VittoriaOpen Pave CG III Clincher Tire(Return to Product Page)

Pricey, yes, but very supple. I like this tire on road and off (hard packed dirt, gravel). It's a great performer and lasts a long time for a race tire. The tread is minimal, but effective, and makes a fun zipper sound when you wipe glass off in motion.

On top of all that, no flats yet (about 2000 miles so far).

To begin, I currently live in Belgium. This means I can occasionally be surprised at full speed by a section of pave (cobblestones), chip-seal, or just plain bad roads at any moment. After reading up on tires after my last flat, I decided to lay out more money and buy these pave tires. Despite the fact the green stripes in no way match my bike. Or any bike I think I have ever seen, bar the pro Movistar team bikes. (Someone at Vittoria copying this?!) That said, these tires have been worth every cent. I have been seeking out pave in preparation for the Roubaix Challenge, and have been thrilled to find I can maintain on average 2-3 mph faster on these tires- I never knew tires could make that much difference. Off the pave, despite running 27mm vice 25mm and slightly lower pressure, I have seen no average speed difference on good roads, so durable, and low rolling resistance. I have yet to get a flat on these (though, to be fair to Conti, I have only flatted once on the set these replaced). So to sum up... expensive? Yes - hence the 3 stars (any bike tire that begins to approach car tire prices... enough said). But I do not regret this purchase one bit. These are outstanding - and fast - tires that do everything advertised.

I switched to the Open Pave CG III on my winter road bike. I live and ride in the Pacific Northwest where our winters are not particularly icy or cold but are very wet. We tend to accumulate a lot of road debris, especially along the edges of lanes and throughout bike lanes and cycle tracks. Gravel roads tend to become soupy muddy messes. A wider profile all conditions tire is a must for winter cycling. I don't ride competitively anymore, but I do ride hard and often. Performance and durability trump most cost concerns for me. I've experienced no loss of speed or endurance with the Open Pave CG III but have noted improved cornering and confidence due to rubber compound, tread pattern, sidewall construction, etc. It's not necessarily a direct benefit of the tire, more of the increased contact patch, but comfort is improved too with no significant weight penalty. I'm hard pressed to even discern a weight difference and any that exists is insignificant compared to the tire's other benefits. I cannot yet speak to durability, but performance to date suggests these tires will roll well throughout the season, which around here lasts a long time. Apart from the Open Pave CG III I ride mostly tubeless road tires. So my only criticism is that I'd love to see this tire come out in a tubeless clincher version so I can run it at lower pressures. That said, I've used Vittoria tires before and this one trumps them all. Compared to other top brands, Vittoria generally and the Open Pave CG III specifically are very hard to beat. Aesthetically, that new green sidewall is really sharp and adds a nice pop of color to otherwise gray, hazy days in the saddle. It's not a budget buy, but you get what you pay for right? Overall impression, buy them, ride them, love them.

I was very excited about these tires. I have been wanting to run 25's with low pressure since some of the roads in my area are a bit rough. Well my local roads ate these tires up. After 10 mile I got a flat. When I looked over the tires I had several small cuts and what seems to be significant wear. I was only running 100 psi. very disappointed.

Bought a set for riding on rougher roads and assumed they would hold up. Not so much. On my 3rd ride they started to go. Surface had several tears in the tire. We have some rough roads but I figured these would hold up. Switching back to bontrager. Those tend to be bullet proof

I am 6'1 215lbs. I like these tires very much. The perform very well as a winter and training tire. I am on my third set. Because I am a large man I find that the rear tire ware is excesive. I am looking for a replacement tire with the same riding quality with a longer usable live.

I would strongly recommend these tires for lighter riders.

I love them, especially if you can get them for less than $60. But ,despite what they say, the tire has pretty limited cut resistance.

I got these tires at a very good discount of 40% in BTD for a classic mid 80's Simoncini frame (Columbus steel) with steel fork that I put together. It rode very harsh and I thought that I was getting soft by using modern carbon forks. but now I know that it was the tires!!! I rode it with Thickslick 700-25C tires and they were SO HARD that going downhill with anything less than perfect tarmac was a torture. Yesterday I used the Open Pave CGIII tires and it was a life changing experience!!! Super supple, very good grip... excelent tire. I do hope they last.

I purchased these tires in a 27mm to ride in the D2R2, 180k of gravel and dirt roads in hilly New England. I road the tires with 80psi, weigh 145, and I had THREE flats in the first 30 miles, one a pinch-flat on a pot-hole, one so bad that the sliced sidewall needed an adhesive boot to make it to lunch. At mile 50 I gratefully switched out for more durable 25mm Schwalbee Durano Plus standbys and suffered no more flats in the final 60 miles. This tire might be great for smooth pavement, but flats easily on rough roads, which is ostensibly why you'd buy the things in the first place.

Good value at 2 for 1, but I can't get these at 27mm to feel right on my Scott Addict. I wanted more comfort with bad roads in Seattle, but I have to go as low as 65psi to feel somewhat better than my previous 25mm Veloflex at 90psi. Then no matter what pressure I run at, bike feels bouncy, and very unstable at high speeds downhill, I think I'll put back on my Veloflex 25mm, and maybe go back to these 27mm for the winter.

I've used nearly a handful of he tires out there- Contis 4000s , Michlins race 4, Bontragers 3 and 4, and a few more too....

