Vittoria Voyager Hyper 700x35c (37-622) for ~$20 each

241 views
Skip to first unread message

Yogy Namara

unread,
Jul 1, 2015, 6:40:49 PM7/1/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
Yes, yes, another tire discussion, we know how that usually goes, so I'll just keep it simple and to the point.

THE BASICS

From http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY you can buy the Vittoria Hyper (previously under the Randonneur line, but now under Voyager; it's my understanding that they're the same tire, just renamed) for ~$20 each. Shipping from UK is ~$6 with Royal Mail if you order up to 3; larger orders incur much more expensive shipping costs. This is a folding tire, 120 TPI, with reflective tape on the sidewall. I'm no tire expert, but I want to say it's a knobless mostly slick tire with some hairy stubbles and sparse water displacing grooves.

Pictured here https://plus.google.com/photos/115132395565671655556/albums/6166628469288069329 is the slightly larger Vittoria Randonneur Hyper 700x38c (40-622), which is what I'm currently running on my mixed terrain bike. Also in the album is the Grand Bois Cyprès and the Clement X'Plor MSO 700x40c 60 TPI which are the only other tires I've used on this bike.

THIRD PARTY QUOTES

I'm limiting this to quotes from people who I believe are knowledgeable and respectable in this subject. I'm cherry-picking here, so forgive me if I take things a little bit out of context.

* Jan Heine (Bicycle Quarterly/Compass Biycle):

"We haven’t tested the Vittoria Randonneur Hyper. According to Vittoria, it weighs just 60 g more than the Grand Bois Cyprès in the same size, so at least there isn’t a lot of extra rubber. The "Triple Puncture Protection" makes me a bit concerned. Now if Vittoria offered the Open CX Corsa in wider widths (currently, it only goes up to 25 mm), that would be a tire!"

"I also have heard good things about the Voyager Hyper, and we’ll include it in a future test. I am a little concerned that it’s still labeled as a “touring” tire. I really would like to see Vittoria make a 32 and 38 mm version of the Open CX Corsa, perhaps with a little extra material on the tread for greater durability. Of course, that is the tire we had in mind when we made the Compass Barlow Pass Extralight..."

* Irving Pham (Boyz on the Hoods):

"I also really happen to like the Vittoria Randonneur Hyper (also goes by Voyager Hyper) 700x35 tires. They are plenty comfy, measure true to width, feature a nice reflective sidewall stripe and are quite durable. It really is an intriguing tire option that seems somewhere in between (in price and quality) the Panaracer Pasela/Resist Nomad choices and the higher end Gran Bois/Compass offerings."

* aktiv Radfahren: There was supposed to be a test done by this German publication, mostly against Continental and Schwalbe offerings in City and Touring category, and supposedly the Hyper won both in speed and ride quality, but suffered more punctures. I can only find comments and forum posts to this effect, though, not the original article.

PERSONAL OPINION

I've only ridden the Vittoria Randonneur Hyper 700x38c (40-622), a slightly fatter tire under the old name, and only for ~200 miles, some mixed terrain but no RUSA brevet yet. Not a whole lot of experience, so you can stop reading right there if you don't wish to waste any more of your time.

The MSO is the tire I've had the most experience on, including a super series last year which included Old Caz 300k, and a Santa Cruz Randonneurs 200k and 400k that I jazzed up with some mixed terrain bonus miles. I don't have much bad things to say about this tire, except maybe that the little knobbies wear a bit fast, but from what I understand this is to be expected the closer you are to the MTB side of the tire knobbiness spectrum.

The Grand Bois Cyprès were ridden for ~250 miles (no flats, by the way), and they're great tires for that size, fast and smooth, but I downsized from the MSO to the Grand Bois, so I also experienced some disadvantages, mainly that I can no longer be as adventurous on my adventure bike. Having already ridden thousands of miles on the bike at this point, I don't want to give up the main reason why I bought it in the first place, so I swapped the Grand Bois out for the Hypers. I'd probably put them back on for some all pavement brevet that I just need to get done, where it's all business and no adventure, but I'll sooner just ride my road bike in that case.

The Hypers were ridden for some ~200 miles. This included the second time I did my Cupertino-Freedom-Cupertino free route permanent, a repeat of the first time where I detoured through the Forest of Nisene Marks SP (because it's so darn pretty dagnabbit! https://plus.google.com/photos/115132395565671655556/albums/6164182235962764465 ). It also included the third time I climbed the John Nicholas Trail ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOoMTgnvfOA ), which I've now done once with each of the three tires mentioned here.

