I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The...
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The gist of it is, the feel of this casing is what I wanted from radial but couldn't get. I weigh ~150 lbs, and am on a ~49 lb ebike, riding totally dry and blown out trails about an hour north of Santa Cruz. I started with lower pressure than what I run with DH, but kind of hedging a bit - 18 front, 20 rear. With old Maxxis DH or Conti, I usually run about 19/22 locally, and add 1-2 psi if I'm riding somewhere really rocky. Things felt decent but a bit pingy after first lap so I checked pressures, and they'd gone up 2 psi since I left my house due to it being 94* out. Dropped back down to 18/20 - better, more compliance & grip but no squirm. Dropped 0.5 psi next lap to 17.5/19.5 - still improving with no downside. After that dropped to 17/19 (!!!) and had crazy good grip, nice damp feeling. By the end of the ride at that pressure, I still wasn't getting the X marks on sidewalls, even after hitting some high speed, steep berms and big compressions. Compliance over roots and rocks was excellent. Traction on flat corners was on par with Gravity Radials, without any squirm. There's one flat corner at the top of our hill that I can hit without braking when I trust grip - I get it about 20% of the time on regular tires, 80% of the time on radials, and was 4/4 yesterday on NDH. And that's with conditions about as bad as they possibly can get. The DHX up front rolls noticeably faster than the HR3 that it replaced, and still hooks up in steep loose chutes where an Assegai/Kryptotal Front tend to float. Even at those silly low pressures, I was overshooting landings because I was carrying so much more speed into them. As someone who never really gelled with the radials, this is the feel I was looking for. Part of it is the incredible sidewall stability, but part of it is really good tread patterns and knobs.
Now, the downside is these are freaking heavy. My 29x2.5 DHX clocked in at 1,534g. My 27.5x2.5 DHR II (NDH) is 1,340g. In the future when new casings become available, I'll consider dropping the DHX down to DD casing (depending on what the actual weight savings is) but keep the NDH in the rear (just with MaxxTerra v2 once that's available). On my enduro bike, I definitely can't stomach pedaling a 1500g tire, so will probably stick with DD/DD or EXO+/DD. I'll probably switch back to my stash of HR3s for the front once the rain starts in a month or two, but I plan on running DHX front for the majority of the year here. Even if the DHX runs heavy in DD / EXO+, it's damn good and worth the penalty.
It'll be interesting to see if the dhx translates well to a dd or exo+.I suspect the magic there is 95% new dh casing. I've been...
It'll be interesting to see if the dhx translates well to a dd or exo+.
I suspect the magic there is 95% new dh casing. I've been running them on my dh bike and my e-dreadnought for half the summer, and agree that they are better than the other brand's radials. Feels like you have the sidewall support in corners of a cushcore insert, but with the traction of a radial.
They were great in western canada's dry conditions this year. Kind of unique conditions in that there's the usual loose over hardpack, but certain corners were full on deep moon dust. So you wanted to run something like a magic mary or hr3, but it would get squirmy in high load corners on hardpack. The dhx's bridged those conditions nicely, and roll relatively quickly for what they are.
Yeah, seems like the casing is the secret sauce. My issue with the schwalbe radial trail casing is the lack of sidewall support and I don't want to switch to a gravity casing on my trail bike.
I picked up continental Kryptotals in Enduro casing and have been pleasantly surprised. Better sidewall support and the grip is excellent and predictable. I think I'll stick with these until the depths of PNW winter arrive.
Currently running through a tire a week so have a pretty good feel of Maxxis tires from new through clapped out. Finally got a batch of...
Currently running through a tire a week so have a pretty good feel of Maxxis tires from new through clapped out. Finally got a batch of 'New DH' casing tires in. Wowza. Alright, that was more noticeable of a change than I was expecting! BIG FAN
Just out of curiosity, what did you like about the new casing?
The sidewall support is very apparent. The "new DH" casing is like a casing beyond the old DH.
Think of the difference going from double down to DH, and then apply that to old DH and new DH.
I like it a lot for bike park, but it is very heavy. I probably won't be putting maxxis new dh on my pedal bike, like I would with schwalbe or conti DH.
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The...
