Taipei Bike Show : TWO fat 29″ tires!
March 11th, 2006 by CloxxkiThis just in from China :
Actual samples were showing of the Kenda Nevegal 29×2.3 and “a” Panaracer 2.3
Sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s about time he WTB Exiwolf got some competition. Both Kenda and Panaracer 26×2.3″ tires seem to be very well appreciated, should be pretty amazing in 29″.
You heard it first on TwentyNineInches.com !
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Wow! Let’s hope these tires actually materialize on these shores. How long did it take for the Kenda Karma to become widely available? Seemed like forever. I agree, these tires should give WTB a run for their money, IF they get on the market.
As expressed on MTBR, I also got a rumor that the Nevegal would actually be released as an XC-narrow tire, but supposedly our reporter saw a 2.3″ sample, which would mean that a mold exists and Kenda is ready to make a shipload of them and turn some profit.
Is the Nevegal news? Its on QBP right now and has been since the beginning of the year. I have them on item watch. Here are some specs:
The Kenda Tomac Nevegal Mountain Tire features tall knobs designed to penetrate and hold on loose terrain.
* Tall knobs designed to penetrate and hold on loose terrain
* All tires feature Stick-E rubber, a slow rebound, high-grip compound for downhill, freeride or trail, 50A durometer
* All tires 60 tpi unless otherwise noted
* DH: models made with CAP ply casing with bead insert
* Lite: models made with DTC, and L3R Pro, 120 tpi
* ==========================================
* CAP ply: Casing Added Protection helps prevent flats
* L3R Pro: compound has longer tread life, less rolling resistance and improved grip
* DTC: Dual Tread Compound
Tire Use: Mountain
Color Tread/Side: Black/Black
Tire Type: Clincher
Tire Diameter: 29″
ISO Width: 58 mm
ISO Diameter: 622
Tire Bead: Folding
PSI: 40 - 65 PSI
Weight:
Invoice Description: Kenda Tomac Nevegal 29 x 2.35 DTC Blk Foldin
Manufacturer Part Number: 07409253
Estimated Arrival Date: 05/01/06
Country of Origin: TW
Wow looks like no one knew this. Looks like MSRP will be around 55-60$USD per tire.
It was announced yes, but a Kenda tire making it from plan to “tire”, that just takes some time sometimes. You don’t know it’s going to happen until the first sample shows up. And even then, the Maxxis HighRoller 29×2.1″ was never put on the market. Talks with Kenda about a 2.3 tire must have been going on for 3 or 4 years at least, so let’s hope it’s now really going to happen, and not another 50mm/2.3″ like WTB did.
I’m dieing to know what the Panaracer will look like…
You don’t think it will be an Fire XC Pro or Cinder? My money would be on that but something totally new might be cool too. I have always had bad luck with Panaracer so I have my hopes up for Kenda.
>This just in from China :
Taipei is in Taiwan, which sort of is in China, but sort of isnt’.
I saw and photographed the Kenda 2.3 but I was sure that I had read about it on MTBR.com a while ago…I was getting kind of bike-blind by day 3 of the show
I will post a pic of the tyre on my blog later (solitudecycles.blogspot.com) and while I didn’t have any calipers with me I would say its a “real” 2.3″ tyre
There was a 29er EBB Ti bike from “Top Image” that looked pretty nice, as well as the WTB stuff (with a prmise of more tyres and rime later in the year!)
Another good thing for 29ers is that James Y has told me he wants me to take over the high-end bike brand he owns and be responsible for the design / speccing of the range…29ers will be among them! I am awaiting confirmation and an internal re-shuffle first.
Alex
Alex, very cool for sharing the pictures and info! Who is James Y?
-Keith
James Yeh is the chairman of Alita (who own Reece Cycles in the UK, my daytime employer) He is really fired up about pushing into the high end (say 300GBP - 5000GBP!) market so a nice range of 29ers and singlspeeds / fixies would fit right in
Alex
This is BS! to set the record straight and give the facts, not rumors, Kenda did show a Nev 2.3 it was big and Panaracer will have a 2.3 at IB. I spoke with Panaracer personally about this tire, they did not have any samples. Tooling will be opened soon and samples will be floating around in the summer sometime. Now you know,
Also, Maxxis will have two new tires, one larger, one the same size as the Ignitor. Same timeline as Panaracer.
Kenda are not producing the 2.3(5)in model. It will be a 2.2in when it reaches production. The show model was just that - a show model.
That’s the meanest and stupidest tease I’ve seen. Most wanted tire in the MTBR poll, and they SHOW it, and then downsize it to maybe take a couple percent marketshare in the knobby XC chaos. Next up : a Motoraptor vs Nevagal comparison test, hurray!
Why BOTHER make a show tire??? How does that work anyway, no mold?
It would seem rather odd if Kenda had promised this Nevegal 2.3 so convincingly that QBP put it in their ‘06 catalog, only to have it become vaporware. That’s not going to play well with the masses.
Anyway, all this tire talk is absolutely trash until an actual “for sale” tire shows up on the shelves of LBS’ all around the world. I’ve seen way too many disappointments along the way. I’d rather that we just discovered a new tire on a shelf for sale somewhere than to hear all of these unsubstantiated rumors and unfulfilled promises.
I agree with you, Cloxxki, these companies must be afraid of making money! It just doesn’t make any sense. Well, I’ll be off now to buy some 29″er tires that are actually available. To manufacturers: It could have been your tire! Too bad!
First I heard (or misunderstood) on this, was that the 2.35 they made, mysteriously wasn’t up Kenda’s sizing requirements for a 2.35″, so they decided to market it as a 2.2″ after all. If this were true, explain to me why my 2.2″ Karma measures 49mm across on a wide rim. Normally even 2.0 Kenda’s manage that, right?
Man would some of us have been rich now if we could “just” throw a couple bucks on a pile to fund a tire that manufacturers just WON’T make.
The more you plead, the more they’ll say “no demand”, “risky investment”, “niche market”.
Now who has pics or anything on the new Panaracer Rampage tread?