The last ride I did on the Hyper was on the Boyz on the Hood Summer Skool Sessions #2, the Peninsula MTBrevet ( http://www.boyzonthehoods.com/?p=2704 ). Most people had knobbies on this ride. I did have to walk my bike on some sections of loose dirt and rock gardens, but it looked like so did some people according to the ride reports and pictures. In any case, I was held back more by my bike handling skills and my 50/34x12-30 gearing than my tire choice. And for whatever it's worth, I did the whole ride under the same tire pressure (45-50 psi), in contrast to the few others who can be heard releasing some air at regroup points, presumably in search of better traction/comfort.

CONCLUSION

Here's a cheap tire option, possibly a very good deal if the words from these people mean anything. If nothing else it can be a good option for a backup tire for a mixed terrain ride, just fold it and stuff it in your pocket. About the size and weight of a 21st century American bagel, doesn't taste as good but probably more useful in some circumstances.

Yogy

Metin Uz

unread,
Jul 1, 2015, 6:53:37 PM7/1/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
I run Vittoria Randonneur Pro II 700x32 tires on my commute bike, which I think are basically the same tires. Decent tires for the price, but my impression is that they are really undersized, barely measuring 28mm wide on standard rims.

--Metin

Yogy Namara

unread,
Jul 1, 2015, 6:56:06 PM7/1/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
I've never used any of the Vittoria Randonneur tires, but my understanding is that in fact the Hyper is a very different class of tires, and this confusion is one of the primary reason why it's now under its own Voyager name. Take that for whatever it's worth.

Yogy

Metin Uz

unread,
Jul 1, 2015, 7:21:43 PM7/1/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
When I bought them, Vittoria used to call any non-racing tire "randonneur", but "Pro" and "Hyper" tires seemed to be the same -- foldable and higher TPI. In any case, how wide do your tires measure?

--Metin

Irving

unread,
Jul 1, 2015, 7:33:31 PM7/1/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
As one of the noted tire experts (Yogy's words, not mine) quoted in the original post, I'd like to add I rode both the 700x38 and 700x35 Rando Hyper offerings. They measured out to about 700x36 and 700x33 respectively on rims with a 19.5mm outer width. Here's a handy "tyre" chart where other users have filled in their measurements and it seems the Rando Hyper is pretty consistent.

Yogy Namara

unread,
Jul 1, 2015, 8:16:30 PM7/1/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
I don't have the proper tool to give you a useful number, but I'll measure it next time I stop by a bike shop (hopefully soon, since I'm thinking of fitting a SRAM 12-32 cassette without changing anything else on the drivetrain except obviously the chain, something that's definitely out of spec for my Shimano 105 5700 short cage RD compact double FD setup, but supposedly possible sometimes depending on how far you can crank up the B-tension screw or something like that I don't really know what I'm saying I'm just parroting others said).

In any case, my rim is a whopping 28mm wide. I don't know much about rims, but I think that's wider than the standard in most cycling disciplines.

Yogy

David Zabowski

unread,
Jul 2, 2015, 1:10:32 AM7/2/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
I'm on my second pair of the 700x38 version of these and I totally love them.  I get about 5000 miles a pair before taking the front tire as my spare and replacing the pair.  I commute year round on them in SF, have gotten, at most, a handful of flats (roofing nails in a construction zone kind of flats), and find them to be comfy and durable.  I previously rode Paselas, and I definitely prefer these.  I paid $33 a tire for my first pair, and $45 a tire for the second, so this is a very good deal.  FWIW: I haven't tried the 700x35 version, but have no reason to think that they wouldn't be equally good.  I also haven't tried any of the really nice tires like the Grand Bois, so I can't compare these to those.  But for $20 a tire, if you are looking for solid, fat, comfy tires at at great price, I have really enjoyed my Vittorias and you might too.

Stork
--
--
This message is from the San Francisco Randonneurs list at sfra...@googlegroups.com
Search the archives at http://groups.google.com/group/sfrandon
For SFR's schedule and general information, visit http://sfrandonneurs.org/
To unsubscribe, email sfrandon+u...@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "San Francisco Randonneurs" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sfrandon+u...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to sfra...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Yogy Namara

unread,
Jul 2, 2015, 3:06:34 AM7/2/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
It has been brought to my attention that bagels are much smaller and much lighter than I initially thought, so that's one more subject I'm obviously not an expert of. If nothing else, you can just wrap the tire around your body, which I think is what old time cyclists used to do, and we already know that some cyclists are all about those glorious old times, in fact I heard SFR is going to have a vintage bike event this year, which I'll have trouble participating in since all of my bikes are made by robots in factories, but I digress...