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The gist of it is, the feel of this casing is what I wanted from radial but couldn't get. I weigh ~150 lbs, and am on a ~49 lb ebike, riding totally dry and blown out trails about an hour north of Santa Cruz. I started with lower pressure than what I run with DH, but kind of hedging a bit - 18 front, 20 rear. With old Maxxis DH or Conti, I usually run about 19/22 locally, and add 1-2 psi if I'm riding somewhere really rocky. Things felt decent but a bit pingy after first lap so I checked pressures, and they'd gone up 2 psi since I left my house due to it being 94* out. Dropped back down to 18/20 - better, more compliance & grip but no squirm. Dropped 0.5 psi next lap to 17.5/19.5 - still improving with no downside. After that dropped to 17/19 (!!!) and had crazy good grip, nice damp feeling. By the end of the ride at that pressure, I still wasn't getting the X marks on sidewalls, even after hitting some high speed, steep berms and big compressions. Compliance over roots and rocks was excellent. Traction on flat corners was on par with Gravity Radials, without any squirm. There's one flat corner at the top of our hill that I can hit without braking when I trust grip - I get it about 20% of the time on regular tires, 80% of the time on radials, and was 4/4 yesterday on NDH. And that's with conditions about as bad as they possibly can get. The DHX up front rolls noticeably faster than the HR3 that it replaced, and still hooks up in steep loose chutes where an Assegai/Kryptotal Front tend to float. Even at those silly low pressures, I was overshooting landings because I was carrying so much more speed into them. As someone who never really gelled with the radials, this is the feel I was looking for. Part of it is the incredible sidewall stability, but part of it is really good tread patterns and knobs.
Now, the downside is these are freaking heavy. My 29x2.5 DHX clocked in at 1,534g. My 27.5x2.5 DHR II (NDH) is 1,340g. In the future when new casings become available, I'll consider dropping the DHX down to DD casing (depending on what the actual weight savings is) but keep the NDH in the rear (just with MaxxTerra v2 once that's available). On my enduro bike, I definitely can't stomach pedaling a 1500g tire, so will probably stick with DD/DD or EXO+/DD. I'll probably switch back to my stash of HR3s for the front once the rain starts in a month or two, but I plan on running DHX front for the majority of the year here. Even if the DHX runs heavy in DD / EXO+, it's damn good and worth the penalty.
It'll be interesting to see if the dhx translates well to a dd or exo+.I suspect the magic there is 95% new dh casing. I've been...
It'll be interesting to see if the dhx translates well to a dd or exo+.
I suspect the magic there is 95% new dh casing. I've been running them on my dh bike and my e-dreadnought for half the summer, and agree that they are better than the other brand's radials. Feels like you have the sidewall support in corners of a cushcore insert, but with the traction of a radial.
They were great in western canada's dry conditions this year. Kind of unique conditions in that there's the usual loose over hardpack, but certain corners were full on deep moon dust. So you wanted to run something like a magic mary or hr3, but it would get squirmy in high load corners on hardpack. The dhx's bridged those conditions nicely, and roll relatively quickly for what they are.
Yeah, seems like the casing is the secret sauce. My issue with the schwalbe radial trail casing is the lack of sidewall support and I don't...
Yeah, seems like the casing is the secret sauce. My issue with the schwalbe radial trail casing is the lack of sidewall support and I don't want to switch to a gravity casing on my trail bike.
I picked up continental Kryptotals in Enduro casing and have been pleasantly surprised. Better sidewall support and the grip is excellent and predictable. I think I'll stick with these until the depths of PNW winter arrive.
If you like the schwalbe tires, but find they lack sidewall support, I have found that a tannus pro insert can add a substantial amount of sidewall support for not very much weight penalty.
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The...
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The gist of it is, the feel of this casing is what I wanted from radial but couldn't get. I weigh ~150 lbs, and am on a ~49 lb ebike, riding totally dry and blown out trails about an hour north of Santa Cruz. I started with lower pressure than what I run with DH, but kind of hedging a bit - 18 front, 20 rear. With old Maxxis DH or Conti, I usually run about 19/22 locally, and add 1-2 psi if I'm riding somewhere really rocky. Things felt decent but a bit pingy after first lap so I checked pressures, and they'd gone up 2 psi since I left my house due to it being 94* out. Dropped back down to 18/20 - better, more compliance & grip but no squirm. Dropped 0.5 psi next lap to 17.5/19.5 - still improving with no downside. After that dropped to 17/19 (!!!) and had crazy good grip, nice damp feeling. By the end of the ride at that pressure, I still wasn't getting the X marks on sidewalls, even after hitting some high speed, steep berms and big compressions. Compliance over roots and rocks was excellent. Traction on flat corners was on par with Gravity Radials, without any squirm. There's one flat corner at the top of our hill that I can hit without braking when I trust grip - I get it about 20% of the time on regular tires, 80% of the time on radials, and was 4/4 yesterday on NDH. And that's with conditions about as bad as they possibly can get. The DHX up front rolls noticeably faster than the HR3 that it replaced, and still hooks up in steep loose chutes where an Assegai/Kryptotal Front tend to float. Even at those silly low pressures, I was overshooting landings because I was carrying so much more speed into them. As someone who never really gelled with the radials, this is the feel I was looking for. Part of it is the incredible sidewall stability, but part of it is really good tread patterns and knobs.
