Vittoria Trail Tech G+ Tubeless Ready Folding Tyres

Vittoria Trail Tech tyres

I just bought a pair of "Vittoria Trail Tech Tubeless Ready Folding Tyres" on sale from Planet X; they're currently on sale for 14 quid each down from a claimed RRP of 40 quid - although I'm pretty certain Planet X never sold them for that price. Nevertheless, 14 quid for a tubeless-ready folding tyre really is a decent bargain. One thing though was, despite deploying my awesome Googling skills, I couldn't find out much about the tyres in advance of buying them. So now I've fitted them and used them, I thought I'd do a quick review just in case anyone else is thinking about buying a pair.

According to Strava I was much quicker up here than on my mountain bike!

The Vittoria tyres are replacing some Panracer Gravel King SKs, which are light, fast and feel super comfy to ride on, but back in December, on a cold early morning on my commute, I punctured one on sharp stone; covering my bike with sealant (which didn't work to seal the puncture). After much hassle removing the tubeless-valve I eventually got a spare tube and made it to work (late) and home again in the evening. After cleaning everything up I used a plug on the hole and re-mounted the tyres, but the plug never sealed and the tyre would go down in a couple of kms. After various hours getting very cold hands, out in the garage, over a number of nights and still failing to get a plug to work, I gave up and put an old super-heavy but almost puncture-proof Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour, a tubed-tyre, on that wheel and got on with a cold winter of commuting. I bought special tubeless patches you glue on the inside of tyre of the damaged Gravel King, hoping that would fix it, so once I got the new wheels a few weeks ago, re-mounted it. But the patch wasn't working, it leaked at the original puncture, and as the pressure went down (sealant leaking out of the tread), it would also burp at the rim and sealant would start leaking there as well. So I'm not very impressed with the Gravel King SKs longevity. Buying a new one as a replacement was going to be slightly more than a pair of Vittoria Trail Techs at the sale price.

When I got the Trail Techs my first impression was weight! They felt more like the famously heavy Marathon Plus range. It felt a bit of a shame putting them on my lovely new light (for me at least) wheels - Hunt 4S Discs. I weighed one - 740 grams, so about double a Gravel King, but 150 grams less than the Marathon Tour Plus, and I don't need a tube in the Trail Techs so that saves another couple of hundred grams. So, yes, much heavier than the Panracers but quite a lot less than a tubed Marathon. The Trail Techs have a "Solid Shielding puncture protection layer" that, in the picture below that Google did turn up, looks quite similar to way Schwalbe makes Marathon Plus tyres so puncture resistant. Then of course, set up tubeless with sealant in them, I'm hoping punctures should be a non-issue. I do most of miles commuting to work so not puncturing, and making me late, is more important than saving a few hundred grams although it might make me a second or so slower on my regular Strava segments!

Borrowed picture showing puncture protection

When I first tried putting a Trail Tech on my rims it was a total battle. Having mounted different Schwalbe Marathon models over the years - famed for being hard to fit - this was upsetting as it calls into question my a) self-appointed expert tire changer status and b) manhood. After composing myself, wiping away the tears, and watching a few YouTube "how to fit tight tires" vids for inspiration, I had another go and buy really forcing the beads of the tyres in the well of the rim and working down, managed to get it on. Oddly the second tyre went on the second rim more easily, although I still wouldn't say it was easy! I had my home made compressor out ready to blast them on to the rim, but before doing that, thought I'd give it a few blasts with just the track pump so see if, on the off chance, that would work. I was quite amazed when, yep, it was that easy and after a few pumps the bead of the tyre clipped onto the rim with a couple of satisfying pops. Compared to the utter hassle of getting the Gravel Kings set up tubeless, this was a breeze.

So that was surprisingly easy!

I added sealant through the valves - all very nice and un-messy - and re-pumped them. They tyres say that tubeless the pressure should be a minimum of 45 PSI which seems quite high, and a max of 90 PSI - which seems amazingly high for a tubeless tyre - I think gravel kings say max of 60. I tried 50 PSI to start of with, but may drop it a bit as they felt relatively firm, although that might have just been due to being a heavier duty tyre than the Panracers.

Bridleway bashing...

I took the bike out on 25 km local loop and did both an ascent and descent that I normally ride on my mountain bike. On the ascent (Johnnygate Lane for any Sheffield/Chesterfield locals) I set a new PR according to Strava which I'm pretty happy with. It's really dry out currently, so on dry gravel and hard compacted mud (covered of course in Derbyshire's finest rocks, twigs, leaves etc.) the Trail Techs felt as good as the Gravel King SKs and better than the Schwalbe G-One Speeds my bike came with. Once onto tarmac they are noticeably quieter than the SKs and didn't feel squirrelly on fast descents on road.

...or tarmac cruising.

