Onza Lavin 700cx28 tyre

Onza is a Swiss brand producing tyres mainly for commuters, BMX and mountain bikes, plus a few road options, including this Lavin folding clincher. Although billed on the Onza website as a 'Fixie tyre', the packaging indicates it's a 'Road/Fixie tyre', and a test pair fitted to a (geared) training bike turned out to be ideal for spring conditions on a wide range of road surfaces.

The Lavin comes in six different varieties. There's a 700x23 and a 700x28, each with wired-on or folding Kevlar bead. There's also an Urban Lavin variety in 26-inch size, again with wire or Kevlar bead. The variety under test here is the 700x28 with the Kevlar bead.

First, the fitting. I put the tyres onto a pair of Mavic Open Sports easily, but without them being sloppy, and they sat nicely on the rims when inflated. When pumped up to 100psi the width was 27.3mm on the road.cc callipers. I also tried the tyres on a pair of Mavic Ksyrium Equipes, and again the fit was just right.

According to the Onza website, the Lavin uses a technology called DCR, which stands for Dual Compound Road. It simply means the outer part of the tyre consists of two types of rubber: slightly harder on the top of the tyre, so there's less friction and wear when you're vertical on the road; slightly softer on the shoulders of the tyre to provide a bit more grip when you're cornering. This idea is not unique to Onza, but it works well.

On the inside, the casing is 60TPI, which indicates a basic level of suppleness, and also boasts what the Onza website calls NB1, which is a 'Nylon inlay [to] increase puncture protection and decrease rolling resistance, plus add extra stiffness to the tyre'.

In the couple of hundred test miles I've done on these tyres, I haven't punctured yet, so the protection seems good, but I'm not convinced by the claims that a tyre with 'extra stiffness' can also have decreased rolling resistance. A significant amount of evidence indicates that stiff tyres have more resistance because they bounce around on the road, whereas supple tyres 'flow' around the bumps.

I tested the tyres in a range of conditions, from dry and sunny evenings on the local motor-racing track (cyclists use it for training sessions when the cars pack up for the day) to wet weekend rides on thorny Cotswold lanes, as well as several jaunts during a holiday on the Isle of Arran, where the circular coast road is velvet smooth in some sections and badly eroded in others.

With the tyres at 100psi front and 105psi rear they absorbed the shocks on the rough bits and never seemed uncomfortable, while on the smooth bits there was no sensation of extra drag compared to a pair of 700x23s on the same bike.

This sensation was probably further helped by the Lavins' weight. The Onza website quotes 310g but this does the tyres a disservice. On the road.cc scales they measured a mere 252g each.

The Lavins have a slight tread: a herringbone pattern on the top of the profile, and some wavy lines along each shoulder. Whether these make any difference to stability compared to a slick tyre is unlikely, as most of the grip between a bike tyre and the road is due to the rough nature of the tarmac, but it doesn't do any harm, and the grip was sound and reassuring on corners, even in the rain.

The Onza Lavin 700x28 folding tyre is available in just one colour option: black. The recommended retail price of £22.99 isn't an absolute bargain, but it compares well against tyres from other brands of similar size and performance.

Verdict

Good puncture protection with performance and comfort - ideal for spring and autumn training.