Bill Marshall hooked me up with a few new Challenge Tires last week. I haven’t had a chance to mount them up, but off the bike they look great.
The new Limus ‘Cross tires are pretty exciting. I’m pretty sick of Dugast tires. Super expensive and they don’t last even if you baby them. Challenge tires are exactly the opposite. Not so expensive and they are hardy. I don’t agree about the tires being mud specific. I’ve never been depressed with too much tread in a cyclo-x. I’m kind of like Tim Johnson in that respect. He seems to ride a lot of tread, no matter what the event. The tread of the Limus tire is incredibly deep. If they hook up like they look, it will be my tire of choice for the season.
I also got a couple 24mm road tubulars. I’ve been interested in riding bigger profile tires ever since I read this year about many of the Pro teams in Europe riding them because of a reduced rolling resistance. I’m into the cornering aspect though. I know that when I was racing Fatboy Criteriums, the 1.25 tires were incredible for corning. I don’t know why it would be any different going from 21 to a 24. Challenge makes a 27mm race tire. It will be fun trying them out.
UCI max width at 33mm.
Pretty agressive tread.
Nice weight for so much rubber.
This is a 24mm road tire. Perfect for criterium racing. I should have put them on for last weekend's race I guess.
hmm a 27mm road tubular? thanks for the tip (from a guy who races 25c clinchers all year)
I read an interview with Andy Hampsten in a local paper out here (Denver area) and he suggested that most of us (including racers) should be riding 25s, especially if we’re on mountain roads – for comfort and stability and no discernible loss of speed. It seems the age of the 18-21 mm tires is fast becoming history, along with bio-pace chainrings (though there are new versions of those making the rounds – no pun intended)
Yeah, Andy has been riding “fat” tires for a while now. For comfort, but also for the convience of being able to go anywhere on the same bike without switching out equipment. Not a bad way to roll.
Will be racing for KCCX this year? I know that you have in the past.
Not sure if Continental still makes the 240 tubular but I remember when I was racing that was one of the best tires out there – can race it with 150 psi no problem with corning with it’s profile.
Andy’s brother Steve has a company that specializes in all-road bikes: http://www.hampsten.com/
Top notch stuff, so say those in the know.
I’m running 23s on wide clincher rims and the difference is amazing. Way more cornering rubber, same tire.
Jim-I know Andy’s brother and am familiar with Hampsten Cycles. Great bikes.
It is amazing how much different a bicycle can ride with switching up the tires. Or the same tires and switching the rims, as you point out. Ellsworth has done that, widened the rim, with some of their MTB wheels and they ride incredibly different/better.
I think Steve Hed is responsible for the recent resurgence in fatter rims. They’d existed before but never caught on. Legend has it he did the math, sent his wheels w/tires mounted to the Continental testing lab. Those guys said, WTF they’ll be slower, let’s run the test anyway….and the opposite came out. The tires are so wide on mtbs anyway it makes sense to bring out the rim width.
I used to run a Klein Rascal set up as a fat boy crit machine because I didn’t have a road bike. The new tech makes it much easier for me to expend energy in a more focused way, less fighting the bike. Good thing, because I have way less of it.