News Season Part 4: Tires V2

Bontrager Chupacabra 29 X 3.0

Tires V2:

My last post on tires can be seen HERE. 

NOTE: Large doses of "my opinion" will be handed out in gloppy dollops today. You've been forewarned.....

Another 29+ Choice:

Trek World was buzzing recently about the news of a new tire. (Odd that the show isn't all that notable for a particular bike, right?) The reason this tire caught everyone off guard was that Trek doesn't do anything 29+.......yet. With the appearance of this tire, due in December, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Trek pushing something in this niche soon.

The spec sheet on this tire reads like this- 120TPI casing, Dual compound tire with Aramid folding bead. The kicker? It's a tubeless ready tire using the excellent TLR system. Projected weight is 850 grams per tire.

Commentary: December delivery? Dang! Put this on your Christmas list, and look for Trek to offer a wide, TLR type rim to go along with this at some point. Heck.....look for a complete bike! My intuition tells me a Stache model with these tires would make sense in Trek's line up. Will they do it? I think if the fork for such a beast surfaces, it's a no brainer. I look for a 29+ fork from Rock Shox to be shown at Eurobike soon. But otherwise, this looks a lot like a tubeless ready, siped tread Knard, which ain't a bad thing.  

Jackalope wheel (Courtesy of Trek's Twitter feed)

 In my last update on tires I talked about the Hodag fat bike tire. This is the TLR rim that goes with it. This will be stock on Farley 8 models.

It is a unique looking, aluminum rim with no cut outs and an 80mm width. It has a center ridge which is where the spokes anchor and what looks to be a combination of dual wall extrusion in the center and single wall in the edge sections.

Commentary: 

While this may not end up being all that light, if you pair it up with the Hodag tire and go tubeless, it will likely be very worthwhile to roll this set up. I really like the TLR format and this is truly a systemic approach which should yeild reliable low pressure, cold weather performance.

One has to be wondering if Trek is developing a carbon frame and carbon Jackalope rims to go with that. Trek's commitment to the fat bike range is impressive and with a tire and rim of their own design, it wouldn't take much of a leap of faith to see the day when Trek unleashes a carbon rimmed, carbon framed, super-light fat bike. This wheel points to the future and it looks bright.

Okay, that's a short one for this time. I'll have a few comments on some of the Trek World bikes coming up later on. Stay tuned for that.......