Sea Otter ’11: Challenge MTB One Tubular Tires
- By Caley Fretz
- Published Apr. 16, 2011
Cyclocross stars have been toping mountain bike leader boards for years, from Ryan Trebon in the U.S. to Sven Nys and his top-ten finish in XC at the last Olympics.
Young ‘crossers Nick Weighall and Cody Kaiser (Cal Giant/Specialized MTB) are aiming to continue that trend, applying their fall talents to the spring and summer cross-country seasons.
Singletrack.com caught up with the two after the pro short track at Sea Otter on Friday, which saw both get stuck with poor start positions in the 110-man field only to get pulled mid-way through the race.
Both were running Challenge’s brand new MTB One tubular mountain bike tires, mounted up to dirt specific 26-inch Reynolds carbon tubular rims. Such tire setups are slowly gaining popularity, particularly for smoother courses like the one here at Sea Otter.
The tires are still in a bit of a testing phase, with Challenge marketing man Bill Marshall requesting open feedback from the Cal Giant crew on both durability and performance.
The tires measure just a hair under a true 2.0, and have a nice round shape that should aid cornering. Both Weighall and Kaiser were running them right around 20psi, since the risk of burping is eliminated. Both said they usually run 25-28psi on their tubeless Specialized tires to avoid burping.
FILED UNDER: Bikes and Tech / Sea Otter Classic TAGS: tires / tubular