In our series of reviews on the WTB tires introduced for 2008, we are now catching up with the Vulpine. It is a “race” oriented tire, or a “semi-slick”, depending on your choice of descriptive terms. There is no doubt about one thing though, the Vulpine was designed to go fast!
It is WTB’s official stance that any of it’s tires are designed to be run only with tubes installed. The warranty is void and WTB accepts no responsibility for those that try these tubeless. That said, you have to wonder just what a tire like this would run like set up tubeless. It is a tire designed with racing in mind, after all, and most serious racers are going to try to use the tires of their choosing tubeless because of the advantages.
So, with that in mind, let’s pretend that I set these up tubeless. That should be a fun game, shouldn’t it?
If you had the Vulpine tubeless, you could assume that it would roll better with less deflection off trail obstacles, rendering a better ride and more control. You could also guess that the traction would become better and that speedy turns would be less sketchy than with a tubed set up. I’m thinking that is what you would find……probably. You might try running them with a bit less pressure than you did tubed too, like say for instance in the upper twenties versus the upper 30′s to 40 psi. If you did, you still would have low rolling resistance with the lower pressure, most likely. I think that would be excactly what you would find.
But then again, you might not. We’re just pretending here after all.
At any rate, I am really enjoying the fast speeds and lower rolling resistance I find that the Vulpine offers. It definitely is a design for specific courses. The recent tests have all occurred on dry to tacky hard pack, with roots, embedded rocks, and some grassy stretches thrown in there. The Vulpine would most likely be a better choice on less gnarly, less technical courses that don’t put a premium on grip. I would definitely shy away from using it on a wet course. A great use for this tire would be as a rear mated to something a bit beefier/more treaded than the Vulpine for rigid bikes or for courses that need extra traction in the corners.
I found that it breaks loose on braking descents in steeper situations sooner than any other tires. So if your favorite trail features a lot of this, you may want to use a more tractable front in that situation as well.
I really liked the side knobs in corners, but you need to slam the bike over and trust that they will stick to make them really work well. Gradual lean overs resulted in washing out before the tires really had a chance to bite in with those side knobs for me at times.
The Vulpines are a great addition to the 29″er tire world as a “go fast” specific design. We’ll wrap up our thoughts on the Vulpines, and the other 2008 WTB tire additions in an upcoming post soon.
Thanks for the review GT.
Could you perhaps compare the Vulpine’s speed and grip, being a race tire, to for instance the NoTubes Crow and Schwalbe Racing Ralph? Those, I soppose, are respectably the lightest/fastest and the grippiest of dry-oriented race tires around in our preferred size?
As one would expect, this 2.1 also seems to be right between the sizes of above mentioned 2.0 an 2.25 tires.
I would be interested to know whether this Vulpine might have any speed on the RR without sacrificing cornering and comfort.
Thanks,
J
Cloxxki: Actually, I ran the Racing Ralph on the same bike at the same time for an update that will be coming on the Racing Ralphs. I hesitate to directly compare the two tires due to the fact that the Ralph was tubed.
However, the Ralph cornered very well. I thought it definitely had more “float” in sand. It worked better on rocks and gravel, and had similar rolling resistance characteristics to the much narrower Vulpine. Also worth noting is that the Vulpines volume/height is quite noticeably less than the Racing Ralph (which was the 2.4″er, by the way).
Oddly enough, the tires weigh in the same category.
Lastly, the Vulpine is more of a 2″er. Nothing more. It is noticeably narrower than a Nano, for instance.
As for the Crow, I have not ever had the pleasure of rolling one.
Thanks GT, sounds like it won’t really be an upgrade over my RR’s, especially as our trails are mostly sand-based. Perhaps except for moist tacky trails where knobs digs in/sucks and a semi-slick floats/cuts. Ritchey Speedmax’s were real flyers on the right surface.
Really, narrower than a Nano? Mine were always around 50mm I think. Did Nano’s “grow” over the past years? My only 2 pair of folding Nano’s litterally broke within the first few rides, I never got the recent ones. My steel Nano’s were pretty pointy and tall though, which made them comfortable.
How about a comparo to the Nano?
What bike is that?Looks sweet.Im currently running the vulpine on the front of my raliegh ss so far so good.
I am running the Vulpine on the rear, with an Ignitor on the front. It has been a very good combo, but this is definitely a dry set up.
I was so excited to try them out, I completely forgot to instal tubes…:)
Enlightening review, Brother… I think the Monkey is onto something with his Ignitor front/Vulpine rear setup, though I might try to keep it in the WTB family and go with something like a Prowler front/Vulpine rear combo… or something like that. But I found your comparison of your tubed experience to your tubeless experience to be an interesting one, mainly because it is so similar to the results of my own tubed vs. tubeless testing. So many people doubt me when I tell them it makes that much difference, but you’re one of the few who have actually tried it for themselves and let your experience do the talking.
I love it when I completely forget to install tubes!
Lookin’ forward to riding with you at the Death Ride, my friend. I just spoke with Jason B. and he’s in too!! Woohoo!
GT how is the 7.1d DT Swiss rim pictured holding up? Just bought a set laced to some 340′s for my road/street wheels. I’ll double check the archives for a review.
ecrock45: Holding up pretty well, but I must say, I don’t have a lot of off road miles on that set of hoops. They went back on my custom Pofahl bike which sat mostly unridden for the lions share of the summer due to testing with other rigs.
That said, I have no reason to believe that they won’t hold up over the long haul.