I didn't mind the ikons, but last time around I tried an ardent race up front hoping for a little more grip. That was not really the improvement I was hoping for, I think because of the minimal transition knobs. With a high seat post XC bike and racey tires, you spend a good amount of time in that part of the tread and it's hard to get the bike fully leaned over onto the cornering knobs. For me at least. I might just suck at riding. So my plan was to try something with a little more even spacing like a continental x-king, schwalbe rocket ron, etc. My understanding is that a well defined set of edge knobs does give more outright grip when you are on them, but you have to get there first.
Eventually I decided to try the schwalbes, and wanted to go with a rocket ron up front, which has even knob spacing, and a racing ralph rear, which seems a a little lower profile down the center.
I had my cart ready to check out at a german website, which offer the nice evo line schwalbes at way less than they cost here, but I waited a little too long to order. I wasn't sure how long it would take (weeks? a month or longer?), and wanted tires sooner rather than later, so I decided to just order locally. However, even with my discount at Missoula Bicycle Works, those $92 msrp tires were a little more than I wanted to spend. The high price of mtb tires (and other bike tires in general), makes no sense to me. It's absurd. And don't get me started on the price of a whole bicycle...
Moving on, Schwalbe does make less expensive tires, in their "performance" line. This year they are officially tubeless ready, have a new "addix" rubber compound, and "only" cost me $50 a piece. $50 a tire I guess I can live with, and I had a goal of trying out something more budget friendly with an msrp of under $70 (which leaves you pretty limited when looking for a tubeless ready XC tire). You can get x-kings in the $40-50 range, and I also looked at the michelin force xc, but decided to go with the original plan.
Hey look new tires. QBP didn't have the rocket ron in the performance/addix/tr version so I just have racing ralphs front and rear. Maybe later this summer I'll try to order one, or go with a nobby nic to get a little more grip once the xc races are over.
The evo line racing ralphs, with the snakeskin casing in 29x2.25, are listed at something like 630g. For some reason I didn't look closely to see what the performance line was supposed to be, and later found a claimed weight of 735g. Ouch, over 200g extra weight there. Then I went and put them on scales.
Ouch again. That's a little more weight than I wanted to add to my bike. My previous tires had listed weights of 670 and 740g, so the actual weight difference is in the 150g range. But maybe that will improve durability, as my 120 tpi 3c/exo/tr ikon didn't seem very tough.
On the plus side, it's new tires. They were fairly inexpensive, and they popped onto the bead and setup tubeless right away with no hassles on my easton ea70xct ust rims. They don't even need tape- install tire, add sealant, add air, go ride.
Then I checked the width and found more disappointment
These are supposed to be 2.25" wide. But, I don't have new fancy wide wheels. They are 24mm external width, so that's what, 20mm internal? And they are new, so maybe I'll get a little stretch after awhile. But an extra 1/4 inch doesn't seem likely. The previous tires, listed at 2.2, also measured smaller, so this isn't anything new.
And here's how worn out my ikon was. I think I'm going to notice an improvement
In conclusion, they were well priced and easy to install, but heavier, and narrower than claimed. Now I just need to go ride them and see how they feel, roll and grip. There is still a lot of snow out there so I'm getting anxious to hit the trails.
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