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I impulse-bought a set of the same, despite trying and hating the Albert. Glad to hear the tread works well on CO trails. I’m hoping I can pin down the right tire pressure with a bracketing session or two. I also felt the Albert was super squirmy on hardpack (and didn’t bite into loose-over-hard enough to be viable here in kitty litter town), but I hadn’t considered it was the cornering lug design that could be to blame for that. I figured it was the casing, but you bringing up the cornering lugs reminded me that I also loathe the WTB Trail Boss for that exact same feeling and that was with a bog-standard bias-ply casing.
Did Niko just win Sea Otter on Aspens??
sure looks like it!
chatting w/ him a fair bit before the race, he figured rolling speed was the biggest factor in doing well at sea otter. the side knobs of the aspen were "good enough for the corners" (large contact patch seemed to hold well) and the only sketch braking on the track was really short (after the uphill). apparently the strategy worked.
A 32 aspen!
I just rode the new one in some mixed PNW conditions and it was very good. This will be my go to Schwalbe rear moving forward.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone who found the MM & Albert too squirmy but tries the TC Radial in Trail casing & finds it supportive enough. I'm going to try and get out on the Gravity version I bought this coming weekend, but assuming I like it on my ebike, I'd like to have a lighter option for my trail bike.
I've tried both the MM and TC radials in trail versions. The cornering knobs on the TC are definitely stiffer. I feel like more of the squirm on the MM comes from those siped cornering knobs. But I'm not particularly heavy (170 lbs) and ride in mostly soft conditions so probably don't experience this as much as heavier riders do.
I was just thinking the same thing. Idk if it's just the corner knobs or casing but the 2.5 mm radial trail feels pretty squirmy. I can hear the knobs snap. For fast aggressive riding I think I prefer a heavier non radial casing.
Wicked Will/ Addix Soft or Speed Grip Rear / Romy trail /radial /soft or Mid /rear or front / Albert Super trail pro Addix soft or super soft front or rear
What PSI? I run 28-30psi in the rear never felt a squirm on either radial casing but they fold over suddenly if I run less. If you want a super damped feeling tire the new gravity pros feel very close to a DH, or just get some Contis. I always found super gravity of the old to be a springy feeling tire, same with a DD.
With the MM radial in both trail and gravity, I think was running 22/25 f/r (only weigh 155 lbs though). Tried going higher and they got really boingy, especially the trail. With Conti DH, I run 19/22, and don't find them to be damp feeling, just stiff/supportive. Maxxis DD feels good and damp to me and I run them 0.5-1 psi higher than Conti DH. For rockier areas I add 2 psi to both those.
I was watching a video from Loam Wolf from Sea Otter where they talked to all the tire vendors, and I noticed that for all the new entrants to the radial market, ALL of them were only launching with gravity casings. One of them (I think Delium) specifically said that they needed the gravity casing to not make the radial fold. I wonder how true that is with some of the others (e*13, Specialized), or how much of it is just limitations of time to market, cost to open new SKUs, and perceived market/audience of trail casing vs. gravity. On the last point, I'd actually guess they sell more trail casing tires than gravity, but that's just a guess.
I got a good ride in on the Tacky Chan Gravity Pro. These finally are the radials for me. They roll fast, brake well, dig into loose dirt, and don't squirm on hardpack or smashing berms. In the new Grav Pro casing, the radial effect seems less than when I tried the Albert or MM, but I think that's for the better. They feel kinda slightly more muted than a normal casing most of the time, but if you hit roots they conform really well rather than pinging off. Really pushing hard into berms or loose corners, they deform and grip better the harder you push. At the same time, they're still fun to ride - the rear still is pretty easy to drift into corners before it hooks up. Looking at these side by side next to my other bike which has a HR3 & DHR2 on it (other favorite tires of mine), I see why I like the new TC. It's got similarly big side knobs to the HR3 with similar knob spacing, but the pattern is similar to the DHR2. I like them enough that I'm going to give the Trail Pro version a try on my Bronson, as I don't really want to be pedaling 1,300g+ tires on it for long rides, even if it is fast rolling. The Grav Pro is fine on the ebike.
Did you try it as front or just rear?
And with which tyre as the combo on the other side?
Have had a couple of rides on the new Romy in the 29" Gravity Pro soft flavour in the rear and I really like it!
The new gravity casing is notably stiffer than the old Gravity Albert I was using, was pushing as hard as I could into corners and it felt super stable and supportive. Feels like it rolls really nicely, but with the chunky corner nobs and a nice transition with the centre knobs I have no complaints tipping it into corners.
Tested with the MM trail ultra soft and Albert trail soft fronts and my preference is still the MM up front, even in super hard pack conditions. Can't say I notice the squirm on the front and it just feels like it grips really nicely and the side knobs feel like they match well with the Romy in the back. Honestly not sure on the Albert as a front tyre, just doesn't feel as nice as the MM in any conditions.
Quite keen to try the Tacky Chan too but I have many tyres to get through before adding some new ones, lol. Gj Schwalbe!
