Calling all crossers! I am very excited to be getting a pair of CX tubulars for Christmas. Now I just need to decide which tires to mount. It certainly makes sense to mount an all conditions tire to the tubs and then leave any very specific tires for clincher duty. However, tubs are (in my mind) so superior to clinchers for CX applications, I would hate to be in a situation where I had a big race coming up and the conditions called for me to use my clinchers. Since I live in the great PNW, many of my big races will be wet and muddy (12 races so far this year, five muddy, seven very dry in what has been an abnormally dry season). I’m also not the most confident person when going through greasy corners, so I’d rather sacrifice some hardpack speed for grippier cornering. So I’d like to move more to the mud side of the tire spectrum for the tubs. If there were some sort of scale where 0 was basically a road tire and 100 was a pure mud tire, I’d like something around a 75.
Right now I’m running the Limus clinchers. Great in mud, a little slow on pavement/hard stuff. I’ve been checking out the Limus, the Fango, and the Grifo from Challenge, and the new Specialized Terra. I’d love to get Rhinos, but I can’t quite stomach $250 per set when the Limus’ (Limi?) can be had for $160 per set. Any other suggestions? Any opinions on these? I’m getting them in the next week or so and then gluing them up for my last race of the season.
Ah, you beat me to it! Yeah, I had good luck with the PDX’s this year - very predictible in the greasy stuff and roll quite fast on the hardpack.
I have these mounted on my clinchers and tubulars. The clinchers are converted tubeless, and they are also quite nice. The tubulars are superior though.
Since I occasionally bug Kurt (trukweaz) with my cx questions, I’d do whatever he says. The clements are not cheap but I believe their sidewalls are already treated so you wouldn’t have to seal them as you would with a Dugast or FMB.
Ooh, that’s interesting, I hadn’t considered those. Just read some reviews and the PDX is sounding like exactly what I want. Can you compare suppleness/ride quality to the handmade offerings of challenge/dugast/fmb /etc?
Ooh, that’s interesting, I hadn’t considered those. Just read some reviews and the PDX is sounding like exactly what I want. Can you compare suppleness/ride quality to the handmade offerings of challenge/dugast/fmb /etc?
Thanks!!!
Unfortunately I haven’t had the privilege to try any of the uber supple euro casings, so I can’t compare. I do think you should give them a try though, as I don’t remember them being too expensive (I did get mine through my club likely around cost though).
Just got the Challenge Griffo’s this season and if feels like my tires have a coat of glue on them even in the wet conditions they’ve worked great for me. I think you’ll be good with any of the choices you have listed, have seen good results with all of them around here in similar conditions.
Good deal, thanks, I think I’m going to check them out. $130 per tire is a little spendy, but biketiresdirect.com has 15% off until Tuesday at midnight, so that makes things a little more reasonable.
I have used Dugast for many years, and still own 2 pairs of Rhinos, 2 pairs of Typhoon and a pair of Pippistrello. as far as absolute suppleness, they cannot be beat. You do lose a little when you aquaseal the sidewall but it’s minimal.
The beauty of the PDX will be : very straight and round tire (Dugast and FMB tend to have small inconsistencies), sealed sidewall, tubeless so you can use a sealant without degrading the tube.
Oh man, that sucks. The first year I was there there wasn’t a flake of snow until we got 21 inches on valentines day. Not great for the ski crowd, I hope you don’t have that this year. Are you going to Madison for CX nats?
One more question. Tufo road tires are pretty widely reviled for their terrible rolling resistance. Why are the Clements (made by tufo) not?
no Nats or Worlds for me. Wore myself thin last year. Already hung’um up for the year.
CrR is of little concern in cross. at 23psi it is through the rough (on the road). You want the right knob pattern and suppleness through bumps/routes etc.