Editors Note: This is the final review on the Hutchinson Python tubeless ready 29″er tires. Captain Bob trained on these for his attempt at the Short and Fat event which is part of the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. Here he relates a little bit on his pre-race rides and the event itself with a final thought or two about his first tubeless tire experience.

You may remember back at the end of August I was handed the new Hutchinson Python tubeless ready 29er tires. You may also remember that this was my first time ever using any tubeless system. I have put quite a few miles on these babies over all kinds of terrain. Am I ready to get rid of my tubes and never buy another one? Keep reading if you want to find out. Don’t forget that I weigh 200 pounds so you may get different results.

I had received the tires already mounted to Mavic’s new Crossmax 29er tubeless wheels so I didn’t really have much to say about how they mounted. However, I did switch the tires around so the front and rear were rolling in the intended direction as labeled. Editors Note: That was my fault! I could have sworn I had them on right. Oh well! Sorry Captain! Remounting was a little nerve racking but remember, it’s my first time. I was able to use a floor pump and I think that getting the sealant on the bead is what really helped them to seat up. So, mounting went okay. I am sure with a little time I would get much better at that.

Do they hold air? Yes. I never did have any problems with the tires losing air from sitting around. At first I was a little disappointed with the strength of the sidewall. It required me to keep pressures up in the 30 psi range front and 32 psi rear. Mainly due to the squishy feeling I would get when cornering and out of the saddle climbing. I usually run pressures in the 25 psi to 28 psi range, but all tires are different. With the pressures up the squishy feeling was gone and I was happy.

Much of the terrain I was riding these on was gravel, pavement, grass, singletrack, exposed roots, rocks, and big rocks. Bigger rocks that I am use to riding. The only time I had anymore issues with the tire pressure was when riding the Rock Lake Trail in the Cable Wisconsin area. There were tons of rocks and exposed roots. More than we have in Iowa for sure. I did have problems with the tires burping out sealant and my air. I was not going really fast or anything crazy, but after a couple of the “burps” the pressure started getting too low. So, I pumped them up to around 40 psi front and rear. The burping stopped and I never had any issues again at Rock Lake. The higher pressue didn’t change how the tires handled either. No loss of traction that I could tell. I did end up dropping the pressue back down to 32 psi front and 35 psi rear for the Chequamegon Short and Fat race. That pressure worked just fine and I had no troubles with the tires wanting to roll off the rim or with them burping.

Traction? Did they grip? Yes, they did. Quite well too. I was a little hesitant on the cornering abilities of the tires since they really don’t look like they have any side knobs. However, they must have been invisible because I had no problems with traction when cornering. They corner better than my Saguaro’s do and that was noticable within one mile from leaving the house on my first ride. I never slipped on any of the exposed roots or rocks. None of the dry or tacky singletrack could shake these tires either. I rode on a lot of wet Chequamegon grass (on my preride) at some pretty fast speeds and never once had the tires break loose. Climbing was great. I weigh 200 pounds so not many tires give me problems when climbing though. I was actually surprised at how well the tires gripped.

Are they durable? So far so good. I inspected the tires a couple of times and the sidewalls really do not show any wear at all. I nicked a lot of rocks when racing at “Cheq” which would sometimes cause the tire to “POP” sideways. I kept thinking to myself that the sidewall was going to rip right open. This happened many times as the race went on but upon inspection all was well. I was a little worried about tire wear since after the first 50 miles I had noticed that the knobs were not very square like when they started. However, that was nothing to be worried about because now I have around 400 miles on these and they look just like they did at mile 100. I like long lasting tires and I think these are going to be pretty good.

Roll fast? I think so. I have to admit that these tires, mated to the Crossmax wheels, do get up to speed rather quickly. They seemed to carry their speed well. Rolling resistance is pretty low. I think the tires are light (this set weighed 660 and 670 grams).

I am more than happy with my first set of tubeless tires. I would not hesitate using them them again. Am I ready to throw out my tubes and never look back? Sorry, not quite yet. I ride a fully rigid bike and it is a must that I can run a tire at lower pressures to help absorb the shock. These sidewalls are a little too weak for me to do this for a rider of my weight in my opinion.

Editors Note: It might be interesting to some of you that Captain Bob had to run higher pressures when the whole tubeless idea is that lower pressures are supposedly the ticket. I believe that this is in part due to the fact that the Pythons had a very stiff tread/casing area while the rest of the casing/sidewall was extremely supple. I think the suppleness of the sidewalls led to the “squirmy” feeling that Captain Bob relates to us in his review.

Thanks to Hutchinson for providing us with these samples to test and review.