New Season, New Tires, New Thread

Any recommendations for some bikepacking tires on a hardtail? Buddy talked me into a loop that’s about 2/3 dirt road and 1/3 singletrack in Idaho this summer. 50ish mile days for five days. I’m thinking I want fast rolling and hard wearing, especially in the rear. Nothing super soft or with flimsy sidewalls. Basically I think I want big, tough XC tires. I’m currently considering specialized ground control rear and eliminator front as I’ve been happy with the eliminator/butcher combo on my trail bike.


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Vittoria mezcal in anthracite tnt casing is my go to bikepacking/gravel riding tire on the mtb. They are suprisingly durable and long lasting for the weight and very fast rolling. I do run a lightweight insert (usually a rimpact classic, adds around 90g) in the rear if I think I'll be doing any rocky terrain just due to the added weight from the bikepacking setup.

They run very very large as well, the 2.6 is about a 2.8 just fyi.

Cool I’ll check those out, the Geax Saguaro were my go-tos for endurance racing back in the day but that was over ten years ago.


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Originally Posted by rpearce1475

Vittoria mezcal in anthracite tnt casing is my go to bikepacking/gravel riding tire on the mtb. They are suprisingly durable and long lasting for the weight and very fast rolling. I do run a lightweight insert (usually a rimpact classic, adds around 90g) in the rear if I think I'll be doing any rocky terrain just due to the added weight from the bikepacking setup.

They run very very large as well, the 2.6 is about a 2.8 just fyi.

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This is a good suggestion.
New Tufo XC11 looks to be a great combination of Rolling (similar to Mezcal G+2.0) and Puncture Protection (sidewall much better than Mezcal) (per BicycleRollingResistance.com).

Race Kings are nice and fast rolling, I've had good luck with wear as well.

I'm trying Renegades for this summers bikepacking. I was tempted to go Fast Traks.

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Anyone else have this happen on Spec. Eliminator grid trail tires? A couple dozen rides on them and the outer knobs are all getting undercut and peeling off the casing. The first one happened on the second ride, patched and used a polyurethane based glue to fix it. Now it’s happening all over. Weird, last one I had lasted an incredibly long time. Wonder if I just got one from a bad batch?


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Is your Eliminator Grid Trail using the T7 or T9 compound?

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Originally Posted by hick

Attachment 494383
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Anyone else have this happen on Spec. Eliminator grid trail tires? A couple dozen rides on them and the outer knobs are all getting undercut and peeling off the casing. The first one happened on the second ride, patched and used a polyurethane based glue to fix it. Now it’s happening all over. Weird, last one I had lasted an incredibly long time. Wonder if I just got one from a bad batch?


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Pictures aren't working for me, but that seems unusual. I have a bunch of miles on multiple eliminators and I haven't had any issues like that. Specialized is pretty good about warranties on tires. Might be worth taking them to a specialized dealer and see if you can get them swapped out.

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T7, and I may give the warranty a shot. Good call. I just figured with tires, I’m screwed cause they’re a consumable wear item.


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Speaking of mezcals I got a set of the new ones. Now they call it a 2.4 instead of 2.25 or 2.35. Casing is 60tpi vs 120 and it's a new rubber compound. Which, on one hand, why did it get more expensive going from 4 compound to 1 and 120tpi to 60...? But hey it's new and supposedly faster, more durable than the old race tire, and has more grip. Not sure what their plan is with the xc-trail vs xc-race, maybe they'll eventually have a new "trail" version and phase out the lighter, thinner 120tpi older race tire.

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Looks slightly wider

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I'm a dork who weighs his tires- mine were 742g and I think 760, listed weight is 730. The 2.35 xc trail was around the same.

Seems to look alright on the hei hei

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Feels pretty fast, supple and smooth. The rubber is softer tthan the old version and coming from somewhat worn syerras the grip is about as good. They are thin but I rode them through some rocks and stuff last night pretty fast and they held up fine. It is an XC race tire though so obviously I do need to treat them like that. I do also have a vittoria air liner light in the rear wheel. I like it a little better than the tubolight sl, which tends to hold sealant up against the rim and constantly clogs up valves and valve stems. Probably should try fillmores or something one of these days.

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Originally Posted by hick

Attachment 494383
Attachment 494384
Anyone else have this happen on Spec. Eliminator grid trail tires? A couple dozen rides on them and the outer knobs are all getting undercut and peeling off the casing. The first one happened on the second ride, patched and used a polyurethane based glue to fix it. Now it’s happening all over. Weird, last one I had lasted an incredibly long time. Wonder if I just got one from a bad batch?