Now, the downside is these are freaking heavy. My 29x2.5 DHX clocked in at 1,534g. My 27.5x2.5 DHR II (NDH) is 1,340g. In the future when new casings become available, I'll consider dropping the DHX down to DD casing (depending on what the actual weight savings is) but keep the NDH in the rear (just with MaxxTerra v2 once that's available). On my enduro bike, I definitely can't stomach pedaling a 1500g tire, so will probably stick with DD/DD or EXO+/DD. I'll probably switch back to my stash of HR3s for the front once the rain starts in a month or two, but I plan on running DHX front for the majority of the year here. Even if the DHX runs heavy in DD / EXO+, it's damn good and worth the penalty.
To be fair the Schwalbe Gravity Pro is also quite heavy at 1400g. I'd say a 130g increase for what basically amounts to the equivalent of an insert seems like a fair trade off.
It's also not apples to apples given the DHX is quite knobby so some of the weight likely comes from the tread design as well.
It'll be interesting to see if the dhx translates well to a dd or exo+.I suspect the magic there is 95% new dh casing. I've been...
It'll be interesting to see if the dhx translates well to a dd or exo+.
I suspect the magic there is 95% new dh casing. I've been running them on my dh bike and my e-dreadnought for half the summer, and agree that they are better than the other brand's radials. Feels like you have the sidewall support in corners of a cushcore insert, but with the traction of a radial.
They were great in western canada's dry conditions this year. Kind of unique conditions in that there's the usual loose over hardpack, but certain corners were full on deep moon dust. So you wanted to run something like a magic mary or hr3, but it would get squirmy in high load corners on hardpack. The dhx's bridged those conditions nicely, and roll relatively quickly for what they are.
Yeah, seems like the casing is the secret sauce. My issue with the schwalbe radial trail casing is the lack of sidewall support and I don't...
Yeah, seems like the casing is the secret sauce. My issue with the schwalbe radial trail casing is the lack of sidewall support and I don't want to switch to a gravity casing on my trail bike.
I picked up continental Kryptotals in Enduro casing and have been pleasantly surprised. Better sidewall support and the grip is excellent and predictable. I think I'll stick with these until the depths of PNW winter arrive.
If you like the schwalbe tires, but find they lack sidewall support, I have found that a tannus pro insert can add a substantial amount of...
If you like the schwalbe tires, but find they lack sidewall support, I have found that a tannus pro insert can add a substantial amount of sidewall support for not very much weight penalty.
Thanks for the suggestion. Thought about this, but I like the Continentals enough to skip the insert experiment.
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The...
I got my hands on a DHX and DHR2, both in the New DH casing, and have some first ride thoughts. Two words: holy shit! The gist of it is, the feel of this casing is what I wanted from radial but couldn't get. I weigh ~150 lbs, and am on a ~49 lb ebike, riding totally dry and blown out trails about an hour north of Santa Cruz. I started with lower pressure than what I run with DH, but kind of hedging a bit - 18 front, 20 rear. With old Maxxis DH or Conti, I usually run about 19/22 locally, and add 1-2 psi if I'm riding somewhere really rocky. Things felt decent but a bit pingy after first lap so I checked pressures, and they'd gone up 2 psi since I left my house due to it being 94* out. Dropped back down to 18/20 - better, more compliance & grip but no squirm. Dropped 0.5 psi next lap to 17.5/19.5 - still improving with no downside. After that dropped to 17/19 (!!!) and had crazy good grip, nice damp feeling. By the end of the ride at that pressure, I still wasn't getting the X marks on sidewalls, even after hitting some high speed, steep berms and big compressions. Compliance over roots and rocks was excellent. Traction on flat corners was on par with Gravity Radials, without any squirm. There's one flat corner at the top of our hill that I can hit without braking when I trust grip - I get it about 20% of the time on regular tires, 80% of the time on radials, and was 4/4 yesterday on NDH. And that's with conditions about as bad as they possibly can get. The DHX up front rolls noticeably faster than the HR3 that it replaced, and still hooks up in steep loose chutes where an Assegai/Kryptotal Front tend to float. Even at those silly low pressures, I was overshooting landings because I was carrying so much more speed into them. As someone who never really gelled with the radials, this is the feel I was looking for. Part of it is the incredible sidewall stability, but part of it is really good tread patterns and knobs.
