What’s your experience for weight on racing ralph/ray in super race compound? Got a new set and they both weight above 780 grams a piece, which came as a surprise to me because 705 is advertised. Should i return them and order new ones?
Here was my review out of the box on this combination
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I haven’t weighed my Ray/Ralph combo, but I go with the super ground (blue) over super race. They tested faster (or the same) with improved protection. YMMV
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Order 2 extra sets from different store. Ray came in at 770 and 760 grams, ralph at 740 and 760. So a little bit lighter but far from 705 gram. I’ve got the super ground version before they where actually lighter ray at 740 and ralph at 750 both stretched to 58 mm on 29rim. Which is actually the same as a 2.2 raceking on the 29rim. Profile width is different of course.
Switched to super race as an experiment because I found the super ground not feeling as smooth as I would expected. Lower pressures they started to feel sluggish. Of course it’s just feel.
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Where are you seeing 705g?
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I must have missed that, mine were most certainly 740-750g for either the ray or ralph.
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It was on the sellers website, but obviously it is wrong… Man they’re heavy then for xc-race tires 
I agree they are not super light - but I successfully rode them all season this year for both training and racing in any conditions or any trail type (root, dirt, muddy, rocky etc).
I did not have a flat (heck I never even added sealant), and the carcass/sidewalls have lots of small slash’s in them but neither tire gave up the fight!
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This is most important… I would rather have an extra 100ish grams of tire mass if I knew it would most likely prevent a failure during a race.
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Just to follow up I grabbed some quick pics of the tires.
I find the above photo very interesting because it is showing how much the rear is taking on my “leans” for steering. I am dragging the logos off the side of the tire. I ride this bike with intent or expectation that the rear is going to slide/skid in very aggressive corners or downhills. This rear tire is typically ran at 23psi and has never seen less than 20.5psi.
I think its never a bad idea to show stuff while talking about it! These are a little deeper than I remembered! I most likely will start with fresh tires next season but these are taking a real beating. I am 200+lbs!
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You know how many miles you have on these? Rough estimation is fine.
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That is a tough one!
Looking at my activities with quick math I would say 580-700 miles (933-1126km) and of that milage there is probably around 80-90 miles of road riding. 80% of the rest of the riding on my home trails is dirt with some sand mixed in it (not sandy enough to call it sandy, not dirty enough to call it primarily dirt).
Since you made me think about this - I would say I got my money out of them. This probably explains some shifting whoas I started having about a week ago. The cassette is about 3-4 seasons old!
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Interesting. I just checked and mine has about 600 miles or 960 km on it, so pretty close.
These are the Ground flavor and my guesstimate is 20% of those miles are asphalt, 20% fire roads, 20% jeep roads, 20% dirt trails, and 20% unmaintained jeep roads with lots of ruts, loose rock and roots. A good portion of the terrain is steep and so on downhills it takes a beating.
I weight about 150 lb or 68 kg, but don’t know the “whole system” weight. I run them at 20.5-21 psi.
No issues with flats. I did have to add sealant because of a slow leak that sealed after inflating twice during a ride (no apparent cause), and again last week (I think), as it was loosing air from the bead. I did have to take the wheel off and give it good shake but now it’s all good.
Anyways, it’s pretty clear that mine has worn out a lot faster than yours. Maybe the asphalt and steep descents. Personally I don’t find it to be fast compared to the Aspen it replaced, but I might be wrong. It will try to install a new Aspen without changing anything else to see if there is a difference in speed.
Thanks for your reply. It is pretty clear we’ve had very different experiences.
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Those bad boys are WORE OUT!
Maybe it has to do with a lot of steep downhill surfaces where the tire is dragging/skidding. I don’t come across that much, all the steep stuff is dirt/sand for me. This is interesting, you are significantly lighter than I am so this is interesting.
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Is that front or rear? Looks like rear. Can you post a pic of your front, which presumably wasn’t skidded much / at all?
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You are right, that is my rear tire. I could post a pic of the front tire, but that one is 2+ years old so it wouldn’t be illustrative. Also, it’s a different tire. A Pirelli Scorpion XC M. Love that tire.
I do want to mention: this R Ralph was installed 3-3.5 months ago. The Aspen it replaced was on the bike for 11 months under very similar riding conditions, though I don’t have to mileage at hand.
I wonder if I got a dud or, more likely, a post-COVID anomaly or something.
150lbs and 20+ psi? I used to do that…. Until I got tired of crashing!
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Really? Interesting.
What would be more reasonable? I’ve checked few calculators online a they’re all over the place. My wheels have a 25mm IW.
Funny that you say that. When the bead was loosing air I thought I barely hit the rim on the last technical descent on my way home. As soon as I arrived I measured the tire pressure and it was 19 psi. Maybe it just felt different than I am used to.
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I come from the old school high PSI road and bmx world so it took me awhile to understand it’s not only the tires, it’s also the tire pressures that are key. I’m a tad heavier than you and usually run 17f - 19r in faster XC races. Some of the fastest guys around run even lower (15psii). This is without inserts and on a tubeless setup.
It will feel odd and slower at first but I guarantee your times will be faster.
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I’m a big fan of Wolftooth’s.
It’s the only one that seems really close to what I’ve found on trail. For you (30 lbs of gear) it’s saying 17F/19R which seems bang on to me.
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