Vittoria Corsa G+ 2.0 (open) 25 - Lab Test Review

Vittoria recently announced they've improved their Graphene compound and released a new range of tires featuring the Graphene 2.0 compound. Vittoria claims they've made improvements to reduce rolling resistance, increase wear life, and improve grip on the sides. As it's very hard to make improvements to all important aspects of a compound at the same time, this is quite a bold claim by Vittoria.

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We've tested the original Graphene compound in 2016 so we can directly compare the new tires to the old tires and see if Vittoria's claims make any sense (at least the rolling resistance part). The new cotton Corsa tires look very similar to the old except for the Graphene 2.0 part that's printed on the sidewalls. Vittoria also released a bigger size (30-622) and almost all sizes are available in full black or with para sidewalls.

Vittoria also released tubeless-ready (TLR) versions of the 25-622 and 28-622 sizes of the regular Corsa. With the previous generation, only the Corsa Speed was available as a TLR version (read review). The TLR version is about 35-40 grams heavier but should be a bit faster and lighter when used without an inner tube. For this test, we've used the regular Corsa 25-622 with para sidewalls as this is the exact substitute for the Corsa G 1.0 (read review) that we've tested back in 2016.

Weight. It looks like Vittoria upped the specified weight of the 25-622 Corsa to 255 grams as according to our own data, the previous generation was specced at 240 grams. Our sample of the 25-622 Corsa G+ 2.0 comes in at 260 grams which is a bit over the specified weight. Our sample of the previous generation Corsa 25-622 (read review) came in at 255 grams so the new specified weight looks to be more realistic.

Size. It looks like size wise, the tires remain unchanged as both the new and old Corsa measure 27 mm wide and have a height of 24 mm on our 17 mm internal width rim.

Tire Thickness. The new Corsa G+ 2.0 comes with a bit more tread thickness as tread thickness has increased to 2.6 mm as opposed to the 2.4 mm thickness of the previous generation. 0.2 mm is only a very small difference so it's possible this is up to manufacturing tolerances and accuracy of our measurements.

The sidewalls also measure a bit thicker at 0,90 mm as compared to the 0,75 mm of the previous generation. Again this could be up to manufacturing tolerances or our own measuring accuracy.

The sidewalls of the cotton tires are actually quite hard to measure as the lower part of the sidewall is made up of a double layer of cotton. Our measurement is the average thickness of the sidewall.

Unfortunately, we can't confirm Vittoria's claim of reduced rolling resistance of the Graphene 2.0 compound. At the high air pressure of 120 psi / 8.3 bars, the Corsa G 2.0 comes in at 13.0 watts while the Corsa G 1.0 came in at 12.2 watts. Although 0.8 watts isn't a big difference, it's opposite to Vittoria's claim of reduced rolling resistance. We would have been happy if the new Corsa came in somewhere around 11 watts at 120 psi / 8.3 bars.

At lower air pressures, the gap between the new and old Corsa grows even bigger. At the more realistic air pressure of 80 psi / 5.5 bars, the gap has grown to 1.4 watts.

It gets even worse when we compare the new Corsa G 2.0 to the Corsa CX III from 2014 which is essentially the same tire from 2 generations back (compare 3 generations of Vittoria Corsa side by side here). Even the CX III had a lower rolling resistance which means Vittoria essentially made zero improvements in the rolling resistance department from 2014 to 2019. Let's hope they did make improvements to improve grip and durability.

In the tread puncture resistance test, the new Corsa 2.0 does score 1 point more than the Corsa 1.0. This might be contributed to the slightly thicker tread thickness or simply the margin of error of the test.

In the sidewall puncture test, both tires perform exactly the same at 5 points for both.

When we once again compare the Corsa G+ 2.0 to the Corsa CX III from 2 generations back, we see there have been essentially zero improvements in the puncture resistance of these tires.

We had high hopes of the Graphene 2.0 compound as Vittoria made some bold claims about improvements to all aspects of the compound. We don't perform grip or durability tests, but we have found rolling resistance has actually gone up when compared to the previous generation. It's hard to have faith in their other claims when at least one of their claims about the Graphene 2.0 compound isn't true.

I'm really divided between rating this tire 3 or 4 out of 5. I guess it should be a 3.5 but I've given it a 4 out of 5 rating because if you're looking for cotton tires, the Vittoria Corsa tires are probably still your best bet.