I just voted for the Peyote too.
Same. Vote for Peyote logged.
Well if this isn’t Murphy’s Law, I don’t know what is.
I am a fan of the Race King for the events I’ve been doing - WW100K, Lutsen, and Leadville. With Lutsen coming up, I’ve been on an old set of Race Kings, one spare, and they’ve been out of stock everywhere. Getting worried about getting them in time - have a Racing Ray and Ralph getting delivered today. Then I found a pair of new Race Kings off eBay I decided to snag, they’re in the mail on the way. And then like clockwork, of course my backorder (BikeTiresDirect) just shipped. 7 new race tires in the mail at the same time. I guess that’s better than running out, right?
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Some problems aren’t actually problems.
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If I pump the ray/ralph up to 20-22psi (right now) they measure 2.27” and I just pumped them to 50psi they measure 2.4”
Are you saying to pump them up to 50psi (or
Higher?) and let them sit in the sun all day and they should stretch out?
If that’s the case can I expect them to be around 2.4” at 20psi?
I honestly can’t recall having MTB tires that would stretch like this but I’ve been out of the mtb game for so long.
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I recently got some Aspen ST’s, which are the Maxxis team spec race tyres that Nino runs. My first ride with them was in a fairly competitive club race, on loose gravel, and very rocky singletrack. I ran 19 PSI in the front and 20 PSI in the back.
I have never been close to being dropped on a descent, but I just didn’t have the confidence on the front, as I felt it sliding in the corners if I didn’t use the very top, and most banked part of the berm. I would only lose about 5 seconds each lap on the descent, but it adds up over time. The tyre feels so fast though, and it took a significant amount of weight off of my XC bike. I think I could get away with 17 and 18 PSI, which would improve grip. I also probably tested the tyre on it’s worst track (other than a wet track), and I imagine it would be amazing on any kind of track, as long as it doesn’t have loose corners. The 170TPI casing is so compliant, it makes it feel like the tyre is at a much lower pressure, while still feeling fast.
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Is the Peyote a front or rear tire? It says loose but those knobs look pretty small
Rear, but also out of stock everywhere
Don’t pump them up past the max PSI of your rim. Also, their size will depend on your wheels id, mine are 29 id.
New tires are stiff rubber and depending on their compound, typically will stretch/settle into a larger size. How large they will ultimately get is not consistent among brands and claimed sizes. However setting them in the hot sun at max psi will typically give you a bit more at normal riding psi. Might take a couple attempts of sun bathing - riding - sun bathing again.
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Thank you very much for all of the information!
Nice to see there will be some more xc tires tested on BRR. There’s been a drought on there.
This is a tangent, but I’ve always wanted to see them test something wild like a Maxxis DHF 29x2.4, just to see the difference. Cause that is pretty much the standardized ‘trail’ tire on most bikes. Problem is, no one would ever vote for that.
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I have run them f/r this year and amazed at how good they hook up. 2.4s on 30mm rims, rider weight around 190, 16f/17r psi.
They are a much better front than the previous gen mezcal. You do have to commit to leaning in the tire to get the side lugs to hook up, but you are supremely well rewarded when you do.
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I was reading about the new Bontrager Vallnord RSL XR tire this morning. 220tpi and a claimed 620g at 2.4". The specs sound promising and I saw that Anton Cooper ran them in the most recent WC race. Anyone have any insight on these?
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No experience with them, but my prior experience with any tire with Bontrager written on it has not been good so it would take a lot of convincing for me to try.
Not sure if Finsty was running these at Sea Otter this year, but he flatted there and took him 10 minutes to fix. Ended up chasing the rest of the day.
Last week I did the whistler back 40 bike race with a buddy. It’s an xc race, but has very challenging descents on black whistler trails. It’s also quite enduro inspired, with really long climbs and really long descents. My buddy was on minions because he was (reasonably) worried about traction on the descents, while I was on rekon races. We are both really similar in fitness, with him a better descender.
Anyway all the context is to share something I found really interesting. On the super steep portions of the climbs (whistler has some sickeningly steep climbs), the rolling resistance difference was a non-factor. I’m guessing this is just because we were moving so slow. But on any mellower section, even just lower % climbing, it was very noticeable that I was working much less hard.
Anyone have any insights or rules of thumbs? Like is there a slope % threshold where the difference in rolling resistance becomes negligible?
Rolling resistance forces are fixed (calculated from the bike+rider weight multiplied by the coefficient of rolling resistance, CRR). That’s the usual approximation anyway. But then as power losses are force multiplied by speed, the power losses due to rolling resistance vary linearly with speed. Therefore, on the gentler slopes where you were travelling at, say, twice as fast versus the steeper sections, the difference in power losses due to rolling resistance between you and your buddy would be twice as large. So I’d say what you observed makes sense, considering how rolling resistance losses work.
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When is the mythical 2.4 Race King going to be released by Continental? I just had a bad puncture on my rear 2.4 Rekon Race and replaced it temporarily with a slightly used 2.4 Aspen I had laying around. I am on a hardtail and 2.4 sized tires provide a little more cushioning for my rear.
What tires were you riding? I need to decide spoonish what tires I’m going to run for Breck Epic which has a bit of everything.
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I think at this point, next year if it happens. They’re struggling to keep the 2.25" in stock and it’s on backorder everywhere. I was finally able to get a couple sets so I can swap out what’s on my race wheels and still have spares.
On my main wheelset I had good luck with the Wolfpack Speed 2.4 - felt really big and pretty fast (subjective). Trying out Racing Ray / Ralph 2.35 now as they actually rate pretty well in terms of rolling resistance and puncture protection, but aren’t full 2.4". How about a Kenda Rush SCT if you can find them? I have a set on backorder that’s supposed to come in in the next couple weeks.
(Tire hoarder, I’d rather have them and sell the ones I don’t end up using than be stuck without)
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Continental seems to move super slow compared to Pirelli, frequent updates to their road tires and a new enduro tire line up but no changes for XC tires since I’ve gotten into cycling in 2020. In that same time Pirelli seemingly has a new MTB, gravel or road tire every couple months.