March 2018 - Good Month or Bad Month?

 I agree! More entertaining for the rest of us! Kind of like last years womens UCI downhill racing. Not that it isn't cool to see someone dominate the sport, but a little competition makes it so much more fun to watch.

 I agree, and the tire puncture thing is also not a bad thing. March had nothing bad!!

 good for us, bad for nino

 @Davidsym: March brought an arse load (then several more arse loads) of crappy grey snow that you can't ride on or board on either, then rain, then more rain, then as the month ended it brought more snow. With what the weather Gods brought the bike industry better damn well have brought only good things for April too.

 Obviously losing is never good for Nino....

 @theruns: Indeed. The women’s EWS podium seems to be getting quite predictable as well.

 True, another thing is it’ll push him harder to get back on top.

 @Fix-the-Spade: Can you remember when it was dry for more than 3 days in a row?

 @fatduke: Some time in September I think.

 I agree, the average age of the UCI XCO top 20 was 30 in 2017 with only 2 riders under 25. Having Sam Gaze as another young contender is only good for the sport.

 At least balance the - for Nino with a pretty enormous + for Sam.

 I will take the DH casing anytime instead of running a 600 gram tire. Which by the way you neglected to mention it will fold on turns at high speed. The insert can't fix or correct

 Maybe people will stop confusing Nino's handlebar turn with a whip now.

 Yeah I doubt there is any part of his mind that's thinking "well gee, I sure am winning a lot, maybe I should lose on so pinkbikers are more entertained"...
What an absurd thing to say.

 @fatduke: I can't.

It was starting to dry out after in the SE the mid-March snow but is a completely shitty slop fest at the moment.

 Totally agree

 The thinnest casing I go is specialized grid and since going tubeless have had zero issues. I've had a burp or two from cornering and got thorns and nails all without even stopping or ruining my ride.

 Also a good month for you @WAKIdesigns getting a shout out from Cam and Tyler during slope style coverage?

 100% agree Waki. I put my money on a DH tire being better in all respects VS a flimsy p.o.s. tire stuffed with a pound of shit.

 @makripper: Perhaps it’s the terrain I ride (Northern and Southern Utah) or maybe it’s the tires I run (Specialized with Grid casing) or maybe I just don’t ride enough... in any case I haven’t had any kind of puncture, pinch, or other flat in over 3 years.

Now that I’ve said it out loud, I’ll be rewarded with a big fat sidewall slice on my next ride.

 @dbendixen: man I ride the grid casing at Whistler with no insert crap and definitely bottomed my tires and dented rim with no issues haha. Very impressed with them in general. I ride the 2.6 slaughter and butcher on the dh and same setup but 2.3 on the all mountain.

 "Trying to polish a 1ply turd". We have a whole industry of turd polishers who are trying to find the best way to polish turds. But no matter what's inside that turd, it's still a turd. #2ply4life #wehaverocks #casingsupportbrah #smashintoshit

 Has anyone actually got some info regarding Cushcore with Exo Tyre vs Tubeless DH casing? Anyone tried both?

I perceive some benefits to a Cushcore/ Exo setup (rim protection etc..?) and even though I find it hard to believe it’s possible the setup has a nicer feel than a DH casing.

I seriously doubt that the former offers improved puncture protection and (more importantly to me) provides a better feel than the DH casing tyres but so far haven’t read a direct comparison of the two. People are still shy of the DH casings for trail use it seems and perhaps that’s why I haven’t seen the comparison I’m looking for; DH casings are still seen as DH only. I admit I only tried them by chance but once I did I haven’t looked back. I’d like to see dual ply tyres become the norm, to me the single ply and even DD tyres are inferior in every way besides the weight and even the weight aids stability...something people seem to want a lot of.

 @ThomDawson: When I finally got a trail bike(Trance)...I couldn't get the DH tires on there fast enough

 I am currently testing 1ply Schwalbe with procore just to see what happens. But I do it on local trails where speeds are low.

So far procore is a bit of a pain in the bum. I failed to install it twice and after 3rd attempt I managed to get it quite right. Quite, because it's leaking air a bit so every two days I must reinflate it. Grip isn't spectacular while 1ply tyres are wobbly, even on my slow home trails. But no burping. I purposefully lowered the presure to 15 PSI and did pump flat ground drill that used to make my 1ply tyres burp even at 28psi. Again, for someone who can a thing or two about climbing techy stuff in slippery conditions, I don't see much win in lowering the pressure when using procore. I will run also procore with 1.5ply SG casing for the bike park to see what it's worth. Some say 1.5 ply rolls a bit better and is a bit softer on the body. I just have a hard time justifying messing with procore installation instead of going 2ply right away. Will be updating you guys on this

 @WAKIdesigns: It would be worth setting up a forum post on this. It would be an interesting one to follow.

 @WAKIdesigns: www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=205847

 @WAKIdesigns: I run schwalbe 1 ply + cushcore on my not so rocky hometrails. I get away with 1.5 bars without burping, although the sound of the tires is kind of gruesome when doing cutties on tarmac. I managed to puncture the fronttire once, in rocky terrain cushcore + SG should be good. 2ply rolls a lot worse than 1.5 or 1 ply. with cushcore there is less tirewobble than with 2 ply.

