systems do gain a level of comfort from the absence of a tube but, in my experience, still cannot match the kind of comfort from a supple cotton clincher.

For the buyers chasing the feeling of premium clinchers with the protection of tubeless then, the Veloflex RACE TLR are a compelling option.

ABOUT

Size: 25-622 (700x25C)
Weight*: 225 gr.
TPI (Threads Per Inch): 350 Threads Per Inch (140/cm)
Beds: Zylon® ** inextensible yarn
Pressure: 6/8 bar - (85/115 psi)
Protection Belt: RKB (Resilient Kinetic Belt)
Sidewall protection: SPS - Sidewall Protection System
Casing: Compressed Pes/Co corespun
Rubber tread: Natural rubber and silica exclusive compound

The Corsa RACE TLR is, unsurprisingly, a performance-oriented tyre that trades puncture resistance and longevity in the pursuit of speed, grip, and comfort. It’s a tyre for the contemporary racer or ride-quality-obsessed punter in the post-tubular world where disc brakes and tubeless rims are now the default spec.

Its price is alongside some of the giants of performance tubeless: the Schwalbe Pro One, Vittoria Corsa Graphene G2, and Continental GP5000.

TUBELESS EASY-ISH

The Veloflex Corsa RACE TLRs were a little fiddly to set up. They went onto the rim easily - a common feature of supple tubeless tyres that aren’t made with an ultra-tight bead and often a warning sign that setup will be arduous. The much-hated difficulty mounting tubeless road tyres makes them easier to seat when you add air. Predictably, the Veloflexes laughed indifferently at Bontrager Flash Charger and I headed into a bike shop with an air compressor. The constant air pressure forced the tyres onto the bead with some patience, and setup was complete.

You can’t shoot your freshly mounted tyres with just any old sealant. Veloflex stipulates that “latex sealants perform the best to seal and repair our TubeLess Ready clinchers, because of the affinity with our latex-coated cotton casing.”

Here’s the list of approved sealants:

Joe’s no flats – Super Sealant
Mavic – Tire Sealant
Stan’s no tubes – Tire Sealant
Orange Seal - Regular Sealant (only for clinchers with black sidewalls).

Mine got shot full of bog-standard Stan’s and the wheels had a couple of days of going flat, getting pumped, and going flat again before they settled down and have since behaved quite well. I do still pump them up before each ride with 10-20 psi seeping out every couple of days.

Overall, the Veloflex Corsa Race TLRs are a low-level pain in the butt as road tubeless goes. Initial setup was more work than I’d like but I appreciate their zero maintenance since then.

THE RIDE

The ride experience of the Corsa Race TLRs is their entire reason-for-being, and I’m happy to say they didn’t disappoint. They are simply the best tubeless road tyre I’ve ridden to date from a ride quality standpoint.

They are gloriously grippy - in the way that dares you to turn in sharper and hold tighter lines. It’s a feeling that I get from very few tyres, and not since Specialized Turbo Cotton Hell of the North edition I rode 18 months ago. It’s amazing how much more fun it is to ride with tyres like this.

Ride comfort is outstanding for a tubeless tyre. The lower pressures and absent tubes typically make tubeless tyres more comfortable by default but the Veloflexes add in a more compliant casing. The sidewalls do deflect and absorb bumps and vibrations as you smash along the pavement. They maintain respectable plushness even along gravel segments. I spent a few weeks riding them tubed while I waited for a new set of tubeless wheels to arrive. Most tubeless tyres ridden with tubes are harsher to ride because of their thicker bead and sidewalls. The Veloflexes still ride nicely, and better than most clinchers.

My main gripe with the new breed of road tubeless tyres: Schwalbe Pro One TLE V2, Vittoria Corsa G2 as examples, is how they dull the road feel. The necessity of beefing up the sidewalls and their new compounds are eclipsed by older generation clinchers like the Specialized Turbo Cottons and Wolfpack Race Cottons.

The Veloflexes do manage to retain much of the ride sensations of those premium clinchers, but not all of them. Concessions simply have to be made when making tubeless clinchers that actually work tubeless. I will laud the Veloflexes as the best tubeless tyre I’ve ridden to date though, and markedly better than their performance tyre peers.

WEAR AND TEAR

I usually review road tyres after 1,000 km or so, allowing me to get to know their ride and give them enough time to show some wear.

The Veloflexes have held up well with no punctures, with only modest tread strip cutting and slicing, and minor flattening. Overall it’s been very pleasing to see. Individual results will always vary according to individual setups and riding locations but the Veloflexes have done well for a performance tyre on my standard riding loops. These aren’t the first performance tyre to show resilience, though. It’s becoming more common for fast tyres to last well. It seems the days of live fast, die young road tyres are starting to fade.

WRAPPING UP

The Veloflex Corsa RACE TLRs are a classy performance tubeless tyre that’ll please those who are pining for the good ‘ole days of silky smooth cotton clinchers. The grip is superb, ride feel is excellent, and they’re not a total nightmare to manage tubeless.

Buy with reasonable expectations, though. They’re not bombproof, won’t last forever, and you have a limited choice of sealants. As for whether they match the magic of your favourite cotton clincher, they won’t. But they come closer than any other tubeless tyre I’ve tried.

Disclosure statement: These were sent for review by Veloflex. It’s not a paid review and we don’t make any proceeds from Veloflex sales.