At the weekend while riding with Paul, Sarah and Ben at Haldon Woods in
Devon I got the chance to give Ben's qu-ax muni a try.
What struck me first (literally) was the funny qu-ax frame, with the
knobbly bits toward the top; it forces you to adopt a ridem-cowboy
posture with knees wide apart until you get used to it, it was rather
strange.
The second thing that struck me was how much more grip it offered than
mine. Riding down a steep track with a large rut down the centre I found
myself flying towards the gap, so jumped across it, landing off-camber
on the other side. On my muni that would have been it, the tyre would
have skidded down the hill and chances are I'd have been sliding down
the hill on my rear.
Not so here; the tyre stuck, which almost made me fall off anyway as I
was expecting it to slide away rather than hold.
It's the same tyre, a Halo Contra / Duro Leopard (I think?) 24x3", the
difference being that Ben's is a few weeks old whereas mine is getting
on for two years, much of which has been on paved surfaces. The knobbles
around the centre of mine are practically slick compared to the huge
lumps of rubber on the newer one.
Having not ridden another muni, and with the wear being unnoticeably
slow, it's impossible to tell how much grip the tyre has compared to how
much it should do. I've been a-ponderin' about a new tyre for a while
based on the worn look of the knobbles, but I had never guessed that the
amount of traction could be so massively different.
That was the Saturday... this evening was a fine Monday evening so I
took my muni and a shiny new 2.6" gazz that I sto^H^H^Hborrowed from my
brother over to my local trails at Ham Hill, a few miles away. I did two
laps of the forest with a quick tyre change in between to see how a worn
24x3" compared to an unused 24x2.6".
The 2.6" was incredibly light, it was much more nimble that the fatter
3" and easier to steer through tricky bits rather than plough over them,
which given the technical nature of some of the trails was a good
advantage.
The better tread meant I got most of the way round before a UPD caused
by sliding sideways down a slope into a really sticky quagmire on the
path. Ewww...
On the downside, there's a log across the path at one point which needs
to be jumped on and over; the 3" doesn't care, but the 2.6" went THUMP
on the rim as the log just overcame the thickness of the tyre.
I think I'll stick with a 3", mainly because weight aside it looks more
hardcore than the narrower 2.6", and I like the cushy ride compared to
the more direct control of the narrower tyre.
It has definitely made up my mind as to whether to get a new tyre or
not, though. More to pick up at BUC... 🙂
Phil
ps: john, i got your new tyre muddy, sorry... :p
pps: weird... it made a thread without any posts. most odd...
--
phil - ex-studenty type
"Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
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