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I've had repeated rounds of weird luck with the grid trail eliminators with quick wear and easy punctures through the tread. I run the grid gravity now (used to run grid trail with an insert, now gravity with no insert so actually minimal weight difference) and prefer it overall.

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Originally Posted by hick

Attachment 494383
Attachment 494384
Anyone else have this happen on Spec. Eliminator grid trail tires? A couple dozen rides on them and the outer knobs are all getting undercut and peeling off the casing. The first one happened on the second ride, patched and used a polyurethane based glue to fix it. Now it’s happening all over. Weird, last one I had lasted an incredibly long time. Wonder if I just got one from a bad batch?


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That’s a feature. “Undercuts quickly just like the Maxxis Dissector tire you are replacing with Specialized”

[emoji12]

Good luck with warranty.
I’ve been pleased with the updated Grid Trail casings.

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Originally Posted by Abies

Any recommendations for some bikepacking tires on a hardtail? Buddy talked me into a loop that’s about 2/3 dirt road and 1/3 singletrack in Idaho this summer. 50ish mile days for five days. I’m thinking I want fast rolling and hard wearing, especially in the rear. Nothing super soft or with flimsy sidewalls. Basically I think I want big, tough XC tires. I’m currently considering specialized ground control rear and eliminator front as I’ve been happy with the eliminator/butcher combo on my trail bike.


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Mezcal Trail Casing 2.35 is my go-to for standard bikepacking(as well as general XC use, but Agarro 2.6 with light tire inserts is what I run when things get rowdy. The Agarros survived the Arizona Trail 800, which is about as rough a tire test as is possible. They still roll impressively fast.

Yep, I've had that happen with an Eliminator or two, as well as their T9 Butcher. That said, I've gone through their warranty dept a couple of times and they sent me a new one within a week. They'll likely insist that it's from wear and not a defect, but just make sure you mention it's happened before and you have friends who own Specialized tires with the same problem. They know it's an issue.

^^^Copy, will do! Ya, well aware of the short life span of the Dissectors, but I’m a sucker for a $30 tire:)


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I don't think i've read anything about the Maxxis severe so here you go

https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/revie...SkS2ErpZHtI6LA

Does gluing knobs on tires actualy work ?? It doesn't seem like it would last very long if you already ripped them off once ?

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Originally Posted by XXX-er

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Does gluing knobs on tires actualy work ?? It doesn't seem like it would last very long if you already ripped them off once ?

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Fuckin' Aquaseal, man - GOLDEN.

:fmicon:

I'm just gonna pop in to say that all the reviews saying Kryptotal are either hard to install or seat fully are full of it. Took -maybe- an extra 15 seconds of faffing to hook the bead on both sides compared to Maxis of similar construction. And Maxterra Assegai->Endurance Kypto is noticeably faster, but maybe that was obvious.

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Originally Posted by Huskier

I'm just gonna pop in to say that all the reviews saying Kryptotal are either hard to install or seat fully are full of it. Took -maybe- an extra 15 seconds of faffing to hook the bead on both sides compared to Maxis of similar construction. And Maxterra Assegai->Endurance Kypto is noticeably faster, but maybe that was obvious.

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What rim did you put it on & how many rims did you try it on ?

thats the thing with the maxxis product, a high degree of quality and so they are easy to instal

Anyone tried the Bontrager Gunnison or Montrose?

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Originally Posted by natebob

Anyone tried the Bontrager Gunnison or Montrose?

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I'm still waiting for the Bontrager Limon to drop

The gunnison is the XR4 tread with a new name. I can't say for sure if the casing or rubber are new or different or not. It could just be XR4 and SE4 with nothing else changed, or not.

Montrose is a fairly new tread, the XT3, that was going on marlins and such mostly as a cheap wire bead tire but they have nicer versions now.

I don't really get what trek is trying to do with tires as one year they're all pushing their in house stuff and then suddenly last year they're selling pirellis and having the pro team ride them and now they're back to bontrager with some new stuff. Working at a trek shop the tires are really cheap for me, buuut i still haven't tried any yet.

I still can't believe they named a tire the Montrose. It better be good at blasting blown out moto trails full of baby heads.

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Originally Posted by XXX-er

What rim did you put it on & how many rims did you try it on ?

thats the thing with the maxxis product, a high degree of quality and so they are easy to instal

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Stans flow S2. Dumbdumb rims. TBH they felt just as quality as the Maxxis I put on the rear. Maybe moreso with their trippy textured sidewalls. Endurance compound is pretty hard though.

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how well a tire goes on rims is pretty important

So the maxxix have always gone on super easy

no compressor or 1 shot pump needed