Which Tyres?

I see Merlin have the old Veloflex Master (28) and Corsa (25, 28) going for £20. That's quite good isn't it?

That is a nice price. Anybify with experience with these tyres? Are they summer and race only, or durable enough also for autumn use? Thinking about buying either them or Rubino Pro G+ (same price at Merlin) or well-reviewed Pro4 Endurance from Decathlon at about 28 GBP.

Is there a goto tubeless 28c winter road tyre?

Hutchinson Fusion 5 Performance or Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR or something else?

Conti 4seasons, Michelin Pro4

Normally I would say both of those too, but I want to go tubeless.

For winter the Fusion 5 All Season. Never used it myself, but heard good things about it.

i use schwalbe pro-one 28 pretty much all year, i guess not a winter tyre but it works

I rode older versions a few years ago & they were great summer tyres but got puncture prone relatively quickly in the grittier months. Did somehow manage to tour Scotland on a set without a flat before they went though. I hear the newer versions are better for puncture protection.

I am now thinking in another way - I can either get a pair of Veloflexes for warmer and Rubino Pro G+ for colder months(will end up about 80 GBP for 4 tyres in total), or instead get one pair of more expensive tubeless tyres that I would use all-year round (don't want to bother with replacing tubeless tyres etc.), like Hutchinsons Fusion 5 Performance. Which option would be better you think?

Never ridden tubeless so can't really comment on that option. My general routine for a few years now has to buy Vittoria Corsa G+ at the beginning of summer & then ride them into winter for as long as they survive. Then fit whatever spare tyres I have lying around to get through the season. Generally ride more fixed gear/off road in winter anyway. I've always found the G+ tyres to have exceptional puncture protection so they run longer than you'd think, friends rate the Rubinos too.

Sorry, not super conclusive. I preferred the Vittoria Corsa G+ over the Veloflex Masters for speed & puncture resistance but YMMV of course.

For winter i have SSCX and rigid MTB that I will mostly use, but as long as October's weather will be decent I would like to still be able to add some road miles, so maybe I will just get the Veloflexes as the price is so tempting. Can't find any good deal for Corsas in 28c width.

For that price, definitely worth a punt!

Does anybody have any experience with Donnelly Xplor CDG 700x30c? I just found them available here in Poland, tubeless-ready, for about 20 GBP. Wondering how much slower it would be compared to "regular" road tyres.

The Veloflex master/corsa resist punctures quite well. They are really thin though. I get ~3,500km out of a rear tyre, mostly dry, rural riding. I get nearly twice that out of Michelin Pro# but they don’t feel as sweet.

Thanks, that’s very helpful!
In the end I bought a cheap clincher wheelset though...

First ride with 32c Gravelking TLCs this morning, really impressed so far! Didn't feel all that much slower than the 23 Michelin Pro4 Endurance that were on there before, felt nice and comfortable on shitty road surfaces and no punctures. Only 60k in so too early to give a proper review but first impressions are good.

That’s good, I’ve got a set that has yet to be used :)

They're great tyres.

They can have a tendency to cut up a little bit, but they don't puncture any more easily than anything else in my experience. Plus they make a fun noise when you skid.

i use schwalbe pro-one 28 pretty much all year, i guess not a winter tyre but it works

Me too. That is the main benefit of tubeless for me, that I can use nice tyres in winter, dont' have to change to horrible, heavy ones to avoid punctures

hi folks ... I'm trying to do a bit of tyre math. I got some 650b wheels cheap off ebay (DT Swiss Spline E1800, believe they came off a canyon of some sort). The rim width is about 20mm and the internal prob between 16-17ish (hard to measure).

How wide of a tyre can I go on this rim? and what's the trade off with using a narrow rim, wider tyre. Do I just need newer wheels?

I ran 35mm tyres on Open Pro rims (622-15) and didn’t die once.

I ran 2.1 inch tyres on 17mm internal rims. The 90s was a crazy time.

If you weren't running Tioga Factory DH's at 20psi on Mavic D521 CD rims, you weren't really living

Me too. Not dead yet. Mind you, there were some close calls.

I still have a pair of those rims built in the shed waiting on the retro GT project that will probably never happen. I was thinking of the ridiculously narrow mavic XC rims that everyone ran on their jump* bike.

*XC bike with risers, fake azonic stem, tioga tyres and a DCD