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What Intense tires?

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
Im racing DH in Germany, France and Belgium mostly so lots of rocks and roots.
Which tires do you advise?
Im used to running the Maxxis HighRollers, Minion combo (2.5 front and 2.35 rear) for allmost all conditions but next year Im gonna be on Intense Tires and I dont really have any experiance with m...
Soft compounds prefered as they are stricktly for race.

Thanks a bunch!
 

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
Intense Tires in the 4 ply casing are very heavy. So heavy I won't run them any more. I would look elsewhere unless you pinchflat tires a lot, Intense tires are really tough to flat.

Intense makes an EX tire, which is 2ply, but only offers it in the harder 60 durometer rubber. If they made that 2ply in the sticky it would be a sweet tire potentially.

Take a look at the WTB Timberwolf and Weirwolf DH tires if you want to try something different.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
The 909s are the best intense pattern in my opinion, really similar to the michelin comp 32 tread, just heavier. Run them backwards from the reccomended direction. You'll see what I mean when you get a look at them. All the FRO tires are 50d and the 909s seemed to work well everywhere I used them.

I, just like everyone else I know ripped the knobs off of intense tires regardless of the pattern but if you're on a team deal, it's not a problem. Even if you're not on a team deal, intense is cool about replacing them. I just don't feel like mailing tires back and forth so I don't use them.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
if there is anyway to stay on maxxis do so...u wont like going from highrollers to any intense tires...
 

intensified

Monkey
Mar 31, 2004
519
6
Canton,Ma
Take a look at the WTB Timberwolf and Weirwolf DH tires if you want to try something different.[/QUOTE] ,,,,,,,they look cool.
Maxxis = good,,,Intense= not so good if you want to keep your knoobies on your tire.
 

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
I ran the Intense WC's for a while. If you want a tire with a stiff strong sidewall then Intense DH tires offer it. They are hard as crap to mount but other than that I found them to be excellent tires. A little on the heavy side though...

I run Maxxis now and haven't found a great difference besides the weight and the tread designs. I like the High Roller/Mobsters for rocky stuff, loose etc....They work well. Minions also do as well as alot of people will run the Front specfic tire front & rear.

In the end I always say what fits your budget. Intense tires might be heavy, but they do seem to last a while longer than a SRY or ST Maxxis compound.
 

MVRIDER

Monkey
Sep 23, 2003
248
0
Mtn. View, Ca.
Kevin said:
next year Im gonna be on Intense Tires and I dont really have any experiance with m...
Soft compounds prefered as they are stricktly for race.

Thanks a bunch!
Sounds like they're your sponsor? In the past I ran an original DH up front and a 909 in back, the traction was ok, but as others have said they are way to moto IMO. I thought they were just TOO thick. They do last longer than Maxxis, but they're just too hard (not the compound, the whole tire). I think the Maxxis are much more plyable and conform to terrain features alot better.
 

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,647
1,116
NORCAL is the hizzle
Maybe I missed something but I don't understand why you people are recommending anything other than Intense, dude is going to be riding Intense next year.

The 909 is really good all around and there is no question they are a great choice for loose, sharp rocky conditions, especially if you are a bigger guy prone to pinch flats. I find the World Cup to be a little faster in hard pack conditions, less rolling resistance and a more grippy feel with the lower knobs. The knobs ripping off is a real problem with the 909, a lot of people (including me) have switched to other brands as a result. If you are sponsored maybe you can give them the word. It happens with EVERY 909 I've used and like Kidwoo said, it's just too much of a pain to deal with sending tires back and forth - there are other options for the paying consumer. It's the tire I want to run but I feel like a sucker every time.
 

Bacardi

Monkey
Aug 16, 2002
394
0
Santa Barbara, CA
I tried a 909 in the front and found that the knobs folded too easily when cornering off-camber or flat corners. Excellent braking characteristics, but roll slower.

Maybe you'll like the WC, DH, and EDGE for your conditions.
 

