Tyres are a very important part of your motorbike. They are more than just black round things that stop your rims from scraping on the ground. There are many different tread patterns available for varying terrain. Choosing the right type of tyre for the riding conditions you will encounter shouldn't be an arduous task. So to help you choose, we've put together a rough guide on what to use on what terrain. Soft Terrain - Loam, mud and sandA tyre designed for soft terrain will usually have taller, sharper knobs (rounder crown radius) that are spaced well apart. The tall knob will bite into the soft dirt and the wider gap between knobs lets the dirt fall back out to avoid it packing. Using a soft terrain tyre on hard packed dirt will reduce the life of the tyres because the taller knobs tend to roll around or squirm under acceleration and braking. This continuous rolling or squirming of the knobs going back and forth will cause them to crack and break off. Intermediate Terrain - Anywhere between hard packed and loose dirt terrainIntermediate tyres are a compromise between hard and soft, offering the best of both worlds.

They are a better option if trailriding as they cover a wider variety of terrain. Hard Terrain - Dry, hard packed conditions including rocky terrain. A hard terrain tyre has large knob blocks with a shorter depth (flatter crown radius) to aid in contact patch. These knobs will be spaced closer together to stop the knobs rolling around (tyre squirming) under acceleration and braking. Due to the hard ground conditions which cause extreme flex and heat, these tyres are generally more supported around the base. Using a hard terrain tyre on soft terrain will give you poor traction due to the knobs being closer together. This results in the tyres clogging with mud and the flatter blocks on hard terrain tyres won't bite into the soft dirt.Content by Neil Beltchenko I started using Maxxis Ikon tires about two years ago when I bought my first hardtail 29er. I was still new to racing, but it seemed everyone was rocking Ikons. I decided to be trendy and give them a whirl. What started as a trial run has become a bit of an obsession.

Ikons hang from every hook on the walls in my house – 2.2’s and 2.35’s. So, why are they so great? Maxxis asserts that the Ikon is their most versatile XC tread, saying it can tackle anything from hard pack to soft conditions. motorcycle spares for sale kznTheir assertion holds true, especially with the variety of specific types of Ikon tires. motorcycle helmets store manhattanThey currently make the Ikon for 26”, 27.5” and 29” wheel sizes, in 2.2” and 2.35” widths, making it possibly one of the widest XC tires on the market.motorcycle shops in dartford The Ikon comes in a few different variations – the 3C, 3C/TR (tubeless ready), 3C/EXO, and the burliest version, the 3C/EXO/TR. vespa for sale singapore 2013

Just last year Maxxis came out with tubeless ready tires, although I had no issue with previous years Ikons going tubeless, knowing it is built to be tubeless is comforting. We have tried every single one of those tires except the 3C/TR version and have come to a simple conclusion, heavier is better. Although 645g is not very heavy for a tire in the first place, you can compare it to another popular bikepacking tire, the Geax Saguaro TNT which comes in at a 780g (29”, 2.2”). A few stand out features on the 3C/EXO/TR Ikon is the XC race tread. You will be surprised with the lack of resistance, especially when the tire is upright, yet very please with the way it hooks up to dirt. The tread pattern is designed perfectly for the road, but when you need to put them on their sides the tire has very predictable cornering even in soft, dusty conditions. The Ikons have been on a few long journeys and races in the past few years, and have held up fantastically. Last year, I ran both 2.2” 3C/EXO Ikons front and rear in the Arizona Trail Race 300.

I did receive a small slashed sidewall – after a little sew job, some superglue, and a bit of dirt, the tire held for the remaining 200+ miles. It then experience a trip of a lifetime on a portion of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, from Central Colorado to Antelope Wells, NM. If anyone does not know, the Arizona Trail acts as a machete and New Mexico divide route is no slouch either. A new set of Ikons traveled from Durango to Denver in a very sloppy wet Colorado Trail Race in 2013, the exact opposite conditions of the Arizona Trail Race. No flats and just normal wear and tear.  More recently, I used a 2.35” front and 2.2” rear 3C/EXO/TR on the Arizona Trail Race. The ability to have a little more width up front was a huge confidence booster for me in rocky terrain, as well as turning the tire over on it’s side more. I will be using the same combination on the Colorado Trail Race this August. If you are using Ikons or any Maxxis tire on Stan’s rims… there is no need for a compressor.

Make sure the tire is covering the rubber valve piece in the rim, pinching the tire down till you are nearly touching the inside of the valve, and pump…it is a true thing of beauty. This is also a fantastic feature when you are in a situation in the backcountry. Yes the Icon 3C/EXO/TR is expensive, however you are buying a tire that can take a serious beating. If you are looking for a true, do-it-all bikepacking tire, that can withstand the dry desert of Arizona, the wet rockies of Colorado, and everything in between, the Ikon is proven to be the perfect choice. For more information on pricing and specifications check out the Maxxis Ikon pageBy Kurt Gensheimer   January 07, 2014 Editor’s Note: The Angry Singlespeeder is a collection of mercurial musings from contributing editor Kurt Gensheimer. In no way do his maniacal diatribes about all things bike oriented represent the opinions of Mtbr, RoadBikeReview, or any of their employees, contractors, janitorial staff, family members, household pets, or any other creature, living or dead.

