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| American Classic: A familiar name, perhaps, but not on tires. |
American Classic may be a name familiar to many of you, but not for tires. The company, in its original version, was a component manufacturer, and eventually focused on wheels and hubs exclusively. That version of American Classic is no more. In its place is a new venture focused upon tires, but hints have been dropped that components may also be introduced at some point in the future.
The interesting bit about the new American Classic is that they are consumer direct and sell their products on an Amazon webpage. So, you won't find these at your local bike shop, and if that shop is one of the more corporate entities which are becoming more ubiquitous in larger cities, these American Classic tires will get slagged because those corporate owned shops are pressing their employees to sell the company lines. That's an unfortunate side effect of all this buying out of shops by Trek, Specialized, and Pon Holding Company.
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| While I've tested other models, the Kimberlites are on deck now. |
That's why I think you should know about American Classic tires. Not many people are going to be hip to these right away, but there are a few reasons why you might want to consider them for your next tire purchase.
And before I get to my points on American Classic, the whole series of "Tires You Should Know About" is partially driven by the current developments in the retail landscape. It used to be that shops were independent, knew product lines from several sources, and could order you almost anything. Not so much in 2022.....
Okay, so I have seen and ridden almost the entire range of American Classic gravel tires. The original designs have great tread patterns for almost any situation, but I was a bit 'meh' on the ride quality and performance of their first efforts. So much so that I probably wouldn't have included them here in this series. That despite the fact that American Classic debuted the line with pricing at $35.00 per tire!
But now American Classic has updated the casings of these gravel tires to a brand new design which raises the level of performance and rides better. Yes- they cost more, but at $45.00 a pop? That's still ridiculous compared to the competition. So, you may want to check out the line up of American Classic tires and try a pair.
I will say that their so-called 50mm tires that they offer are really 47-48mm wide, which is fine, but don't think those are big, almost 29"er tires, or you will be disappointed. The 40's are pretty spot on though. On the plus side, they are offered in three side wall colors, and all look great.
Check them out, and look for another "Tires You Should Know About" next week.
Note: The Standard Disclaimer applies with this post on the American Classic Tires.
2 comments:
My only gripe I have with American Classic is the tire sizing from their 40 to 50mm. I wished they had a 42 to 45mm offering. But with that comes increased costs. On the manufacturing size, it might be wise to be at 40 & 50 only for their re-entry to the market. The cost is more than fair, on a side note, I have cut through 2 of their tires the Kimberlite and the Torchbearer. To be fair, I think the Kimberlite took a lot of beating and tire would of finally fail like it did. The Torchbearer, I had at 80 PSI and was cutting yards and found a sharp rock. In short, in order to get them to fail, I had to put some effort in.
@NY Roll - I agree- A 42mm, and maybe a 38mm, would be good and then add that 50mm- a TRUE 50- after a bit. There really are not many people that are going to run a 50+ mm gravel oriented tire compared to everyone in the 38-42mm range.
On the failures- Those were all on the previous versions of AmClass tires, yes? Supposedly they have better puncture protection now.
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