Transcend

My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
909 or DH front and DH rear
WC rear for fast rolling courses, edge for somewhere in between

When i ran intense, i ran insanely low pressures...8-10psi front, 12-15 PSI rear.
 

dhbuilder

jingoistic xenophobe
Aug 10, 2005
3,040
0
we are partial to minions here in the south. but i run intense tires just for grins on occasion. the original d.h. up front and a 909 inthe rear work well in dry and very rocky trails. they are slow and don't accelerate well, but are very stable. wet trails i find the intruders have excellent traction and corner well. again slow but very stable. you can run them with foolishly low pressures without flatting. the edge knobs also have a problem with staying on the casing. not very durable for more than a weekend or two.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
I like the minions, and run them in really tacky to muddy situations, 2.35 front and rear. the 909's in light tacky to dry conditions are great. The hook up real nice 2.7 up front and 2.5 in the rear. The do have a stiff drywall, but for the dry stuff, I have a lot of luck.
 

jmtf40

Chimp
May 30, 2005
41
0
I ran intense tires last year and am going to stay on them in the future. I got just about every tread pattern last year and in the future I will order mostly 2.5 and 2.7 DH.
Running dh's both front and rear will really help cornering. ( Kovarik seems to run them at almost every course)
Yes they are heavier, and way stiffer then maxxis, but they should be ran at like 15-25 psi, instead of with the maxxis like 30-40 psi. They are stiff enough that you can run low pressure and they still roll fast, but IMO conform just the right amount to roots, rocks, and will really hold on off camber corners.
If some of the courses you run are fairly muddy with roots and rocks , the Intruder is great, but not too good when the mud gets really deep and thick.
The only other tire I would suggest is the 909 for a rear tire. The braking in steep, or loose powdery secions is unmatched.
 

trailhacker

Turbo Monkey
Jan 6, 2003
1,233
0
In the hills around Seattle
OGRipper said:
The knobs ripping off is a real problem with the 909, a lot of people (including me) have switched to other brands as a result.
I bought a set of 909's a few years back to run at Snoqualmie Pass (WA) which has a lot of rocks and jagged shale. That first set lasted the rest of that season with no flats and into the winter. They never seemed to wear out???
I thought they were great winter tires because of the tall (moto) knobs. With the SR compound they stuck pretty good to the rocks.
The next pair I bought the knobs peeled pretty quickly. The shop gave me another pair but I had the same result?

It has been suggested to me that THE bought Intense Tires and that is when they went to crap?
 

Kntr

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
7,526
21
Montana
Intense tires are too heavy. I wouldnt even take the sponsorship if it were me.

Kenda is my sponsor and I still have to pay a little for tires.
 

deweydude

Monkey
Mar 23, 2005
418
1
Washougal Washington
I have run the 909 Fro's and liked them but as stated they are friggen heavy never had to worry about flats though. They can feel washy if you run the pressure to high.

Now I am running Michelin's comp 32 2.8 fr and comp 24 2.5 r I have only had them on a little while but so far THEY ROCK:thumb:
 

jmtf40

Chimp
May 30, 2005
41
0
trailhacker said:
I bought a set of 909's a few years back to run at Snoqualmie Pass (WA) which has a lot of rocks and jagged shale. That first set lasted the rest of that season with no flats and into the winter. They never seemed to wear out???
I thought they were great winter tires because of the tall (moto) knobs. With the SR compound they stuck pretty good to the rocks.
The next pair I bought the knobs peeled pretty quickly. The shop gave me another pair but I had the same result?

It has been suggested to me that THE bought Intense Tires and that is when they went to crap?
Intense and THE got bought by VSI products, I ran a practice set of tires (dh front, w/909in the rear) all last summer and they are still in good condition no peeling. Very even wear; I even had to ride from top to bottom at Windrock on a paved road with a rear flat and the 909 held up fine.
 

Repack

Turbo Monkey
Nov 29, 2001
1,889
0
Boston Area
Hmmm, nothing new to add other than that I like Michelin and Maxxis more. Especially Maxxis. The Intense's are too heavy and their 50da is too soft. I haven't had issues with them ripping off so much as the knobs being too soft. My knobs got "speared" before they got worn down. I ran Intense for a good part of this seasson with a comp 50 2.7 909 in front and a comp 60 2.5 909 in back. I was amazed at how much better my rear heald up than my front. It is almost like the comp 50 will stick so well the the craziest of surfaces (slick rock, roots...) that it doesn't work well in 'normal" conditions. They don't have a ton of bite in hard pack or any kind of open slope.
I'm sticking w/ my front 2.7 Highroller and 2.5 Mobster in back. That setup has worked very well for me in a wide range of conditions.
 

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
Thanks to those of you who actually answered my question. :thumb:
Yes its a sponsor thing and Im just allways open to trying new stuff.
Rennie, Kovarik and Quin dont seem to be any slower because of their tires so I dont see any reason not to try m out myself.
Are the 2.7 and 2.5 as wide as a maxxis 2.7 and 2.5?
Cause I find the Maxxis 2.7 up front is way to much for racing.
Dual 2.35's or maybee a 2.5 up front seems to do the job quite good so how do they compare with Intense tires?
 

