The quality and ride characteristics are similar to the Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX which is the same kind of money and of similar construction.Īt £50, it's not cheap, though. Overall the Criterium open tubular impressed. Given that these tyres are hand-made you'd expect a little more variation. The Criterium feels supple and there's plenty of traction when you lean the bike over, even in the wet.Ĭhallenge don't claim the Criterium open tubular is massively puncture resistant and that would tally with what I've found, but it's no worse than other race-oriented rubber.Ĭhallenge claim a 200g weight ours weighed in at 220g each which is fairly light but not as light as they claim. Ride feel, and the grip from the file-pattern tread, is very good. Getting it on the bike first time around is a bit of a faff but once on and inflated it takes on a much more tyre-like shape the next time you have to pull it off. Another big difference is that the tread is hand-glued onto the carcass, rather than the whole tyre being vulcanised, which affects the properties of the rubber.Ĭertainly the Criterium is much more supple than a standard clincher, you can easily fold the carcass and fresh out of the box it lies completely flat. Challenge claim that this makes the tyre much more supple. The carcass is cotton rather than nylon, at 320TPI (threads per inch) which is much higher than most clincher tyres (60-150TPI is normal). Open tubular? Similar to Vittoria's Open Corsa tyres, the Criterium uses the same hand-made carcass as Challenge's tubular tryes, but instead of sewing it up they add a bead to make it into a clincher.
One of a select few tyres still available in a gumwall finish, the Challenge Criterium open tubular is a great choice for a retro bike, but the quality and feel of the tyre give it a broad appeal.
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