So after setting them up and a first ride - I'm pretty happy. Yes, they don't have tan sidewalls - so I'm not cool anymore but they seem to grip, in dry conditions at least, as well as the Panracers. Instead of tan sidewalls they do have a reflective sidewall and, again, as a commuter come the autumn I'll be happy about that. Reflective sidewalls are a great feature if you ride at night in traffic. If the Trail Techs turn out to be as puncture resistant as they look, particularly for commuting, that's a big plus. Yes, they're heavier than the Gravel Kings, but after getting hole that I couldn't fix in one, I had to replace it with heavy reliable tubed tire anyway - so the weight point has been moot for months anyway. And at £14.00 each versus £30.00, and being able to set up tubeless so easily, I reckon they're pretty good value.

Hoka One One Tor Ultra Hi WP

I wrote this ages ago, and for one reason or another it never got used, so this is just a place to archive it really.

Many keen runners will have at least seen Hoka One One trail running shoes, with their big chubby soles they are hard to miss. While the rest of the running shoe industry seemed to be going for minimalist, ultra-light shoes with very little cushioning, Hoka went the other way – what is sometimes called ‘maximalist’ cushioning. The Hoka One One Tor Ultra Hi WPs (yes, silly name, I will just call them the Tors from now on) have applied that maximalist cushioning to walking boots. Alternatively you could perhaps think of them as supportive, protective trail shoes with an ankle added.

I have to admit the slightly bizarre aesthetics of the Tors is what first led me to ask if I could review a pair, but after six months of use I can now say they are despite looking odd they are fantastically comfortable and capable hiking boots. Compared to more traditional leather three season walking boots they are light (Hoka says 970 grams for a pair of UK 7s). They certainly feel light when you wear them, more like approach shoes than boots. I’ve even clipped them on to the back of my harness and carried them up rock routes – they are a bit bulky to be perfect for this but they aren’t too heavy. They are also just ridiculously comfortable compared to more “classic” walking boots. The biggest proof of this for me is that after a day of wearing them in the mountains I’m quite happy to just get in the car and drive home with them still on. Normally after a day in hiking boots or winter climbing boots there is that lovely feeling of pulling them off and putting your trainers on before getting in the car, but not with the Hoka One One Tors. Hoka say the boots have “late stage meta-rocker geometry, active foot frame stability” and “full length EVA top midsole for cushioning” – I’m sure this is all true although I don’t know exactly what it means. But, basically, whether walking for miles on flat hard surfaces like the flagstone sections of the Pennine Way over Kinder or hoping between rocks on bare, rock-strewn mountain tops like Tryfan, I found the Tors wonderfully comfortable. In many ways they feel like a comfy padded running shoe, but with more protection around your foot when bashing through scree and more support around your ankle when walking over rough terrain.

The boots are waterproofed by using an eVent liner and so far this has worked perfectly even for walking for long periods in very wet and muddy conditions. I’ve always been a bit suspicious of how long liners can last in boots, but I had a pair of Merrells with a Goretex liner that stayed waterproof for years despite loads of use, so hopefully these will last as well. The eVent also seems to breath well enough to keep my feet from getting to hot when the weather isn’t so lousy. I wouldn’t recommend these boots for summer hiking in hot weather, but for the UK except for high summer they seem well rather suited.

The Tors have a “Vibram® MegaGrip Hi-Traction Outsole with 5mm Lugs”. The grip offered by these soles has also turned out to be superb – the lugs grip well in mud and wet grass but the boots also work surprisingly well where friction is central – be that on lichen-covered grit boulders or slimey limestone slabs, and even more surprisingly on polished slabby holds on classic mountain scrambles. The last thing I expected from these boots is for them to work for scrambling, but having worn them up Tryfan’s North Ridge and Bristly Ridge they were great. They of course didn’t edge well on small positive holds like an alpine boot will due to the softness of the midsole, but on bigger holds and slabby moves they were just fine.

I’ve found just one problem with the Hokas, the stitching around the top of the ankle cuff (in cheery contrasting yellow thread) has snapped and is starting to unravel a bit. The swift application of lighter to the nylon thread will stop it unraveling any further, but this seems to be a problem with this sort of stitching on exposed sections of footwear, particularly where the thread is in a stretchy material like the neoprene cuff here. Another ‘issue’ which may or may not be seen as a problem is that the flat profile of the sole means that there is no groove for the underfoot strap of a gaiter. If you have gaiters with wire straps under-foot this might work although I picked up some shorty gaiters with a very narrow neoprene strap from Decathlon thinking they might works with the Tors, but they still don’t. As said before, the Tors seems very waterproof when walking through typical hill bogs but of course any boot will leak if water comes over the top, and I still think that gaiters have their place for hiking in Britain.

But, besides the gaiter issue, I think the Hoka One One Tor Ultra Hi WP are great boots for three season hiking in the UK, be that multiday backpacking on rolling (and often muddy) moorland or the more abrupt up and downs of the mountains. If you like the soft comfort and lack of weight of hiking in running shoes but want the protection, waterproofing, and traction of ‘proper’ hiking boots, then the Tors are well worth considering.

