Trials tire--Michelin
Posted: 07:39 pm Oct 19 2009
The Michelin did great! I didn't realize how 'noisy' a knobby is feel-wise, how much it transmits. The bike is much better planted, smooth with the Mich tire...plenty noiticeable on trails, much moreso on gravel/dirt roads.
I also didn't realize how much suspension feedback I thought I was getting from the front that is coming from the rear. That's probably unfair..how about how much trouble the front suspension has DEALING with the rear. A lot of the rock-chucking, knobby pounding, sidewise deflection the front gets from the rear is gone when all that INPUT is gone. The forks are far more stable when the rear-end isn't yanking/pushing them around all the time.
...and it's not my shock. I've had that tuned, retuned and re-re-retuned (re-valved) for a long to get it to a point it suits me perfectly, and I've recently serviced it.
Traction from the trials is far better than you might suspect. On more than one hill I got MUCH farther up than I had any right to expect from past performance..both mine AND the bike. The trials slips less..and when it does it's not such a crabby wanting-to-pass-up-the-front-end type of action.
I did think it didn't do very well on wet leaves and needles, but my front-end had the same problem. With leaf-drop in full swing around here most trails are pretty well covered with 'em. Neither the front nor the rear could handle it on downhills....they would bunch up in front to an extent I really had no control at all. Sure...let off the brakes a tad and I'd roll over the accumlated pile, but within a fraction of second (if I even could recover from the speed bump I got with the split-second brake-off) I was pushing another pile.
Wet tree crossings worked at least as well as a knobby...which is to say not very well. A green, debarked, wet tree is slick. Period.
I ran the tire at 8psi.
There is an excellent possiblity of the outcome being influenced by the observer. My bike handled SO well, I tended to push it further than I would if it was as 'noisy' as it normally is. There were a number of climbs I had no business making...a combination of wet and clay making the hills into a bit of an ice-skating rink. Hell...I surprised myself more'n a few times.
I paid $79 for it a local shop...ordered one day, in the next. An M5B (what I usually run) would've cost me about $75.
If you're interested in things that might make your ride a LOT more fun, you OWE it to yourself to try one.
Cheers!
I also didn't realize how much suspension feedback I thought I was getting from the front that is coming from the rear. That's probably unfair..how about how much trouble the front suspension has DEALING with the rear. A lot of the rock-chucking, knobby pounding, sidewise deflection the front gets from the rear is gone when all that INPUT is gone. The forks are far more stable when the rear-end isn't yanking/pushing them around all the time.
...and it's not my shock. I've had that tuned, retuned and re-re-retuned (re-valved) for a long to get it to a point it suits me perfectly, and I've recently serviced it.
Traction from the trials is far better than you might suspect. On more than one hill I got MUCH farther up than I had any right to expect from past performance..both mine AND the bike. The trials slips less..and when it does it's not such a crabby wanting-to-pass-up-the-front-end type of action.
I did think it didn't do very well on wet leaves and needles, but my front-end had the same problem. With leaf-drop in full swing around here most trails are pretty well covered with 'em. Neither the front nor the rear could handle it on downhills....they would bunch up in front to an extent I really had no control at all. Sure...let off the brakes a tad and I'd roll over the accumlated pile, but within a fraction of second (if I even could recover from the speed bump I got with the split-second brake-off) I was pushing another pile.
Wet tree crossings worked at least as well as a knobby...which is to say not very well. A green, debarked, wet tree is slick. Period.
I ran the tire at 8psi.
There is an excellent possiblity of the outcome being influenced by the observer. My bike handled SO well, I tended to push it further than I would if it was as 'noisy' as it normally is. There were a number of climbs I had no business making...a combination of wet and clay making the hills into a bit of an ice-skating rink. Hell...I surprised myself more'n a few times.
I paid $79 for it a local shop...ordered one day, in the next. An M5B (what I usually run) would've cost me about $75.
If you're interested in things that might make your ride a LOT more fun, you OWE it to yourself to try one.
Cheers!