 @optimumnotmaximum: There are two things with DH tyres and rolling slow. First, most of them use softest compounds and they roll like crap on asphalt by default. Then I personally perceive them being not compliant enough ONLY when rolling on slower sections filled with chunky rocks and roots, especially when you see a guy on 1.5plies in front of you, rolling away effortlessly. But as soon as speed picks up, the field evens out. I did some good deal of climbing on 2plies and it's fine. You just have to forget about them, turn off c*nt mode and step on pedals. However when rolling through a rockgarden at speed, or doing high speed cornering, especially berms, they are just invaluable.

I punctured Spec Grid while having Huck Norris installed, but the hit was hard enough that it had full right to do so. I was surprised I didn't taco the rim.

 @WAKIdesigns: with bicycletires it is not like with mototires, you have a very small motor (especially me). so you have to choose your rubber wisely. my typical loop is about 35 km long with 800 m of climbing, half of the loop is tarmac transfer, each descent has about 100 m drop with little ups and downs, the terrain is not very rocky. In cirtumstances like that I can not justify dh tires -they will be a pain 75% of the time. Last year I tried an ikon reartire -which was great 75% of the time but sucked hard on the fun bits. As did the nobby nic. with the e 13 on the other hand my loop got 15 min longer miracously. (new) Schwalbe Magic Mary / Hans Dampf with cushcore rides great -still not fast on tarmac but ok. the hit that lead to the puncture was that hard that i thought i would go out the frontdoor. i might go to the SG reartire at some point though , the schwalbe 1ply carcasse looks a little stressed -but we will see

 @optimumnotmaximum: Magic Mary is a fantastic tyre to maximize the grip wet and mixed conditions but rolls like absolute crap on asphalt. Hans Dampf and Nobby nic... I don't know what these tyres are good at because I know XC tyres that have more grip, roll faster and last longer. Like Bonty XR2. Get a Rock Razor. Durability issues aside, if counting only grip and rolling, it is the best semi slick with side knobs in existence. Thing is, I used to run 1plies, but my riding improved a lot after I started using stiffer casings.

 @ThomDawson: tried both although my dh days are already gone. the feel with cushcore is nicer , in my opinion by quite a lot. puncture protection is better with dh casing -several german mtb mags did tests and the dh casings could take almost double the energy than a singleply with cushcore. a singleply with cushcore on the other hand was twice as good as without. ( they dropped a weigth an it struck the rim at 35, 70 and 115 cm heigth, nobby nic 1.7 bar, dh tire was also schwalbe). Magic Mary singleply with cushcore rolls with about 29 watts, dh version with about 45 watts... ( cant find the big test bike (ger) did but it is out there in pdf version)

 @WAKIdesigns: in my opinion NN and HD are XC tires and they roll quite fast ( I killed the old ones fast too). I have not tried the RR, will do in the summer. The rollingfeel of the MM s is worse than the rollingresistance, I assume they roll as bad as the minion DHR II I rode for a long time.

 @WAKIdesigns: me too. It was like when I first got rear suspension. Unlocked a whole new realm. Obviously there’s a time and a place for thinner tyres but I just feel like if a rider is aboard a 160mm slacked out trail or enduro weapon and they’ve got single ply tyres on there then they’re kind of missing the point as well as missing out on a lot of their bikes potential. As always I’m not here to tell anyone they’re doing it wrong but as I’ve said in the past it just seems like everyone’s chasing confidence and stability on the downs and totally overlooking a major area where both can be improved and the bonus is you get a tougher tyre and fewer punctures.

I don’t find them that much harder to spin when considering the huge performance increase I find when going downhill. You can do things like steepen the seat angle, even just use easier gears. It’s worth it for proper tyres.

For context my local is a series of segmented descents (5 in total). To the base of a 300m elev/ 2km climb back up (half off road footpath, half proper off road tech) and I’ll do that as many times as I can until I’m dead/ getting too tired for the descents/ need to get home for the kids. Usually I’ll do the full thing 2-3 times with a few sessioned segments. And I never want a single ply ever again.

 @ThomDawson: basically no liason + relatively steep hill = dh tires

 @optimumnotmaximum: they are more of “aggressive XC”/ trail tyres, or intermediate tyres if you like. And for Intermediate tyres I strongly recommend trying Bontragers then XR2 as a knobby XC racing tyre has more grip than HD and NNic. It’s more predictable and therefore delivers more loose fun. An adequate Bontrager (as to HD) would be SE4 and it’s much better. I had problems following a fast dude on these while I had G5.

 @optimumnotmaximum: thanks for the info. It’s something I need to try for sure. Though due to the simplicity, price and feel that I like of Maxxis DH casings the Cushcore setup is gonna have to be a marked improvement for me to make the switch. That’s where I’m struggling - I’m not yet willing to drop the time and money to try. I need some more good user opinions like yours. Cheers

 At $99usd a wheel, I'll try the single wheel cushcore at $77usd.

 That's what she said. ....Boom, still got it - The Last Man on Earth

 "If you are not first, you are last" -Ricky Bobby

 nice bit of irreverence, better than most of the other tosh anyway. Good work!

 Except for Jared Graves and April didn't start well too. I wish him more luck for the rest of the season!

 @kazwei: Well, obviously April's a tire fire but we'll cross that really sad, sad bridge when we get to it.