The Albert will be inferior to the Mary if you use a softer compound on the Mary, that’s for sure. I think on hardpack the albert is better, but as an allrounder I‘d always choose the Mary which is good enough on hardpack and very good everywhere else
Yeah I appreciate the compound differences but I'm more talking about feel tbh. For me the MM corners better, feels like a smoother transition when leaning the bike over.
Either way, just have more confidence and as it just seems to work in all conditions I'm more than happy to just leave it on there.
Tacky Chan front & rear, Gravity Pro for both. Ultra Soft front, Soft rear.
Having tried the TC in the rear, Gravity/Soft, the take that makes sense in my mind... the new stiffer gravity casing seems to support the sidewall more which allows the radical tread to flex and do its thing, rather than with the previous gravity casing which itself would flex rather then the tread.
Ok, just did a ride on the new Tacky Chan Trail Pro Softs. I used the Wolf Tooth pressure calculator as an initial start, which rounded to 29 PSI rear, 26 PSI front. (For reference, I’m 220lb with kit and have been running 24/22 PSI on Maxxis EXO+ tires this season.) Started the ride with a half hour of climbing and the tires felt fine. Good traction, efficient feel, no complaints. Did the first bracketing run and while I didn’t notice any squirming on hard corners, I also didn’t notice anything notable about the traction, either. It felt like a DHR2 front and rear; not bad, per se, but also nothing to post about. Dropped the front to 24 and the rear to 28 and went back up for another run. Definitely noticed more climbing traction on the way up, and on the next bracketing run I felt pretty close to a sweet spot -- just a little soft in the rear on hard corners, but absolutely ate small bumps. The cornering lugs didn’t squirm on fast hardpack turns and they dug in nicely into loose-over-hard and sandy corners. It’s definitely a tire which appreciates a good lean, but I didn’t feel a DHF-style dead zone; it transitioned nicely from braking to leaning. Finally, I really noticed how much easier the more supple casing makes it to get your front wheel up and over rocks. Instead of rebounding back or up at slow speeds, it just rolls through.
I’m sold. Absolutely couldn’t stand the Alberts, really love these tires.
Last question for you. I am also running HR3 and it's my absolute favorite. Would you say TC Gravity Pro is as good or better than HR3?
Thanks man
^ thanks for reference pressures. I was running 19.5/22.5 psi before with a HR3 DD front, Kryptotal Rear DH (155 + ebike, so 209 lbs rider+gear+bike). I also used the Wolf Tooth calc and tried their suggested 21/24 psi in the Gravity casing. (For reference, their calc puts me at 17.8/20.1 with "heavy" tires and type 2 conditions - 20.7/23.4 for type 3.) I've emailed WT and asked them for clarification if their radial selection refers to trail or gravity casing. I felt like the rear was bang on for me, could maybe drop the front 0.5-1 psi. So I guess with respect to the Wolf Tooth calc & Gravity Pro casing, the Grav Pro behaves close to their "heavy" casing suggestion. It'll be interesting to see what I have to run in Trail Pro for the meat-powered bike.
Hmmm... tough question. HR3 was my all time favorite before this too. Up front, I think they handle really similarly. I didn't notice any difference in drift on the front leaning into the channel knobs. I think TC brakes a little bit better, and double TC really felt like it rolled faster than my old HR3/Kryptotal Re setup. At the pressures I was running with Grav casing, the casing felt kinda normal except it was really excellent going over roots. There's a couple spots on local trails where there's roots running diagonally across steep corners and they felt like they held a line over them without hesitation, where normally the tires (esp. rear) want to kick sideways off the roots. They also felt like they would give a surge in grip right when I would push into my tires to try and make traction. Anyways, that's a lot of words to say that the HR3 is a damn fine tire on it's own and I'd still be running it if I hadn't tried the new TC, and still recommend it. But I like trying new things and could afford to try new tires so here I am.
I ran the HR3 up front for most of last year and the TC is really, really similar in terms of tread. I think the TC rolls faster, but that could just be the difference in compound. The radial casing, though, is a thing. Where the HR3 always felt a little sketchy for me on rocks, the TC just goes straight.
Anyone on the new butchers yet? Can't find the TCs in europe yet, and deciding whether to diverge from my trusty supersoft contis
Maxxis DHX just mentioned at the DH World Cup
e13 radial tire lineup explained (by e13)
So, what does the brain trust conclude is the fastest radial tire out there? For my short travel trail bike.
I'm in love with my MM + Albert radials on the ebike. The Super Soft Radial MM in the mud is something to be experienced. Like a mud spike but normal.
I would probably just use a radial in the front and a regular casing in the rear if rolling resistance is of any significance
Seems undeniably the new Romy. Nobby nic speedgrip / romy trail soft on my 130 bike. Didn't realize how nobby the nic was so in hindsight would have gone with something faster but the Romy on the front is working good.
For those who have tried the new TC, when would you choose it over a Mary in the front? Going to grab a couple for rears but not sure if I should bother with getting a 29er too, since I don't really have any complaints with radial Mary's other than maybe rolling speed on the ebike
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