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Welcome to Velo’s Taipei Cycle Show coverage, where we share our favorite things we’ve found at the 2024 show. Bikes, components, accessories, and more: if we think it’s cool, you’ll see it. See the rest of our coverage here.
It’s the end of night one at Taipei Cycle Show 2024, but Vittoria Tire CEO Stijn Vriends is fired up. Specifically, he’s fired up about their new Vittoria Terreno Pro T60 Mixed which seemed to fly under our radar. That was, until he told Velo this:
Within ten years time, I hope the average person sees black tires on someone’s road bike and asks, ‘Why are you using a black tire? Don’t you know that they’re slower and not sustainable?’
If this goes well, as we expect it to, we think this will become the future of Vittoria.
That’s right, the tire made of 92 percent renewable and recycled materials isn’t just more sustainable, it’s faster and more puncture resistant too. That caught our attention, and it should catch your attention too.
Where sustainable means high-performance
The Vittoria Terreno Pro T60 Mix is a new gravel tire from the Italian tire company. Its build is both a departure from the norm and a doubling down on what they do best. The key numbers and promises it brings aren’t just good for gravel, but Vittoria thinks it will change how bicycle tires are made.
Vittoria says their new tires are made of 92 percent renewable and recycled materials. Instead of using nylon, they use an organic cotton casing – technology Vittoria uses in their Corsa Pro tires – with nylon reinforcement. And when nylon needs to be used? They’re using a yarn made from recycled fish nets.
Carbon black – the additive material that largely makes rubber tires black in the first place – is gone. Oils used to bond the materials are replaced with soybean oil. Rice husks are used as a form of silica, a compound that improves longevity of their tires.
The result? Vittoria says thee Terreno Pro T60 tires offer a 10 percent improvement in rolling resistance, 10 percent more grip, 10 percent better ride comfort, and a whopping 34 percent better sidewall puncture resistance. Heady claims.
Oh, and these are the best-smelling bike tires out there. That is unless you like the smell of rubber.
Vittoria Terreno Pro T60 Mixed details
On to the spec sheet. The Terreno Pro T60 Mixed is a new tread pattern for the tire company. The tread consists of an evenly-spaced V-pattern that aims to merge good grip over loose surfaces with a consistent feel through corners. Evenly-spaced tread means the tires corner more predictably when turning on asphalt, but still have grip when you need it.
New for their gravel tire lineup is a predominantly cotton casing, again similar to the Corsa Pro tires we rate highly. The casing itself is geared for suppleness and speed despite the improved puncture resistance claims. The center of the casing, however, receives an anti-puncture belt where needed.
The Terreno Pro T60 Mixed is more of an all-rounder pattern compared to the slick Terreno Zero and Terreno Dry tires and the knobbier Mezcal and Terreno Mix tires they have currently.
Vittoria will launch their new gravel tire in just one 700c x 40 mm size, though a 45 mm tire should be coming down the line.
Impressions, availability
We have no idea as to whether these new Vittoria Terreno Pro T60 Mixed are good to ride. We don’t know what durability will look like in the long term either. Neither does Vittoria.
We’ve tested these for thousands of kilometers so far and they’ve looked good, but we aren’t quite sure just how wear-resistant these will be yet, says Vriends.
What we can tell you is that this tread feels grippy. That’s in a good way, the kind of way a fresh set of tires can feel out of the box. The difference here is that these are made from rice husks and organic cotton and they smell far better too. And if these tires prove to be as hard-wearing as Vittoria envisions, Vittoria expects to see this technology in their road and even mountain bike tires in the future.
We haven’t yet received pricing confirmation, but Vittoria expects these tires to have a comparable cost to their existing Corsa Pro tires at roughly $100 USD. That’s a premium price point to be sure.
The promise of improved performance alone makes these an interesting tire, but the sustainability and recycled material component make this one of the most interesting bits of tech at the Taipei Cycle Show 2024.
We’ve requested a set of tires; stay tuned for our review.