Now, the downside is these are freaking heavy. My 29x2.5 DHX clocked in at 1,534g. My 27.5x2.5 DHR II (NDH) is 1,340g. In the future when new casings become available, I'll consider dropping the DHX down to DD casing (depending on what the actual weight savings is) but keep the NDH in the rear (just with MaxxTerra v2 once that's available). On my enduro bike, I definitely can't stomach pedaling a 1500g tire, so will probably stick with DD/DD or EXO+/DD. I'll probably switch back to my stash of HR3s for the front once the rain starts in a month or two, but I plan on running DHX front for the majority of the year here. Even if the DHX runs heavy in DD / EXO+, it's damn good and worth the penalty.
To be fair the Schwalbe Gravity Pro is also quite heavy at 1400g. I'd say a 130g increase for what basically amounts to the equivalent of...
To be fair the Schwalbe Gravity Pro is also quite heavy at 1400g. I'd say a 130g increase for what basically amounts to the equivalent of an insert seems like a fair trade off.
It's also not apples to apples given the DHX is quite knobby so some of the weight likely comes from the tread design as well.
Yeah, the Schwalbe GP are in the same ballpark of weight. But I don't get along with their knob patterns or rubber compound. I tried the insert + light casings setup years ago and just never got along with it. I had lots of issues with inserts causing lighter casings to warp and wobble.
I'd like to see what Conti's response to NDH & Gravity Pro is. Their DH casing has always felt to me fairly stiff but undamped. Like, I can run it pretty low pressures but it still always transmits a lot of feedback to my hands. Their DH casings run about 100g lighter than old Maxxis DH, closer to DD weights, so there's clearly less rubber or fabric in the tires. Part of it is probably their rubber compounds too. I feel like their Super Soft rubber is more like MaxxTerra (or harder) and I've heard they have a sponsored racer-only "Super Duper Soft" that probably would feel great up front.
Does anyone have any intel on the incoming Conti radials? Given how hard Conti's rubber is, they could be the holy grail of huge contact patch that actually still rolls pretty well and lasts as long as a $100 tire should.
Does anyone have any intel on the incoming Conti radials? Given how hard Conti's rubber is, they could be the holy grail of huge contact patch...
Does anyone have any intel on the incoming Conti radials? Given how hard Conti's rubber is, they could be the holy grail of huge contact patch that actually still rolls pretty well and lasts as long as a $100 tire should.
Ya, at times it seems like the more expensive the tire, the faster it wears
How do the Specialized radials compare to the Schwalbes? Curious if anyone’s ridden both yet
I have around 500 miles on a set of the spec radials on a full powered ebike. I like them more the shredda/ albert combo I was running before. I think the T9 compound is the only thing available thats comparable to maxgrip, schwable ultra soft and conti super soft feel less sticky on smooth rocks and roots.
Im more of a 2-2-2 tire tread person so the butcher fits my front tire preferences more than anything that was available in the schwable radials until they released the tacky chan.
I can’t say if the radial part of the specialized tires is what makes them good but the butcher is probably my favorite front tread right now. The eliminator is good but doesn’t really stand out in any way, it’s just fairly reliable in a wide range of conditions. Eliminator rear is showing moderate wear at 500 miles, the butcher front isn’t showing much of any wear. The dual compound eliminator seems to be wearing at a similar rate across the whole tire instead of either the center or side knobs wearing faster. Wish they would do a T7 butcher to run in the rear for better longevity.
Closing thoughts on the new maxx Terra v2. Dh season is over for me now, and I’ve been riding the DHR2 since it opened. FWIW, this is on a DH bike at race pace for the season. Just about 160 miles and just under 100k feet of descending. Still has tons of breaking grip, can’t tell the difference in nor-cal dirt from maxx grip, but well over 2x the life, if not more. Casing is spent and the tire got a sidewall slice at the top of the casing insert on the last run, so she’s pretty cooked, otherwise would have kept it for non-race weekends next year. Really stoked on the new rubber, 10/10 would recommend. *edit: 6’3” and 200 ish lbs before gear. Most conti like wear I’ve ever had with maxxis. Has had me thinking of running Maxx Terra in the front for our summer riding. Not sure if Maxx Grip makes any difference in the brown POW when it’s 95 degrees out every weekend.
