Mild knobs are great for that purpose. I used to swap on Burts for big rides that were going to be majority off-pavement.
You should ask @EndpointBraden how they compare to the Challenge Strada Bianca that I linked above which comes in a similar sizeway.
Given my experience with reens and Challenge tires on tubeless setups, I suspect the latter is way better.
My standards for ease of use are clearly quite low. As I understand it, Braden suggests the IRC as the fastest non-reen tire. Is this correct @EndpointBraden ?
I wasnāt really impressed with the Boken Plus. Heavier than advertised and didnāt feel particularly fast - not awesome grip. I think itās average with a lot of other 650bx1.9 tires.
1 Like
Ok @halbritt i am impressed with the weight!
https://r2-bike.com/CHALLENGE-Tire-Strada-Bianca-275-650B-x-46-TLR-black-brown Thatās like 100+ grams less than the irc
2 Likes
Just to be clear, the Challenge tire not only works better than a reen tubeless, I suspect youāll get more souplesse out of 'em.
Get me into the best $30-40 tires
Order from Germany
2 Likes
I only put a few rides on them before swapping back to the 700c wheels for the season, but I thought they were pretty darn zippy. I wish I could convince the Bicycle Rolling Resistance Guy to just let me send him 650x47/48 tires from IRC, Vittoria, Maxxis and WTB so this can be settled once and for all. Ride quality is somewhat underwhelming, but that being said so were the GP5k TL tires and they are ripping fast.
RH is funny because it certainly feels pretty fast but all the independent testing shows them quite a bit slower than similar tires.
If the Challenge tires came in a 48 Iād probably just get those. But they donāt. Maybe somebody will come out with something cool by the time I get around lacing up some new 650b wheels for the Coffee Grinder.
Now that I think about itā¦ you all should email that guy and ask him to test more 650b tires and in a few weeks Iāll email him and offer to send some.
3 Likes
Alsoā¦ @igor when are we going to see a VO tire? Or should we just team up and order some Panaracer tires with their best rubber and casing and whatever bead they used for UST tires?
10 Likes
is the 46mm wide Challenge really noticeably narrower than everyone elseās 47mm or RHās 48mm?
because my RH SBHs donāt have a ton of life left in them, and now that everyoneās talking about the Challenge Strada Biancaā¦
Maybe @heath can pull out the calipers and confirm. This is purely anecdotal, but anything smaller than 48 just feels weird when swapping from 700c. Something magic about that circumference and how the bike behaves maybe?
Good point about width. Just measured my geriatric COMPASS switchback hill and it is at 50mm. New Schwalbe G(one) comes in at just over 47.
Crustydamus aka Lowcash aka that guy that got wasted in Richmond and rode bikes with me briefly has inspired me to find the box of Rene Herse tires I pulled off the wall a few months back and offer them up for sale here for cost plus shipping for any of you who want to take themā¦ stay tuned.
11 Likes
Sup
3 Likes
VO tire aint gon happen anytime soon. All the tire makers are flat out and dont have any capacity unless we want to wait like 2 yrs not including prototyping. As much as i liked the idea of it, the reality of the number of skus, space, time, sunk cost, and more recently tire/rim interface litigation and compatibility is rather anxiety inducing.
11 Likes
Better to put that effort into a hydro rim brake, right?
7 Likes
If you donāt mind sharing, whatās the backstory here? I know JH is idiosyncratic but Iām not up on issues with the business itself.
A VO x Endpoint/Outpost 650x46.66 is a Panaracer tire Iād actually buy.
6 Likes