We managed to mount one tire but, when we started inflating it the tread separated from the sidewall. Didn’t bother with the second one. Back they go. Probably for the best. I can’t imagine dealing with this tire on the side of a trail if it sliced etc…
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Send it back is my rule of thumb when its too difficult to get on. Or too easy to get on.
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I had some Challenge Almanzos come apart (complete separation) 50 miles into a fairly remote ride and had my wife follow gps pins to fetch me. They had about 200 miles on them when I started. That was my last experience with Challenge hand made tires. Fool me once…
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For handmade Italian racing tyres I can highly recommend Veloflex (much cheaper too than Challenge in fact cheaper even than gp5000s)
This is for a 120 mile gravel event. I have used Veloflex tires maybe 15 years ago for road events. Probably the best rolling most supple tire I’ve run to date. However, I found them a unreliable as the sidewall cut easily in my experience. Further, the largest tire I found was a 32 and absolutely baby smooth. I wouldn’t make it to the start of the race let alone 120 miles of washboard, gravel infused dirt roads.
I went with the Continental Terra Speed for decent Crr, reliability and cost.