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
Maxxis run small. An Intense 909 2.5 looks more like a Maxxis 2.7

I ran a 909 2.5 front, 2.35 rear setup for a while. It sounds like that might work for you.
 

SK6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 10, 2001
7,586
0
Shut up and ride...
Zark said:
Maxxis run small. An Intense 909 2.5 looks more like a Maxxis 2.7

I ran a 909 2.5 front, 2.35 rear setup for a while. It sounds like that might work for you.
yeah the 909's are considerably bigger....

The largest I can get away with on the rear is a 2.5, and I have to ride with the chain on the outermost chain ring, otherwise the tire will pull the chain in between the tire and the lower swing arm.

They really do well in the dry for me though. They really don’t do too well for me at all in the wet muddy stuff. That’s where I love the Maxxis Minions.
 

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
I have tried a few intense tires and liked them. I'd run the regular DH for dry or hard conditions, the 909 for most intermediate terrain and the Intruder for when it gets muddy and sloppy. They run true to size about, but it depends on the tread (the same size in a different tread seems to vary some on Intense). But if a 2.7 Maxxis seemed too big for you, then 2.5s or 2.35 are probably more your style for Intense.

The best advice I can give is keep the pressure low and monitor it. Whenever I have used Intense (or even similar tires) I found that the sidewalls were so stiff that if you didn't run low low pressure, they felt like crap, like you were just skating on top of the terrain and nothing was hooking. Fuss with the pressure, get it right and keep track of it for best performance. Sure, the same can be said for most tires but when I run Kenda or Michelin (as I mostly do now) I just get the pressure in a general area and forget about it...maybe let a little air out sometimes. With Intense, that never worked; I had to be a bit more vigilant and precise in the setup.
 

dhbuilder

jingoistic xenophobe
Aug 10, 2005
3,040
0
kevin; to say you got info overload is putting it mildly. it's cool you got a tire hook-up' no matter what brand they are. shred-em!
 

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
Uhm I was just asking what tires I should get because there isnt anyone else here riding them cause Im in friggig Holland where no one sells m either. I went to the distributer in Belgium first but he didnt have any experiance with the MTB tires, just the BMX ones so I thought Id ask about them here as my final resource.

But yeah I got all the info I need so thanks a lot guys.

Cheers
 

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
I even think the team guys were running 2.35's in the back and 2.5 or 2.7's up front as they are really true to size. The edge and WC tires roll fast, so rear makes sense, but you're open to just about any of their tires as a front choice as well.

Like said above, I felt like the sidewalls had no give. They don't! The tires I was running didn't hook up, the Intense stuff did, so it was a good benchmark to go by. I was running somewhere in the mid to high 20's PSI I remember and it worked out great for our trails. But you do really have to play with PSI on those tires. Plus for me the only downfall to them was they wern't easy to mount due to the sidewall and bead being so stiff. Maxxis go on like nothing, but I would always have to fight with an Intense tire to get it on.
 

SuPaFlY

Chimp
Jan 7, 2005
43
0
Toronto
As for the sizes, them pros are using a 2.35, 2.5 combo for world cup set up. My personal FAVORITES for combos with intense tires would have to be 2.35 edge 50 rear and a 2.5 DH front. Sometimes, 2.5 DH rear if it was really nuts (Mt. St. Anne.) As for Grassy for sloppy conditions that werent horrendous enough for mudders, the Intruders in 2.5 F+R worked amazing. All the DH I have been mostly doing was in Severe rocky conditions like Bromont, St. Anne, and the DH has been the best tire I have run all around. The 2.7's were just too big to run on quick sections. I have to agree that they are a bitch to get on but you never have to replace a tube again. It got to the point that my rim was like a rim lock set up from the dents I had in it from whistler and didnt spend a buck on tubes whle I was there.
 

Arm@ndo

Chimp
Jul 27, 2005
17
0
Intense DH tires definitely feel more moto. But aside from the weight they are great tires and pretty bomb proof.

In my opinion, I think you'll eventually get used to them.

It's easy to get comfortable riding Maxxis, tho', like the Minions... if you ride in wet a lot, these tires are the best for wet conditions. And for dry and rocky stuff, I like the Highrollers.

That seems to be my experience here in the Pacific NW/Whistler...

good luck !