Scarpa Zodiac Tech GTX: a review

Summer scrambling

I was asked to review these boots for UKC back in early summer. Happy family reasons meant I spent little time in the mountains this summer and, despite hiking and scrambling in them in the Peak District, I held off writing up my review until recently as I wanted to use them in the mountains and with crampons. By the time I submitted my copy, Scarpa UK had just removed them from their website as they are not selling them next year. It real shame as they are cracking boots, but I thought I'd park the review here for archive purposes. Some UK shops still have the Zodiac Techs in stock and they are still on Scarpa's international website as well as for sale from many webshops across Europe. So I hope that this review is of help to any random googlers who find it when researching the boots.

The Scarpa Zodiac Tech GTX are an impressively light pair of mountaineering boots. The first version of Zodiacs that Scarpa made were stout approach shoes, not even boots, let alone crampon compatible boots - but that is exactly what the Zodiac Techs are.

Winter scrambles

I imagine Scarpa designed them primarily as a summer alpine boot, particularly well suited for routes where you need to cross glaciers or snowfields on the approach but then carry the boots in a pack when doing technical climbing, but I’ve found them to make an excellent scrambling and hiking boot for UK conditions too. I have used them in UK winter conditions now, including for a simple climb on ice up one of Kinder’s cloughs, and have traversed Crib Goch in marginal winter conditions (scrambling on snow covered rocks, but I didn’t need to use the crampons that were in my pack), and don’t doubt that they will work well for fast moving days of winter hillwalking and easy winter climbs. They have so far proven to be very weather resistant; the GTX bit of their full name is an obvious nod to their suitability to the wet and muddy hills of Britain. I have heavier, warmer and stiffer boots for days of pitched ice or mixed climbing, midwinter, but will happily use the Zodiac Techs for winter ridge scrambles or easy snow gullies where I would be either soloing, or just pitching occasionally. With a decent pair of gaiters, they kept my feet warm for a hike through deep snow and a climb up soggy early season ice. Indeed they seem particularly well suited for England and Wales with their more marginal winter conditions, but I would imagine they could also be fantastic for those special alpine-like days at the end of the Scottish winter as well as the big summer scrambles like Tower Ridge or the Cullin.

The most obvious feature of these boots is their weight, or lack thereof. Scarpa says 1240 grams for a pair at size 42. This makes them marginally lighter than the Rebel Lites at 1280 grams and the Scarpa Charmoz at 1440 grams. Only Scarpa’s new super high-tech sort-of-trainer-sort-of-mountain-boot, the Ribelle, is lighter - but only by 20 grams and at almost double the price. The Zodiac Techs, except for their stiffness, feel like a pair of lightweight summer hiking boots. This is great whether they are on your feet or being carried. They are made of a tough suede and have a high rand that gives lots of protection to the lower boot. The cuff of the boots is snug with elastic and this keeps most sand and grit out of the boot if you aren’t using a gaiter of some type. This works well and will increase the longevity of the goretex liner to the boot.

The Zodiac Techs are definitely a boot compared to original approach shoe version, but the ankle isn’t particularly high or supportive - back in the early summer I went over on my ankle (my dodgy ankles, not the fault of the boots) while wearing them walking down from Kinder. I sat with my ankle in a cold stream for some time, envisaging a sunny Derbyshire version of Touching the Void and Simpson’s lonely crawl down the glacier, but eventually got the boot back on and hobbled back down to my car relying on my walking poles. Some argue that the idea that ankle support from any boots is more imagined than real for all boots, but with these boots in particular the ankle is both relatively low and soft. Nevertheless, the plus side of this is when you climb in the Zodiacs you have good ankle mobility.

The Zodiac Techs are clearly boots designed for climbing in. On scrambles they have worked superbly. The classic Vibram sole grips as well as any on even wet and green rock and the boots’ rigidity make standing on small holds feel secure. I recently used them descending Y Gribin from the col between Lliwedd and Snowdon. I was below the snowline but the wind was screaming and the ridge was getting covered in sleet and wind-driven hail; far from perfect scrambling conditions. Standing on little nicks on otherwise lichenous slabs in the Zodiacs, as I picked my way down towards Glaslyn, felt like standing on front points on a slab of ice - confidence inspiring considering the tricky conditions. Most recently I have used the Zodiacs with semi-automatic “C2” crampons and it felt secure standing on the front points in them, on easier angled ice at least. Nevertheless, despite this underfoot stiffness when climbing in them, they are not uncomfortable boots to hike in. I’ve never got a blister from them, even when wearing them for 20 km days when they were brand new.

Overall I’ve been very impressed with the Zodiac Tech GTX. They show no real signs of wear after plenty of use over the last seven months, and if your ambitions don’t go beyond scrambles and easy winter climbs, these remarkably light boots may be all you need for the British mountains as well as being clearly well suited to summer alpine and sub-alpine peaks.

The Stanage VS Challenge - a two thirds-successful attempt.