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Complete Guide to Downhill Rubber

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Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,876
7,118
borcester rhymes
does it fit in the arch? it doesn't even look like it fits in the frame.

I had to pump up my 2.3 butcher as I was losing traction pushing it into corners yesterday. Not sure I buy into the whole low pressure thing.

Has anybody had luck setting conti der kaisers up tubeless? I've heard very bad things, but I hate all the pinch flats I got last year and am running stans flows, so going tubeless should be relatively easy if the casings will hold. I can move over to my bontragers but would like to get all the usable life out of the contis as possible, or try and sell them.
 
StiHacka

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,508
In hell. Welcome!
Sandwich said:
does it fit in the arch? it doesn't even look like it fits in the frame.

I had to pump up my 2.3 butcher as I was losing traction pushing it into corners yesterday. Not sure I buy into the whole low pressure thing.
Click to expand...
It fits with plenty of room, but you can't see the gap because of a mud guard.
 
HAB

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,592
2,028
Seattle
SkaredShtles said:
Advertised at less than 1000g? At least at teh site I was looking at... :confused:
Click to expand...
I think that site is wrong.

Michelin's site still says 1000g, and I just mounted a new one last night. I didn't actually weigh it, but it was a lot heavier than the 2.3 DHR 2 Exo I put on the back.
 
mykel

mykel

closer to Periwinkle
Apr 19, 2013
5,501
4,223
sw ontario canada
Ima gonna try Bidendum's stuff this year - got 'woo'd into it:rofl:

So figured I would weigh 'em up fer teh :monkey:

Michelin Wild Rock'R2 Advanced - 26 x 2.35
MagiX - 1075 grams
GumX - 998 grams

Sorry about being unrideabru 26" - but it'll give you a reference compared to published - even if limited by a sample size of 1 of each compound.:panic:
 
pizza diavola

pizza diavola

Monkey
Dec 3, 2013
297
539
I bought some Wild Rock'R2 Advanced tires, online from Germany and mounted them up tubeless last week. I had some troubles because I did a crappy taping job; my fault but it was an aggravation. Once I redid the tape, they held air fine. Both times I put the tires on, I consulted the Michelin website because I can't remember which is the softer of the two compounds.
http://bike.michelin.com/tyres/michelin-wild-rock-r2-advanced-reinforced#desc

There it says:
"The MICHELIN MAN advises:
For optimal performances, the MICHELIN MAN recommends you use mainly a combination of the Gum-X Series on the front and the MAGI-X Series on the rear. "

So that's what I did. Gum-X front, Magi-X rear. My brother has the same tires, and when I met him for a ride today, the first thing he says when he sees my bike is, bro, your tires are wrong; you should have Magi-X on the front. I look at his bike and I see he's got Magi-X front, Gum-X rear and I'm like no bro, you got it wrong! Check the Michelin website! He says he just went by the CRC recommendation.

When I got home this afternoon I checked the Michelin website again, and saw the quote above, so haha, I'm right! Right? Except when I looked at other sites that sell or reviewed the tires, they all say the opposite.
So I went back to the Michelin site to dig a bit more, and if you click on the "Performance" tab of the wildrocker2 page (link above) it brings up some marketing crap about MagiX and Gumx, and for MagiX it says:

"Bibendum says :for the best control and overall safety, BIBENDUM recommends putting the MAGI-X series tyres on the front wheel with the MICHELIN GUM-Xseries on the rear". What?!. Now I gotta swap my tires around? For safety? I coulda died today because of those fuckers! By the way, who is Bibendum? He seems to know what's what unlike his buddy The MICHELIN MAN.

I found a Vital review [URL='http://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/Tires,48/Michelin/Wild-RockR2-Advanced-Reinforced,13671#product-reviews/1579/expandthat']http://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/Tires,48/Michelin/Wild-RockR2-Advanced-Reinforced,13671#product-reviews/1579/expand that actually states the durometer of the two compounds, and sure enough MagiX is the softer of the two. Stupid fucking Michelin, why can't they just say the durometers on the main WIldrocker2 page!?[/URL]

[URL='http://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/Tires,48/Michelin/Wild-RockR2-Advanced-Reinforced,13671#product-reviews/1579/expand'][URL='http://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/Tires,48/Michelin/Wild-RockR2-Advanced-Reinforced,13671#product-reviews/1579/expand']
After these tires wear out, and I go through the two spares I bought, I am going back to Schwalbe. So like in three years.[/URL][/URL]
 
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mykel

mykel

closer to Periwinkle
Apr 19, 2013
5,501
4,223
sw ontario canada
Hate to break it to you but Bidendum IS the Michelin Man's name.

And yes GumX on the back, MagiX on teh front.

Getting harder to find duometer numbers ie Schwalbe?? - have only found them once for the *Star compounds when they first came out. Don't remember where, and have not seen the document since. Marketing lingo always wins.
 
pizza diavola

pizza diavola

Monkey
Dec 3, 2013
297
539
OK, Schwalbe is no better for publishing durometer numbers but at least they never had the compound recommendations backwards on their web page for the particular tires I bought. Oh well, I am sure I will have forgotten all about this episode when I buy new tires again.

After reading kidwoo;s reply, I did an experiment; a side-by-side squeeze test. I concluded they are the same.

I couldn't tell the difference between the tires either.
 
E

epic

Turbo Monkey
Sep 15, 2008
1,041
21
Sandwich said:
Has anybody had luck setting conti der kaisers up tubeless? I've heard very bad things, but I hate all the pinch flats I got last year and am running stans flows, so going tubeless should be relatively easy if the casings will hold. I can move over to my bontragers but would like to get all the usable life out of the contis as possible, or try and sell them.
Click to expand...
I got a set of Kaisers (I had to buy them, "Der Rammstein Projekt", how can you not like that name?) last year and they set up on my Fulcrum UST wheels as easy you could ask for.
 
Gallain

Gallain

Monkey
Dec 28, 2001
183
43
Sweden
epic said:
I got a set of Kaisers (I had to buy them, "Der Rammstein Projekt", how can you not like that name?) last year and they set up on my Fulcrum UST wheels as easy you could ask for.
Click to expand...
Used to run them on my Flow EX rims, no problems running tubeless...
 
Sandro

Sandro

Terrified of Cucumbers
Nov 12, 2006
3,228
2,541
The old world
At last, the dual-compound-grip pliers you've been waiting for. The thread height adjuster looks useful though:


 
Last edited:
Flo33

Flo33

Turbo Monkey
Mar 3, 2015
2,139
1,367
Styria
I'm afraid it won't stop knobs from disappearing after 3 rides though.

But perhaps it's all some German homeopathy I don't understand.
 
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