Vittoria has announced the latest update to its popular Rubino road bike tyre, bringing improved performance and tubeless compatibility.
Billed as an “everyday performance tyre”, Vittoria says the fifth-generation Rubino is lighter, grippier and features reduced rolling resistance compared to its predecessor, the Rubino Pro.
Despite this, Vittoria promises an updated casing gives the new Rubino “better ride quality and puncture resistance” than the outgoing version.
The champion of lunch rides
While Vittoria’s Corsa Pro and Corsa Pro Control are designed for high-level racing, it says the Rubino is “the champion of lunch rides, town line sprints, and endless wanderings”.
According to the Italian brand, it opted to focus on improving the Rubino’s speed, puncture resistance and grip based on feedback from riders.
“When a product is already a bestseller, you don’t reinvent it – you refine it in the direction the riders take it,” says Vanessa ten Hoff, Vittoria’s chief marketing and innovation officer.
This was achieved, Vittoria says, by a new 100 TPI (Threads Per Inch) nylon casing mated to a new tread compound containing graphene and silica.
In terms of stats, Vittoria says the new tubeless-ready Rubino is 10 per cent lighter, with an 11 per cent improvement to "rolling efficiency" and 5 per cent more grip than the outgoing model.
The clincher version, meanwhile, is claimed to offer a 12 per cent reduction in weight, alongside 5 per cent improvements to rolling efficiency and grip.
Vittoria Rubino specifications and pricing
The Vittoria Rubino is available in clincher or tubeless form, in sizes from 700x26 to 700x34c.
In terms of price, the Rubino TLR costs £59.99 / $76.99 / €61.95, while the clincher comes in cheaper at £44.99 / $61.99 / €46.99.
Riders can choose between black or tan sidewalls in all sizes except the narrowest, 26c option.
Notably, according to Vittoria’s claimed weights, the tan sidewall tyres tend to be slightly lighter throughout the range.
A 28c tubeless-ready Rubino with tan sidewalls, for example, weighs 318g on our scales, whereas Vittoria claims a weight of 340g for the same tyre with black sidewalls.
This suggests there’s likely a difference in how the tyres are constructed beyond a simple lick of beige paint on the sidewalls.
When we put this to them, Vittoria confirmed this was the case, saying the "transparent casing matrix" is slightly lighter than the black one.
