Shocking News And Husky Rubber

A Rock Shox Judy?! Yes, a new Judy is coming soon.

Blast From The Past- Only New!

 What better way to kick off a "Throwback Thursday" than to talk about yesterday's news that a new Rock Shox Judy will become available as an aftermarket and OEM suspension fork for 27.5" and 29" bikes. SRAM marketing mentions something about "entry level" bikes getting this nicer fork, so take that under advisement. It seems that it has decent features, and with the 29" Boost version, you can go with 27.5+ tires.

Of course, all of this Judy gab is really a distraction since Rock Shox also announced several updates throughout their fork line up. You can catch up, if you care to, by checking in with our UK based dirt heads here.

There is an irony here since the Judy is not being offered in its original 26" wheel format. Of course, the 26"er forks have been relegated to sub-standard status by most of the industry and it has been that way for a few years now. You could say that 27.5 is the new twentysix. I've held that theory for several years now. It worked to drop 26" and make everyone that wanted/needed an upgrade to go to 27.5", but now that ruse is over, and it seems that the industry is fishing around for other ways to get your dollars sucked out of your bank accounts. 27.5+ seems to be where that wagon is hitched right now because there was zero mentions of 29+ in the article I saw. Maybe that's an announcement for Sea Otter......

29 X Husky. (Image courtesy of Team Dicky's Facebook page)

Call it Husky:

 First there were 29"er tires, then this whole thing went nuts with fat bikes, "Plus" sized 29"er tires, and 27.5+ stuff. I'd heard rumors that a category of 29"er rubber was going to be made in that empty space between current 2.5" tires and 3.0", "plus" sized 29"er tires. Well, it seems that 2.6" is the size we will see first and Maxxis is showing a tire at the current Tapei Bike Show happening now. There will be a lot more of this sort of thing, so that begs the question: "What bikes will they fit and when will we be seeing them?".

Obviously there are already a few rigs out that are 29+ that this would work in, but I figure we will start seeing some real burly, front and full suspension bikes that utilize this size tire and will not be full on 29+ bikes. After having spent a lot of time looking into and riding on various 29"er tires over the years, it is plain to me that to make a tough tire that has decent knobs that won't wilt at the sight of rocks and what not, you are talking about adding a not insignificant amount of weight. This means that those flimsy Surly Knard 29 X 3.0's folks often slag on because they cannot handle rocks and things of that nature would weigh far over 1000 grams each if they did have a tougher casing. And that is without adding rubber tread blocks. This is why the Dirt Wizard is "undersized", because if it were a big casing with all that rubber on it the tire would weigh as much as many fat bike tires do.

I've believed all along that 29+ was just a bit "too much" in terms of dimensions and weight to become a very widely acceptable wheel/tire format. The numbers there will always be small. This new aim at making a tire with a 700c bead seat diameter and a 2.6" width has some legs, I think. It keeps all that weight and diameter in check, to a degree, and I think it is just enough to make it more appealing than full-on 29+ (three inches or larger) wheels and tires. I don't think 29 X 2.6 is "plus"sized, but maybe it is "husky"? Well, whatever it is, I like it. Eventually my Singular Buzzard will see that size tire on it.