Italian tyre giants Pirelli has added another clincher tyre to its road bike range, dubbed the P7 Sport. Unlike the P Zero range for racing and the tubeless-ready Cinturato Velo aimed at all-road riding, the P7 Sport is touted as “the ultimate all-round training tyre” for road cyclists. The price is also much lower than current tyres in Pirelli’s road range too, starting at £24.99 each.
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Pirelli says the P7 Sport ‘completes’ its range of clinchers. While the Cinturato Velo is also built for robustness, this was always a deluxe all-round option that is tubeless-ready and featuring Pirelli’s ‘Armour Tech’. The P7’s design is “derived from the World Tour-ready P ZERO Race” according to Pirelli, with a ‘PROCompound’ rubber mix designed for high mileage and durability. This one isn’t tubeless-ready either.
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The casing is 60 TPI nylon with an extra layer of cut-resistant fabric below the tread, that Pirelli is calling ‘TechBELT’. While opinions generally vary over the merits of tyre tread, Pirelli insists that the special tread design on the P7 Sport improves grip, with more sipes than its P Zero race tyres: “The warm-up phase of the tyre is thus reduced to the benefit of grip even in colder conditions”, claims Pirelli.
Who are these tyres for? Although Pirelli haven’t given us any hard data, it’s rather safe to say they aren’t as fast as its P Zero options, as we’re told the P7 Sport is for cyclists “who do not make competitive performance or KOMs their reason for living”:
“The P7 Sport is also a training tyre, making it perfect for racers or amateurs, for second bikes and for all conditions of use where speed is not the only top priority”, adds Pirelli.
The P7 Sport is available in 24, 26, 28 and 32mm widths, and as already mentioned, prices start from £24.99. Find out more on Pirelli’s website.
9 thoughts on “Pirelli launches the P7 Sport clincher tyre, an all-rounder for “robustness, grip and durability””
This sounds like a great 1:1
This sounds like a great 1:1 replacement or alternative for old the old Vittoria Rubino Pro III’s that were so cheap and cheerful back in the day.
hopefully bicyclerollingresistance will get a pair in for testing.
Yep let’s see what
Yep let’s see what bicyclerollingresistance have to say about them
But the quality of Vittoria
But the quality of Vittoria Rubino Pro is much lower.
That wasnt always the case.
That wasnt always the case. Both my bikes are still running Pro III’s, I have probably put well over 3k miles on both sets and they are still going strong.
Not to say that you are wrong though. There are friends and aquaintences among my circle that have had the same tyres and they started to split down the middle a few months after they put them on.
I made by purchase when the Pro III’s were in full swing and everyone was raving about how value for money they are but I think not long after that Vittoria started to wind down production and altering the composition of the rubber they used either to save money or because they couldnt get certain ingredients in (who knows?) — Hence the splitting.
Ive not used their other tyres though as i havent had the need to so i cant really comment on them.
But even then. With that said. There have been quite a few issues of GP5000’s sidewalls splitting. So just because you buy a more expensive tyre doesnt necessarily mean its better quality. You’d expect it to be given the price but thats not always the case.
RoubaixCube wrote:
I’ve not tried Rubino Pro since the II (taken off after 4,900km). Interesting comments about the compound and splitting on the III, I’m glad I didn’t buy them.
I’ve reached 11,000 km on my current pair of 28mm Duranos on the commuter bike and they still have a good amount of rubber remaining.
I intend to try Michelin Lithion 3s, would prefer it if they made 28mm.
Simon E wrote:
its all just blind assumptions and conjectures.
I know a lot of people that ran with Pro IIIs and most of them had absolutely no problem lasting well into 5 or even 6k and beyond. It was a very small number that suffered from splitting with tyres probably purchased around the time when retailers were heavily discounting and dumping all the old remaining stock of tyres that were discontinued and no longer getting supply for.
Depending on when you bought the Pro IIIs you could have been absolutely fine like me any a many others.
PIRELLI P7 Sport
PIRELLI P7 Sport
Think I’ll stick with
Think I’ll stick with Schwable Duranos.
eburtthebike wrote:
— eburtthebikeThat market is surely what they’re aiming at here, though the Durano has been replaced by the One Performance Addix, with very similar characteristics but thinner tread (meaning shorter life).
The Michelin Pro4 Endurance/Krylion or whatever they’re calling it this week is a direct competitor and IME a slightly more supple tyre.
Like RoubaixCube, I’m looking forward to seeing how the P7 performs on BRR.