And make sure to check out Kurt’s previous columns. The first time I rode a fat bike was at Interbike’s Dirt Demo out at Bootleg Canyon in 2012. The first five minutes on that orange Salsa Mukluk was admittedly pretty fun. I rolled through the expo area on a completely obnoxious mutation of a bike, getting a lot of attention at the expense of whiz-bang carbon fiber road bikes worth more than my car. The sound of 4.5-inch wide tires humming harmoniously on the asphalt was also admittedly pretty fun, but as soon as I reached singletrack and started riding the rocky, rutty and loose Nevada desert terrain, all the fun pretty much stopped. It was nothing more than an oversized, awkward, heavy and slow steel bike with no suspension that clumsily banged and clanged its way downhill with more racket than a drawer full of kitchen utensils falling down a stairwell. After that maiden voyage, I had written off the fat bike as a mere novelty. The cuteness of gargantuan tires would quickly expire as soon as people started rattling molars out of their skulls while getting passed by senior citizens on full suspension rigs.

As an aside, I do realize that recently I penned an article about the merits of riding a rigid mountain bike, but the advantage of a traditional rigid mountain bike is that it’s lightweight, nimble and extremely efficient – none of which apply to the fat bike. And yes, I know about the $5,500 Salsa Beargrease XX1 Carbon. It’s got an equivalent novelty quotient as a Ferrari with mud terrain tires. While my friends and I scoffed at fat bikes, last winter I was seeing numerous photos of people riding in the snow on fat bikes. What’s more, they seemed to be having fun. I began to reconsider. Maybe they did serve a useful purpose for those living in parts of the world where winter would otherwise render riding impossible. But living in San Diego at the time, I had forgotten the entire concept of winter and continued riding my traditional mountain bike. Occasionally I’d see a fat bike on the trail. I’d look at the bike, then look at the rider, smile and say, “cute bike”.

This past summer I rode a fat bike for the second time at a Salsa event in Duluth, Minnesota. A group of us did a fat bike night ride along the shores of Lake Superior through deep, soft sand that would paralyze a regular mountain bike. Admittedly, it was a super fun ride, with nearly 20 of us piloting these monster truck-like bicycles through downtown Duluth in reckless abandon. My eyes were opened to the merits of the fat bike. If you live on the beach or in hardcore desert terrain like Arizona, a fat bike might make sense. My third and most recent ride on a fat bike was just the other day. My buddy Mike who co-owns JetLites let me borrow his Surly Moonlander sporting 4.7-inch wide Big Fat Larry tires. I had already ridden a fat bike on rocky trails and a sandy beach, now it was time to ride the fat bike in some snow and ice up on Mount Rose Meadows above Lake Tahoe. After nearly giving myself a hernia wrangling the fat bike from the back of my truck, I rode a section of Tahoe Rim Trail that was firmly packed but laden with footprints, turning the trail in a ribbon of mini-potholes.

Those memories of riding Bootleg Canyon came rushing back, as my eyes rattled in my skull and my teeth chattered in perfect time with the clanging of chain slap. Dropping the air pressure just below 10 psi didn’t really help matters. After a rough start, I came to a relatively steep climb that was easily doable on a regular mountain bike, even in the snow. I shifted the Moonlander into granny and found myself struggling to maintain any semblance of forward movement, let alone speed. Suddenly I felt like the fat kid in gym class, especially when two guys on regular mountain bikes with studded tires effortlessly rode past me. One of them smiled and said “cute bike.” Cresting the hill I was resolved to catch them on the downhill, after all, I’m on a fat bike in the snow. The Moonlander is in its element now. Or so I thought. The banging and clanging ensued, shooting me all over the trail, and the fact that my 4.7-inch tires were floating on the surface of the snow and not digging in meant awkward and unpredictable cornering.

I really wasn’t having that much fun on the fat bike, so I aborted mission and headed back to the truck dismayed. I want to like the fat bike. After all, it’s a bike. And even if it isn’t my preference, any bike is better than no bike. For specific conditions and parts of the world it makes sense, but for the vast majority of mountain bikers, a fat bike isn’t the wisest investment. Its usefulness is far too limited. You can do almost as much with a regular mountain bike and 2.5” tires. I’ve ridden my normal mountain bike in snow plenty of times, and virtually every time I had a blast, so why would I need a fat bike? I’ve ridden my 30-year-old Bianchi touring bike on the beach for miles – making sure I rode near peak low tide for the firmest conditions – and it was equally as awesome, so what’s the point in having another bike that fills such a narrow spectrum of riding? Contrary to what many people who’ve never ridden a fat bike think, you can’t ride these contraptions everywhere.

You still have to provide the power, and because they’re so godawful slow, you have to provide a lot more power than what’s normally required. Conditions that render a regular mountain bike useless more often times than not also render a fat bike useless, or at least barely useful, which at that point maybe not riding a bike at all would be a wiser choice. For $1,500 I could by an extremely versatile cyclocross bike that can ride efficiently across a wide range of conditions. Alternatively, I could get a full backcountry ski setup so that when the snow starts flying, the bike gets a break and I do something every bit as fun yet better suited to the conditions. As much as I love riding, I love it even more after I’ve taken a break from it for a little while. Fat bikes are like boats – it’s less expensive and more fun to make friends with somebody who owns one than to actually own one yourself. For most people, a fat bike will spend more time collecting dust in the garage than doing anything else.