I may have a couple for him. I think I dislike them intensely because they won’t stay inflated tubeless.
That’s my dilemma. 27.5 x 2.0 is getting really rare. I see some Race kings but the are the turdly one. I have been using a spez fastrak as my goto but they all gone now.
Vittoria just launched some revamped gravel 650bs. But not made in the finest casings.
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If Schwalbe stops making the 650b 2.1 Thunderburt I might have to sell my NFE.
Should I be stocking up?
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I have some bad news for you; R2-Bike said “production has ceased” but did not clarify if temporary as in the recent past or permanent.
If you can find them now would be the time, but it seems they’re out of stock most places.
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Dang.
I signed up to be notified if they ever restock them.
What does a well-used NFE go for these day?
A third tire size has entered the chat
Clearly fake, and amusingly 642 is 700A.
How much of this is because the Pinkbike April Fool’s article has poisoned the LLM models?
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Terravail has the 27.5x2.1 Rutland for $35 now. Might have to buy for when the Thunder Burts die.
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I just sold my NFE. It was mostly due to how good my ATB did the kind of riding I like to do, but vanishing tires made the decision much easier.
For what it’s worth the Continental Contact Urbans are great. They come in a million sizes including 27.5”. They’re ugly with a reflective strip, wire bead, and seem turdly, but are actually really fast and comfortable. And I’ve heard of multiple people setting them up tubeless if you’re into that. The only thing is they run hecka small so size up. My 2.5” are 2.3” on 25mm rims, and I’ve had 50mm blow up 47mm.
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From the first hand reports of how hard Challenge tires are to get mounted, I was woefully unprepared.
I managed to get the beads onto the rims with the help of the Cushcore marital aid. The compressor couldn’t seat the beads, though. I’m going to let them sit overnight then hit them with the compressor again.
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“Always a Challenge”
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Yeah, that’s why when Heath gave me the tires (and one happened to be the one with the hole, not two new ones), i didn’t want to change them (or move the front to the rear). Rear was so damn hard to get on the rim. And now front has never really likely staying inflated or on the bead seat after i patched it.
Specialized Sawtooth to Stans-licensed Breezer rim is a motherfucker. Broke my BeadJack.
Panaracer GK slicks in 48s?
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The GKs kind of fit the bill. I jumped on the cheap Teravails that @Dickason_Daniel linked. I like the little bit of tread on Thunder Burts and how surprisingly fast (for a 2.1 tire) they feel on the road. Hopefully they’ll start making them again.
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Someone recently bought an inflator and had a good experience (@Timarchylime ?). My little pancake compressor couldn’t seat these tires, so I bought a Milkit inflator. I’m glad I did that instead of using CO2 carts, because I probably would have spent the same amount. I don’t remember if we have a science teacher here, but the inflator is a good example of thermal dynamics or the universal gas law. I froze one of the valve stems at one point.
Each wheel took three hits with 160 psi to get the beads to be close enough. I gambled with adding sealant to get them the rest of the way, because there was a nonzero chance of the bead popping off. Maybe it’s the combination of the Strada and the wider rim? They’re only 22 mm inner. ¯\(º_o)/¯
The back tire isn’t perfectly aligned with the hot patch, but it’s not going anywhere. I’ve got 60 psi in each tire to soak overnight.
I got one of those and immediately broke the metal water bottle I tried to use it with. Also may have broken the inflator. I don’t remember as this was almost 10 years ago.
I also have those tires and they refuse to stay inflated.
I bought a schwalbe one a bunch of years ago and used it with good results for a while. More recently I’ve been using the topeak pump with the blaster tank built in. Haven’t met a tire I can’t seat yet. But I’ve exclusively been working with 50mm and under tires.
I wonder how much higher the peak tire pressure is than the equilibrium pressure for those systems where you open a valve and dump a bunch of air in