Vittoria XL Cross Tire
Review: Vittoria XL Cross Tire
By Scott Mares | Published Jan 8, 2015
We Liked
So we get a lot of tires in and not all of them are good cross tires. Vittoria shot us over a set of these and I must say that I do like the tread pattern on them. I am located in the Pacific NW and we get a lot of mud here and edging is a big thing with me. If you cant turn at speed then you have to slow down and here if you can hold your speed in the corners you are going to catch people, getaway from them or even better win. if you can't corner then you are doing one of two things. You are either slowing down or crashing and hopefully not both. There are two major things that go into cornering or edging. One is the side knobs of the tires. How big and deep they are AND how far out to the side they go. If the side knobs are towards the center then you wont be able to edge as well as if they were further out on the side of the tire. Second is the width of the tire. Wider is better in cyclocross.
Nice and tall treads! All too often we see a really good tread pattern but don't make them tall enough to last more than a few races and cant really dig into the ground to give the traction that you need.
Tread extends down to the side walls for edging.
Wears like Iron! Lets face it tires are expensive and at $100 each it would be nice if they would last more than a few races and training miles. The Vittoria XL wears like Iron. These babies will last you all season long and then some. So if we were to put up a chart that displayed cost per mile rode these would be one of if not the most cost effective cross tire on the market.
We Didn't Like
When we put the tire up against our favorite tire the Clement PDX we noticed that the XL Casing is not as wide and that also goes with the tread spacing as well. So the casing was wider and the tread pattern from edge to edge was wider with the PDX. Bead to bead the Vittoria XL is .5cm less than the PDX and the tread footprint is also .5cm narrower. This is the only thing that keeps these tires from a perfect score.
The Final Say
Tread is very important where I live. The tread on your tires will make the difference in if you get traction, collect mud or can turn the corner with out sliding out. Tread is a game changer or a race loser, so you have to know what to look for. I think that this is a really good tire. It falls short of being a perfect mud tire due to the casing size and the distance between the tread. We rode the tire a lot and in several races. The wide deep tread did its job just like we thought it would and the side treads dug in and let us edge really well. If you don't have the money to shell out $100 a tire then the Vittoria XL cross tire is a excellent option. Not only because of the depth of the tread but that the tread wears like Iron. Im thinkig that Vittoria tapped in the all day gobbstoppers in their rubber fomula. So these babies are going to last you all season long and then some. Its not the perfect mud tire but its close. Vittoria if you make this tire jsut a little wider you have a Clement killer!
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Vitals
- Manufacturer
- Vittoria
- Model
- XL Cross Tires
- MSRP
- $39.99
- Website
- Cyclocross vittoria
- Weight
- 440g
- Colors
- Black
- Design
The fourth in Vittoria’s family of cross racing tubulars, Cross Evo XL is for wet, muddy courses. Same 320 TPI casing, latex inner, and MTB World Cup-derived tread compound as other Cross Evos, but with aggressive, widely-spaced tread knobs to shed mud and grip firmly in acceleration, braking, and cornering, even in the most challenging weather conditions.
Photos (3)
