WHAT GOES ROUND

Vive la difference: Tires can make such a tremendous difference in how a bike rides, performs, behaves and handles... Its surprising, actually. The first thing that we were struck with is the evolution to bigger MTB tires. Many of the premiere European tire brands have decided to take a stand and explain why more volume is better, even for weight-weenie racing types: "Wide tires offer more control, more comfort and more fun. While this has become more widely accepted over the past few years..." Read more about this evolution here.

Brands we carry: We carry primarily Kenda, Maxxis, Vredestein, Schwalbe, Intense and Michelin tires... with the odd exception. All the tires we stock, we stock for a reason.

Hard to pronounce but oh-so good: We started shifting our product offering a little while ago after sampling some tremendous product from some unpronounceable European brands such as Vredestein and Schwalbe... Simply look at these tires, you can see the quality ooze from them. They last twice as long as some of the more known brands and they ride phenomenally. (Again with the superlatives.) We test most of them before we decide to stock them. We have a tire demo program that we encourage customers and staff to take advantage of. If there is a tire you'd like to try just let one of us know. If it's in our demo program it yours to test for 24 hours for the low price of $20 per pair (half of which is refundable if you purchase a pair of tires with a combined value of more than $60). It's a unique program that might just be the ticket for those of you on the fence. Remember, not all models and sizes are available.

Here's an ongoing log of the tires in our demo fleet:

SHWALBE BIG BETTY
My all-time favorite tire. Not cheap but just plain good. Running through the highly technical Pine Ridge trail at Falcon Trails blew me away. My benchmark up to this point for a 2.4-ish tire was the Kenda Nevegal and Blue Groove combo. The aptly named Big Betty's surpass that set-up if only because of the fact that after a 3/4 of a year on them they're showing hardly and wear at all... and because of the fact that in their non-gooey version (the one I tried last summer) the tire semed to match the super-grip that the Kenda's offer.

I have already installed a gooey set for 2007 and I'll report back on how they run later on in the season.

KENDA NEVEGAL and BLUE-GROOVE
Never thought a tire would make such a difference to my riding until I weaned myself off of Specialized tires (thank goodness) onto something called a Kenda Blue Groove and Nevegal a few years ago. Wow... what grip, what flexibility and what comfort... I have owned 2.35's and 2.5's and both were superlative in their ability to climb and grab onto wet rock... perfectly suited to my slow climbing style, they were my high water-mark. Then I went out to the desert and tested Ellsworth bikes with several types of tires... Liked some of the tires, hated a few... (Kenda Cortez, Ritchey Motovaders) loved only two: The before-mentioned Kenda Nevegals and Blue Grooves and the Maxxis Minions and Advantages (more on those later on down here). The big thing around here was matching the Blue Groove to the Nevegal... The latter on the rear with the Blue Groove in the front... the justification being that the BG is smoother when laid on its side... Although my propensity would now be to put a Nevegal on the front as well for more lateral grip. These tires are simply put hero makers... especially in the Kevlar bead variety... Light, sticky... they make anyone feel safe, secure and firmly planted. Put a set under a Jamis XLT and you have THE bike for the rider looking to make giant leaps forward in MTB'ing. I score them a 8.5 because I value grip and technical climbing ability over speed.

MAXXIS ADVANTAGE
I started the season with a set of Maxxis Advantages, a tire described by Maxxis this way: "Alison Dunlap designed the ADvantage as a high-volume, aggressive cross country tire that corners great on big side-knobs. It also climbs and brakes with authority thanks to the opposing parallelogram centre tread design. Ramped centre knobs keep rolling resistance minimal and the wide lug-spacing sheds mud easily." I also read in some of Maxxis' ads that they were the 'ultimate' climb to the top of the hill and then let a bit of air out and hammer downhill... My experience with that tire would support that claim... Plus the fact that this tire has an outer diameter that's roughly 1.5 cm's larger than the Kenda Nevegal... With all the advantages (faster, rolls over more stuff) and disadvantages (tight to fit in some frames, heavy-ish) that come with a larger diameter tire. All in all I'd call it faster and better wearing than the Nevegal. I score them an 7.5 because while some people have become better riders (like Catherine) on this tire, I took a slight step back.

MAXXIS MINION
The second set of Maxxis tires I liked were the MINION. I rode these in the desert in Vegas and previously at Panorama... Two more different setting you could not imagine. Regardless, these tires excelled in both situations. A fast tire that really needs to be ridden at speed to be fully appreciated, The Maxxis Minion is after all a DH tire. Rocky specs it on their most excellent Slayer family. The tire comes in front and rear configurations and never misses a step in the lose stuff... The rear just dug in and offered a nice smooth transition from locked-in to sliding out. At warp nine, under an RMX, they are my tire of choice, unflappable... in the rear. The front was less than excellent, it is worth noting is how narrow this tire feels for a 2.35 tire... and no, there is no bigger size available. Not a bad thing for most applications, unless you're used to more meaty tires like some of us are... a 2.5 would be just about perfect. I score it a 7.5 in the front a 8.5 in the rear.

VREDESTEIN KILLER BEES
My latest rubber fling is called "Killer Bee". It's from a Netherlands-based company awkwardly called Vredestein (I can't pronounce it either). They are, like Maxxis, a full-line tire company that produces tires for cars, trucks and all kind of wheeled devices http://www.vredestein.com/. Other than the fact that these tires had a very cool name ("Killer Bees" how cool is that?), I knew nothing of these guys... Oh yeah, I did know that they made some sweet road tires. Out of the box Dave D. and I were marveling at how beautiful the workmanship on this tire was, how perfect the tread blocks were... Super-high quality product throughout.

I sold 3 sets of these low-knobbed 2.4 tires to my buddy Darcey for his 25th anniversary Blizzard just before he moved to Bermuda (or is the Bahamas? I always get those two mixed up) They feature this wacky tread pattern that looks like oddly spaced honeycomb... I thought they would be a good all-around tire for the types of conditions I imagined he'd be riding on that island (I had no clue... thankfully it turns out he loves them). So when I was looking at my upcoming ride to Spruce Woods and wondering if I should take out the Maxxis tires out again I tripped over these black and yellow-boxed things... they did say 2.4 on them... and they were kinda odd looking... So onto the Norco EXC 2.0 they went. And whoa! and did they ever go! I can't remember a tire other than the Nevegals that impacted me so much. Crazy fast, lots of grip on single track (surprising to say the least), nice floatation on sand and super stable and predictable. I don't remember when was the last time I allowed my bike to lean into a turn so much. Nice tire, unfortunately being phases out... Grab a set while you still can. I score these a 9 for urban riding, 7.5 for Epics... provided it's not muddy.

On deck for testing we have a bunch of new Intense tires, Vredesteins, a few Schwalbes and a Kenda or two... Check back soon for more.