Is anyone running this on their road bike this winter? I had two puctures shortly after buying Specialiezed Armadillo Elites which were highly reccommendedby the bike shop. I was seriously disappointed so went looking on obscure forums for cheap tough tyre reviews.

I came up with Vittoria Randonneurs. They are heavy(ish) but cheap as chips at £13.50. I figured they are way cheaper than the Marathons and they are lighter too – so I’d give them a go. I’ve only just fitted a rear, so the test starts here. 35 miles of backlanes yesterday, but the Armadillos managed several rides before letting me down. If it survives a couple of weeks on tarmac, I might give it a run on the forest gravel roads.

PS. I’ve noticed you can get a white version too – do they perform the same as the black?

Your cheap tyre (and particularly Randonneur) experiences please. 😀

I’ve got them on both my road bikes and really like them. They’re lighter than the conti sport contacts they replaced and I’ve only had one puncture (great big piece of metal in the road) in probably 1.5k miles, most of that with a touring load. They’re not too bad on hardpacked dirt, but anything loose like sand will have you slipping about. FYI, Ive got the black ones, no experience with the other colours, although I noticed PX had the brown for £5.99 the other day!

Yes, I love em, did all last winter on a set, no punctures in a few thousand miles

They’re going batshit for the hyper version over on the CTC forum.

Cheap at PX, apparently.

Linky to CTC thread.

I’ve got the pro’s on mine, and while they’re a nice ride, they are an absolute sod to put on/off. I’m thinking of changing them purely for that reason for the winter. Thats on archetype rims, no idea about any others.

Yes – they were a little tighter than the Armadillos to get on my Aksium rims. I just put a blob of washing up liquid and water on my fingers and rubbed round the rims, and that made it easier.

My bruv has the Giant PR2 wheels and their stock 25c tyres – and they just fall on and off the rims by comparison.

I used the Cross Pro folding (bit lighter) many years ago off road on a cross bike for around a year and they were very good.
Very puncture resistant and a bit of grip compared to a slick tyre.

all the audax and touring guys that ride gravel roads round here seem to love them – I’m very happy with swalbe marathons but everything I’ve heard has put them on the shopping list to give a go and at fraction of the price of the swalbe’s – think I’ll give the chocolate brown a miss though