Yeah, seems like the casing is the secret sauce. My issue with the schwalbe radial trail casing is the lack of sidewall support and I don't want to switch to a gravity casing on my trail bike.
I picked up continental Kryptotals in Enduro casing and have been pleasantly surprised. Better sidewall support and the grip is excellent and predictable. I think I'll stick with these until the depths of PNW winter arrive.
The sidewall support is very apparent. The "new DH" casing is like a casing beyond the old DH.
Think of the difference going from double down to DH, and then apply that to old DH and new DH.
I like it a lot for bike park, but it is very heavy. I probably won't be putting maxxis new dh on my pedal bike, like I would with schwalbe or conti DH.
If you like the schwalbe tires, but find they lack sidewall support, I have found that a tannus pro insert can add a substantial amount of sidewall support for not very much weight penalty.
To be fair the Schwalbe Gravity Pro is also quite heavy at 1400g. I'd say a 130g increase for what basically amounts to the equivalent of an insert seems like a fair trade off.
It's also not apples to apples given the DHX is quite knobby so some of the weight likely comes from the tread design as well.
Thanks for the suggestion. Thought about this, but I like the Continentals enough to skip the insert experiment.
Yeah, the Schwalbe GP are in the same ballpark of weight. But I don't get along with their knob patterns or rubber compound. I tried the insert + light casings setup years ago and just never got along with it. I had lots of issues with inserts causing lighter casings to warp and wobble.
I'd like to see what Conti's response to NDH & Gravity Pro is. Their DH casing has always felt to me fairly stiff but undamped. Like, I can run it pretty low pressures but it still always transmits a lot of feedback to my hands. Their DH casings run about 100g lighter than old Maxxis DH, closer to DD weights, so there's clearly less rubber or fabric in the tires. Part of it is probably their rubber compounds too. I feel like their Super Soft rubber is more like MaxxTerra (or harder) and I've heard they have a sponsored racer-only "Super Duper Soft" that probably would feel great up front.
How do the Specialized radials compare to the Schwalbes? Curious if anyone’s ridden both yet
Does anyone have any intel on the incoming Conti radials? Given how hard Conti's rubber is, they could be the holy grail of huge contact patch that actually still rolls pretty well and lasts as long as a $100 tire should.
Ya, at times it seems like the more expensive the tire, the faster it wears
I have around 500 miles on a set of the spec radials on a full powered ebike. I like them more the shredda/ albert combo I was running before. I think the T9 compound is the only thing available thats comparable to maxgrip, schwable ultra soft and conti super soft feel less sticky on smooth rocks and roots.
Im more of a 2-2-2 tire tread person so the butcher fits my front tire preferences more than anything that was available in the schwable radials until they released the tacky chan.
I can’t say if the radial part of the specialized tires is what makes them good but the butcher is probably my favorite front tread right now. The eliminator is good but doesn’t really stand out in any way, it’s just fairly reliable in a wide range of conditions. Eliminator rear is showing moderate wear at 500 miles, the butcher front isn’t showing much of any wear. The dual compound eliminator seems to be wearing at a similar rate across the whole tire instead of either the center or side knobs wearing faster. Wish they would do a T7 butcher to run in the rear for better longevity.
Closing thoughts on the new maxx Terra v2. Dh season is over for me now, and I’ve been riding the DHR2 since it opened. FWIW, this is on a DH bike at race pace for the season. Just about 160 miles and just under 100k feet of descending. Still has tons of breaking grip, can’t tell the difference in nor-cal dirt from maxx grip, but well over 2x the life, if not more. Casing is spent and the tire got a sidewall slice at the top of the casing insert on the last run, so she’s pretty cooked, otherwise would have kept it for non-race weekends next year. Really stoked on the new rubber, 10/10 would recommend. *edit: 6’3” and 200 ish lbs before gear. Most conti like wear I’ve ever had with maxxis. Has had me thinking of running Maxx Terra in the front for our summer riding. Not sure if Maxx Grip makes any difference in the brown POW when it’s 95 degrees out every weekend.
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