I stayed away from Vittoria bc everyone seems to think they are 'fragile'. Fragile seems to be more about luck and not running over glass, thorns, wire.... But to that claim- These have been great. I have about 2000 miles on them without a flat. Lucky I think.

Most important to me is the 'feel' of the tires I ride. These feel great. I ride the 25's (never going back to 23's).

In summary I have a light, strong, supple, fast, grippy and comfortable tire zooming under my steed. BTW- I go about 180 lbs and ride about 250 miles per week. I ride 'em hard and fast.

Ordered these for my daughter, wife and now another set for me. I like good rubber.

The green matches nothing-- that's what is so cool about it imo.

I have been running the Pave's for over 6 months now as a replacement to tubleless tires and thus far I can say this is a tire worth the price. And with BTD running specials on these tires from time to time I think these are incredible value. I have experienced one flat during this time and run time has been over 2500 miles. The ride and feel of these clinchers are very nice and have decided to make them my everyday rubber. I have been pairing these up with the Conti race tubes and I feel like these make a perfect match. Highly recommend!

ALMOST as great a tire as the Open Corsa CX. Better durability but sacrificing a bit of the tubular feel of the Open Corsa. These are my late fall, winter, and early spring go to tires. And now you can actually buy them without the green stripe, yippie! I put these on my wife's bikes too.

Recently tested on beyond rough road and few high speed descents, maybe the 25mm rim had something to do with the performance, but I was amazed. I've never leaned over so far and felt so secure before (new wheel with new tire). Great damping and roll. Expensive tire but the best feel I found yet and at 55mph you have to trust your tires.

I prefer to ride the Open Corsa CX, but when the roads have a lot of debris in the winter/spring, these are my preferred tire. The little bit of extra rubber in the middle make these more reliable than the Open Corsa CX while sacrificing only a little of the feel. Great tire! (I like the 25mm version as I use these with ENVE 3.4 carbon clinchers.)

Don't believe claims of gaining 2-4 mph, that's not realistic for any tire. But a great ride, excellent cornering and stability, especially on 50 mph descents, and noticibly smoother. Can't comment on durability with only 500 miles but they handle rocks, cracks, and debris well. So far, no flats, knock wood! I'll put my Rubino Pro's back on for routine rides but will replace with these for races & Gran Fondos. The only down side - I've paid less for steel-belted radicals for my car!

I am pretty much sold on Vittoria tires but my real problem is up until I tried these the Open Corsa was my tire of choice but these ride just as nice. Currently have these on a set 25's on a Boyd Altamont wheel set and really like the wide rim and these tires. I generally ride Corsa Evo's 23 on a narrower Williams Carbon clincher and it's a great nice weather combination. I do not experience the flats and so on that others write about(knock on wood) and wonder if some of it is tire pressure. Any way I would not hesitate to buy these again. Pricey but it is the only contact with the road and it's not much but it's effective.

Pretty picky with tires. Most of my riding is road commute but I do a few races season. I've tried several types on my Ridley XFire 'cross (Continentals GP4000s-Utrarace-Speedride, Kendas, Vittoria RubinosZaffiros) to see which gave good ride quality and quantity.

I found these Vittoria Open Pave CGs to be a 1)generally smoother riding tire than others, 2)fairly robust even after 1-2K riding miles, and 3)very nice wet weather tire - definitely better than Conti GP4000s. I think the wet weather handling (wet pavement to driving rain) aspect was best feature as these Vittoria's improve the ride quality and bike handling considerably -at least on pavement. I think they corner and hold the road better than the lower priced Vittorias and def better than the Continentals (x23 or x25mm). The reason that I didn't give the Open Pave a higher value rating is they are $65-85 per tire which is an absurd price to pay for a tire for the type of riding I do. I did get these at a steep discount (basically 2 for 1) but probably wouldn't get them more than 1x per yr.

I've taken these out on local CO Front Range roads and classicsCX courses which have a variety of surfaces (smooth, debris laden, packed dirtgravel, sand andor marginally rideable). I found that they perform well but depending on the road type (paved road vs trails) require a bit of tire pressure manipulation to dial in ride quality.

The pavement in my neighborhood is horrible. So no matter where I ride, I always leave and return through bumpy, cracked-up crumbly crud. I also like to take a lot of unpaved shortcuts. Because of the places I ride, I'm finding that I like a bit more rubber than most of my roadie friends. I tried a set of Vittoria Rubino Pro Tech 28s, but had a slight bit of rubbing on the rear brake when out of the saddle, so those had to go to another bike. With the Open Paves, I'm riding the 27s with no clearance issues on my primary road bike. So far with 2,500 miles on them, they're my favorite tires ever. I'm a 160-pound rider on wider rims, inflating to 80 psi front and 90 psi rear. At this rate, their durability has been better than par. Their feel over roughness and grip through corners is superb. The green side walls are a nice visual bonus.

I'm on my 2nd set on these tires and my experience with them mostly mirrors how others have described them with durability being the main exception.

I ride the 27mm version at around 100psi mounted to Hed Belgium wheels and cuts through the casing that ultimately resulted in flats have been a constant problem.

Ended up replacing the rear tire with less than 200 miles on them after suffering a number of cuts, and the replacement has suffered a similar fate with roughly 600 miles on them at this point.

Love the tire, but given the durability issues the price is a bit bothersome.