[Inclag]

So I ended up picking up a pair of these things. There's not much out there aside from the initial marketing push and some initial impressions from NSMB so I thought this could be of help.

I decided to give these a try because I can't keep a wheel together when riding downhill. I'm currently running a ~7" front and rear travel bike as my daily driver and I want to be able to have the bike be functional after DH days.

I paired these up with some Vee Flow Snaps at ~22 psi. Under normal conditions I would generally run ~28psi minimum with a DH casing to prevent a tire from folding over.

Initial impressions after a day at Thunder are;

• Wheels are fine still.
• These are heavy AF. Going to look into a lighter tube to use with them, but even then these are still heavy AF.
• Can't really assess the damping effect since I didn't play around with pressures and I was more focussed on riding than fine tuning suspension and pressures. Maybe there is something going on there, but maybe there were negative effects on the suspension to a huge increases in the sprung mass.....
• I'm curious if these have added some significant drag. On more flowy trails it seemed like more effort was required to maintain speed. Perhaps that was due to me being out of shape, the tires, or not DHing since last August. Hard to tell and some time with and without the inserts would be a good way to test.

Overall my initial impressions are these could be a good option for lift assist only riders that are primarily concerned with wheel protection or people willing to strip them out of their wheels for more trails stuff which is perhaps a bit impractical in practice. Jury is still out there as to if they are a net positive in terms of overall speed. I have some concerns about this, but need to do some more apples to apples comparison to really understand speed, grip, and suspension impact.

 

[Bikael Molton]

Thanks for the review. What sidewall tech and weight is that tire? Not 2ply, I take it.

I’m highly skeptical of traction, damping and suspension claims for pool noodles.

Rim protection and run flat do sound intriguing though!

 

[Electric_City]

If Taanus is too painful to ride try Tpuussy. It's not as harsh.

My God... I hope they don't speak Engrish.

 

[Inclag]

Tire is listed as 29x2.6 and 1180grams. l think the listed weight on the packaging was a little lower by like 100 grams. Who knows.... Anyway the sidewalls are single ply 72 tpi. They are more rugged than other single ply tires, but not as thick as a double down.

Honestly, I need more time on real terrain to make a better judgement. All my rides on these tires prior to hitting actual downhill runs were trail rides without the inserts. Perhaps other inserts offer a different feel?

 

[Inclag]

Got out for a second time on these inserts.

STAY AWAY!!!!! GARBAGE PRODUCT.

I was able to get the bike out on real downhill trails at the park today and this is how it went.

Run #1 down an actual real downhill trail = no flat
Run #2 down an actual real downhill trail = massive pinch flat in first 30 seconds
Run #3 down an actual real downhill trail = massive pinch flat in first 30 seconds

Oh, it doesn't provide one iota of run flat either..... I should know.

Other observations of note. I should have known better about this ahead of the purchase, but yep, the foam takes a massive compression set so the " sidewall protection" essentially becomes paper thin. The tread portion of foam which I think is a nominal 15mm thick also thins significantly.

This product is snake oil.

F Tannus and F myself.

 

[englertracing]

Bro you're cush core is on backwards. Have no experience with a cush core but I installed some yesterday in a friend's bike, not sure I would ever add that much unsprung and rotating Mass to my bike ever for any reason ever. Unless paired with some ridiculously light carbon wheels to offset it some

 

[buckoW]

Cush Cores are great if you already run high pressures but still burp a lot in corners and flat dh casing tires often. They are the only ones that stabilize the base of the tire and get in between the sidewall and the rim in a pinch flat.

 

[Wuffles]

Bro you're cush core is on backwards. Have no experience with a cush core but I installed some yesterday in a friend's bike, not sure I would ever add that much unsprung and rotating Mass to my bike ever for any reason ever. Unless paired with some ridiculously light carbon wheels to offset it some

I took out my DH tubes and put in Cush Core... shed about 150g in each wheel, so feeling good.

Also, having used a bunch of these pool noodles now, the only one that actually does anything for suspension is cush core. It's heavy, expensive, a PITA to install, but it does work, and the bike does feel better. Probably too much for a trail bike, but it's def going on all my DH wheels now. Supposedly there is a lighter version coming.

 

[englertracing]

What is a tube?

 

[rockofullr]

Vee Flow Snaps at ~22 psi

I think I found your problem!!