old mountain goat

Specs: 26″x 2.4″ Actual width 2.3″ Weight 1lb. 4oz. (570gm)

These are just great, all around tires. They are very light, so light in fact that you need to baby them a bit. The side walls are very thin and the tread isnt much thicker.  Twice I got flats from very small thorns. On the flip side, I ran them through some rocks that I was sure was going to tear them open and ended up with not a single scratch. If durability is a major concern then Continental makes a protection version that offers a bit more in the way of a sidewall and tread thickness with a small weight penalty.

Durability concerns aside, I would classify these as Super D race tires. A bit too heavy and too grippy to be a cross country tire (although in a smaller size they might make for a wicked set up) they absolutley fly for an all mountain, high performance tire. Cornering grip is so high it’s scary, and when you push really hard, the slide is very controllable. I played with tire pressures and for me and my Yeti, 28psiF – 32psiR was perfect. Rolling resistance is VERY low for this class of tire. Hell, its very low for any class of tire, let alone one that can corner so hard.

I did make an attempt to run these tires with the Stans No Tubes conversion kit. I finally managed to make it work but in the end went back to Maxxis welterweight tubes. To get the beads to seal I had to dismount the No Tubes setup, install tubes, let them stay in the tire for a day, then reinstall the Stans kit. The sidewalls of these tires have a checkerboard pattern on them and as such like to seep air in that area. It took the better part of 6 hours to get the sidewalls to seal with the Stans sealant.

At a Super D race, during a prerun I nicked a rock and the sidewall started leaking sealant and wouldnt stop, so in went a tube. Once I got home I went back to heavier tubes front and rear (I was using Maxxis flyweights but went heavier for everyday riding) and didnt notice much of a difference in pedaling effort.

Bottom line is, try a set, you wont be disappointed.