Ok, so I've been on a prototype mountain hybrid for about 3 months now. Thought it might be time to write a review of the tire. The tires are here in the states now and should be available any day now last I heard. Price will be $98.99. The only size available will be 120/100-18.
Bikes tested on:
1996 Husqvarna WXC 410
2008 KTM XC 300
If you are a trials tire rider you will instantly notice the mountain hybrid is not a standard trials tire. The sidewalls are stiffer and there are actually side knobs to allow cornering. If you are not a trials tire guy/gal then at first glance the tire looks pretty much like a basic trials tire.
There were 3 compounds of this tire made for the prototype stage. I have the hard compound. The production tire is the soft compound so performance will likely be a little different than what I found. In talking with another tester who has tried them both it sounds like the differences are minimal though. Most of my riding with the tire has been in dry desert type terrain. Sand washes, hard pack gravely 2 track and very rocky loose hill climbs are where I have spent most of my time with this tire.
First off, the pro's. The tire mounts pretty easily. You won't be doing tire changes just for the fun of it, but it is slightly easier to mount than a standard tire in my opinion. Slow technical riding with loose rocks is where this tire loves to live. More than once I found myself bushwacking through the giggle weeds straight up a hill covered in loose volcanic rock just because I could. Stuff that with a standard knobby would require a good amount of momentum, and lots of tire spinning I was able to climb up at whatever pace I felt like. If you can keep the motor running this tire will most likely find traction and keep climbing. Fanning the clutch to keep the power right in the nice predictable spot I was climbing rocky hillsides I wouldn't even consider with a standard tire. If there is a downside to this aspect of the tire it is that it allows you to ride into situations where your skill level might not be able to keep up with the terrain.
On your average trail that consists of a variety of obstacles I felt the tire fell more in line with a standard knobby. Loose rocks, wet rocks, roots, wet roots and other tricky trail hazards the tire will handle better than a standard tire. Mud, snow and sand the tire falls a little behind a regular knobby in my opinion. Overall handling of the tire is pretty predictable. It corners well. It hooks up pretty much everywhere. Rarely does it break traction unpredictably.
The downsides to the tire are that it doesn't hook up in sand as well as a regular tire. It seems to want to float on top of the sand and spin rather than dig in and go. You can get up to speed and go ok with it, but you never get that feeling of thrust you get from a standard knobby. Braking in sand is also a downside. The knobs seem to pack up with sand allowing the tire to just slide along the top of the ground. The bad sand characteristics seem to be amplified as your speed increases. Mud is a bit of a grey area for this tire. If you are riding just after a small rain shower and the mud is just a thin layer over dry dirt then the tire handles it just fine. But, if we're talking about deep mucky mud then I'd much rather have a standard knobby.
In my testing I felt that the tire likes medium to low speed type riding. 1st to 3rd gear type. Slow technical stuff is where this tire impressed me the most. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with this tires ability to climb steep, loose rocky hills. As speeds increased my opinion became more muddled. 5th gear wide open trails had me second guessing things with this tire. It never steps out or does anything bad. It just has a different feeling compared to a knobby. At 60mph through the chico bushes I prefer the known feeling of a knobby. I doubt this will become a race tire for me. The weird different feeling at speed is enough to make me shy away from racing this tire. If I were to enter an extreme enduro type event like KOM or Erzberg then yes, I would choose this tire in a heart beat. I will end up using this tire for casual rides with buddies, exploring new trails and deep gnar gnar stuff. For racing, or rides where I know the speeds will be higher I will be going back to a knobby.
I stalled out on a steep hillside trying to find the limits of this tire and the result was me tumbling down the hill for a bit. The camera in my camelbak got a little smushed in the process so I only have a few pics.
Bikes tested on:
1996 Husqvarna WXC 410
2008 KTM XC 300
If you are a trials tire rider you will instantly notice the mountain hybrid is not a standard trials tire. The sidewalls are stiffer and there are actually side knobs to allow cornering. If you are not a trials tire guy/gal then at first glance the tire looks pretty much like a basic trials tire.
There were 3 compounds of this tire made for the prototype stage. I have the hard compound. The production tire is the soft compound so performance will likely be a little different than what I found. In talking with another tester who has tried them both it sounds like the differences are minimal though. Most of my riding with the tire has been in dry desert type terrain. Sand washes, hard pack gravely 2 track and very rocky loose hill climbs are where I have spent most of my time with this tire.
First off, the pro's. The tire mounts pretty easily. You won't be doing tire changes just for the fun of it, but it is slightly easier to mount than a standard tire in my opinion. Slow technical riding with loose rocks is where this tire loves to live. More than once I found myself bushwacking through the giggle weeds straight up a hill covered in loose volcanic rock just because I could. Stuff that with a standard knobby would require a good amount of momentum, and lots of tire spinning I was able to climb up at whatever pace I felt like. If you can keep the motor running this tire will most likely find traction and keep climbing. Fanning the clutch to keep the power right in the nice predictable spot I was climbing rocky hillsides I wouldn't even consider with a standard tire. If there is a downside to this aspect of the tire it is that it allows you to ride into situations where your skill level might not be able to keep up with the terrain.
On your average trail that consists of a variety of obstacles I felt the tire fell more in line with a standard knobby. Loose rocks, wet rocks, roots, wet roots and other tricky trail hazards the tire will handle better than a standard tire. Mud, snow and sand the tire falls a little behind a regular knobby in my opinion. Overall handling of the tire is pretty predictable. It corners well. It hooks up pretty much everywhere. Rarely does it break traction unpredictably.
The downsides to the tire are that it doesn't hook up in sand as well as a regular tire. It seems to want to float on top of the sand and spin rather than dig in and go. You can get up to speed and go ok with it, but you never get that feeling of thrust you get from a standard knobby. Braking in sand is also a downside. The knobs seem to pack up with sand allowing the tire to just slide along the top of the ground. The bad sand characteristics seem to be amplified as your speed increases. Mud is a bit of a grey area for this tire. If you are riding just after a small rain shower and the mud is just a thin layer over dry dirt then the tire handles it just fine. But, if we're talking about deep mucky mud then I'd much rather have a standard knobby.
In my testing I felt that the tire likes medium to low speed type riding. 1st to 3rd gear type. Slow technical stuff is where this tire impressed me the most. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with this tires ability to climb steep, loose rocky hills. As speeds increased my opinion became more muddled. 5th gear wide open trails had me second guessing things with this tire. It never steps out or does anything bad. It just has a different feeling compared to a knobby. At 60mph through the chico bushes I prefer the known feeling of a knobby. I doubt this will become a race tire for me. The weird different feeling at speed is enough to make me shy away from racing this tire. If I were to enter an extreme enduro type event like KOM or Erzberg then yes, I would choose this tire in a heart beat. I will end up using this tire for casual rides with buddies, exploring new trails and deep gnar gnar stuff. For racing, or rides where I know the speeds will be higher I will be going back to a knobby.
I stalled out on a steep hillside trying to find the limits of this tire and the result was me tumbling down the hill for a bit. The camera in my camelbak got a little smushed in the process so I only have a few pics.
