When looking for tires, most people have a set of requirements based upon their riding conditions: lightweight and supple for racing on smooth roads, durable, high volume and puncture resistant for riding gravel grinders, or somewhere in between for everyday training tires.  In most cases, training tires are durable, all condition clinchers that won't leave you stranded by a puncture from a road cinder the size of a pin head.  Vittoria's [easyazon_link identifier=”B000HDNCHI” locale=”US” nw=”y” nf=”n” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Rubino Pro[/easyazon_link] fits all these requirements, which is why I've put about 5000 miles on a pair of them.  Here are the results of a season's riding:

Rubino Pro 23mmRubino Pro – All Around Clincher

The 235 gram, 23mm (more like 25mm depending on the rim) Kevlar bead clinchers that I picked up early last season feature a 150 TPI casing, Kevlar Endura 3D tread compound for better cornering in wet conditions and straight line speed, Puncture Resistant Belting and the addition of “Prism Vector Design” tread on the tire shoulders to maintain traction over rough roads.  Whew, that's a mouthful.  What it essentially means is this is a higher thread count casing with a slick center and siping on the shoulders, a puncture resistant belt under the tread and they are folding bead tires.  I'm also running a pair of Rubino Pros on my tubular wheels that weigh in about 290 grams (overall about 70 grams lighter than clincher tire/tube/rim strip) that have performed nearly identical to the clinchers I train on.

5000 Miles of Torture

Since last season, this set of tires has logged around 5k miles on them, including dirt and gravel roads, salt, sand, cinders, rain, hail(!) and the absolute worst pavement that the northeast has to offer.  In the space of a year/5k miles, I've suffered exactly 0 flats, which is remarkable considering the quality of the road surfaces around here.  And if the road quality wasn't enough torture, these tires often saw race warmups and the occasional really bad weather day on the trainer, and if anything will tear up tires, it's a trainer drum.  Finally, the abundance of free-running dogs in the area meant there were occasional impromptu “flat spot tests” while locking up the wheel in emergency situations.

Front Rubino ProHow Does The Rubino Pro Feel?

In a word: wonderful.  The 150 TPI casing means these tires feel like butter over all but the roughest roads.  I tend to run them low (around 90-95 PSI) as opposed to their 100-140PSI rating, and even the 23mm variety is quite comfortable over gravel, dirt and broken pavement.  They cornered predictably and they break away consistently in all weather conditions.   On dirt and gravel roads, the siping on the shoulders of the tire seem to provide a modicum of extra traction (especially when compared to the Michelin Pro 3s and Continental GP4000s that I used to use.)  In a straight line these are really pretty uninspiring.  They aren't the fastest tires out there by far, and they seem to get worse as the inflation pressure rises beyond 110PSI.  They don't scream speed and you'll spend a few extra watts trying to keep up in a race or in a paceline, but that's the price paid for some extra puncture resistance.

Rear Rubino ProDurability

After 5k miles, you'd expect tires to be run down to the cords.  As you can see in the photo above, the front tire is still very much useable.  The tread has suffered several cuts throughout the life of the tire but the tire is still about 60%.  The rear tire is pretty well worn down, as the photo to the right shows.  There is very little center tread left and the tire profile is far more squared off than it's counterpart on the front.  In this case, it makes sense that the rear has worn so much faster than the front: trainer wear, the occasional emergency skid and the general increase in wear on the rear tire would typically make this the first casualty.  Even with the worn down tread, the traction has not suffered and I've not flatted (even though I've actually picked bits of glass and road cinder out of the tread.)  I'd say 5k miles of gravel, rough road, skidding and trainer torture makes this tire more than worth the money.

Bottom Line

For anywhere between $35 and $50 (depending on the source) these tires represent a great value and will be dependable and reliable as training tires (or even race tires for really crappy roads) for a long time.  The downside is giving away a little straight line zip and adding some extra weight, but those may be negligible when considering the durability.  The bottom line is simply this: for a reliable training tire, you can't beat the [easyazon_link identifier=”B000HDNCHI” locale=”US” nw=”y” nf=”n” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Rubino Pro[/easyazon_link].

Want to try them out? [easyazon_link identifier=”B000HDNCHI” locale=”US” nw=”y” nf=”n” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]You can purchase them here[/easyazon_link].