Yogy


On Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 3:40:49 PM UTC-7, Yogy Namara wrote:

Darrell Goodwin

unread,
Jul 7, 2015, 1:08:24 PM7/7/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
I've been running the Voyager Hyper 700x35 tires on my Rawland Nordavinden and really like them!  They have a nice round profile with a high volume of air and seem to be reasonably fast for a tire of this size.  Much better than the typical Vittoria Randonneur or similar tire.  And at $20 plus shipping from Planet X, you cannot go wrong.  I plan to get another set.

Yogy Namara

unread,
Jul 7, 2015, 2:44:48 PM7/7/15
to sfra...@googlegroups.com
I found a tire test article done by the Dutch Cycling Union. They don't do the kind of riding that we do, and this is obvious by their preference for balloon city tires, but of relevance is that they did include the Hyper and Grand Bois Cyprès (the smallest tire tested). Here are some links (mostly in Dutch):

Commentary on all tires: http://www.fietsersbond.nl/node/5907

Lab data:

Their finding is that the Hyper is the best tire in terms of puncture protection and rolling resistance. The Grand Bois is indeed very comfortable, even for a small and light tire running at higher pressure, with slightly better rolling resistance and slightly worse puncture protection, thus lowering its ranking.

Yogy

Yogy Namara

unread,
Jun 1, 2016, 3:21:13 PM6/1/16
to San Francisco Randonneurs
FYI, this item is back in stock at Planet X, again for less than $20 each for the 35mm and 38mm.


Shipping is ~$12 flat fee up to 7 tires in a single order. I just ordered a bunch of 38mm (40-622), and I still have a couple of new unused 35mm (37-622) from last year which I haven't used and would be happy to sell for no profit (nothing wrong with them, I just prefer bigger tires and the 38mm were out of stock when I bought the 35mm, contact me privately if you're interested, free home delivery possible).

I've said good things about this tire in the past (for whatever that's worth). I can add that I just did the Santa Cruz 600k this past weekend with the 38mm on the rear (I had the 40mm Clement X'Plor MSO on the front, just in case I felt like exploring Fort Ord or something). This particular tire, which has only been recently moved from the front to the rear, now has a whopping ~8800 miles, many of those on rough pavement and dirt trails. It has suffered numerous major punctures, but I still keep riding it after patching. Its previous partner in crime, the one that was on the rear when it was on the front, lasted ~5000 miles before I wore it down to the carcass.

If you want another opinion, I know that Matthew Fitzpatrick has ridden on these tires, and I think he recently finished the Texas Rando Stampede 1200k on them. He'll probably tell you what he thinks of the tires if you ask him nicely.

I close with these excerpts from a recent review:


"The Voyager Hyper is Vittoria's lightest and fastest touring bike tire. Vittoria specifies the Voyager Hyper as an ultra-light touring bike tire that inherits most of the technology that's also used on their fastest road bike tires."
 
"In the rolling resistance test, the Voyager Hyper performs very, very strong for a touring bike tire. [...] When we compare the Voyager Hyper to fast road bike tires, rolling resistance is almost just as low. [Slightly worse than] the top performing all-round tires like the Continental GP4000S II or Vittoria Open Corsa, it does come very close to tires like the Vittoria Rubino Pro, Michelin Pro 4 Service Course, or Continental Grand Prix. It's obvious you don't need very thin and light tires to have a low rolling resistance."
 
"The Vittoria Voyager Hyper is pretty much a big road bike tire disguised as a touring bike tire."

Yogy

Steve Chan

unread,
Jun 1, 2016, 3:29:04 PM6/1/16
to yogy....@gmail.com, San Francisco Randonneurs
Somewhat related - has anyone tried their Kaffenback disc bike? It
looks like a pretty good candidate for a 650B disc conversion and for
$200, its a new frameset at a beater price.
> --
> --
> This message is from the San Francisco Randonneurs list at
> sfra...@googlegroups.com
> Search the archives at http://groups.google.com/group/sfrandon
> For SFR's schedule and general information, visit http://sfrandonneurs.org/
> To unsubscribe, email sfrandon+u...@googlegroups.com
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "San Francisco Randonneurs" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to sfrandon+u...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to sfra...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



--
"Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a
habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny." - Samuel
Smiles
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages