Veloflex, as a company, have only been making tires since 1981. The experience they have making high-end tires, especially tubulars, is far older. Though the stories have been scrubbed from the marketing sites, when a nearby famous tire manufacturer moved their operations to Thailand, Veloflex pivoted from making printer parts to hiring a bunch of craftsmen to continue the tradition of racing tires. The new company couldn’t use the old name (it’s still in use), so… Veloflex.
Veloflex tubulars are expensive, hard to find, and not very durable by today’s standards. They don’t vulcanize the rubber on their best tires, fully expecting the rider to wear through the tread before the tire starts to fall apart. Flats? Oh yeah, you should be worried. High thread-count cotton sidewalls and a belt of woven material as your only tire protection means that thorns and staples will go right through the casing, but the damage will be a pinprick, not a blowout. In trade, you get the absolute finest ride a bike tire can give. It’s seriously IYKYK. The thing that strikes me about Veloflex tubulars is you get big tire comfort (25c tires feel like 28c+), insane grip (maybe not-so-important in gran fondos, but critical in crits), and precise handling.
Given the caveats of their tubulars and price, Veloflex ProTour Race should really be held in reserve for race days, not weekend rides with your friends. I was originally going to nab a pair of their open tubulars, but couldn’t find any. Instead, I got an offer for their new TLR series. TLR means “tubeless ready” and I just happened to have a pair of excellent Mercury Wheels S5 Race wheels setup for tubeless.
Mounting (1/5): I guess it wouldn’t be “Italian” if everything was easy, right? If you have kids, either mount these somewhere isolated or prepare to teach them some new words. One tire went on after about 5 tries with soapy water and a canister-based pump. The other? Even with a compressor, I needed to use soapy water. But at the end of the day and lots of sealant all over my garage floor, they went on.
Post-mounting (3/5): The instructions flat-out tell you to expect weeping and they didn’t lie. Weeping is when the sidewalls are not fully sealed at the factory, so they “weep” a little bit of sealant when you mount them up the first time. Honestly, this is to reduce tire weight. If people would stop picking one tire over another because it’s 2g lighter, then maybe more factories would fully seal the sidewalls. On the other hand, I have noticed tires that weep a little tend to seal faster when they have a puncture.
The ride (5/5): This is why you buy Veloflex and, somehow, they delivered on their tubeless. The tires, 700x25, with sealant and 85psi, felt like I was riding on 28s. The thin, supple sidewalls probably have a lot to do with this, so the pains mounting them pay-off on the ride. Not as nice as my tubulars, but that’s simply not going to happen. I didn’t have a chance to dig too deep in the turns, but they always felt sure-footed and stable.
Flat protection (?/5): These are new and, sorry folks, I’m not riding over glass or staples to test for you. In my experience, don’t expect stellar flat protection from Veloflex, especially when they put “Race” on their product. They mean it: these are meant to give you the best edge in racing, not you daily commute. With good, fresh sealant (I like OrangeSeal Regular), you’ll probably be fine over most surfaces. Add a hand pump and plug/patch and you should be able to at least limp home from any reasonable mishap. Since I live in Chicago, you can expect I’ll flat soon, so I’ll post an update when that happens.
All-in-all, if you have a compressor or a bike shop that loves you, the Veloflex Corsa Race TLR is a fantastic tire that looks great and rides even better. If you have the tires mounted at a shop, be sure to show up with a 6-pack for them. A good one.
