Note: This post is filed by Grannygear from Southern California.
See this signature right there on this tire?

That is right, Ned Overend. Deadly Nedly. The Lung. The Captain. I remember standing alongside the race course at Mammoth watching him put the hurt on a much younger group of racers like Tomac, Weins, Grewal, etc. Man, I could hardly walk up that hill without dying and he made it look easy.

Ned was the man. So if his signature is on it, it must be good, right? Well, marketing being what it is, that may not be true, but in this case, Ned did me right by these tires. I don’t know if he dreamed them up one night or rode thousands of miles to prove them worthy or what, but these tires rock.

To recap, I mounted them on the Leviathan on a set of Stan’s Flows and Hope Hubs, tubeless, and that was completely painless to do. I ran them at 25psi at first, but I have settled on a bit less than that for my needs.

They have a very rounded profile with several rows of smallish knobs, but with an even and generous space between the rows.

They are fairly good sized, a bit bigger than the Ignitor/Crossmark, especially as they have filled out a little after some use. Tread width grew from 2.135” to 2.24”. Casing (sidewall) width grew from 2.085” to 2.21”. Height changed very little, from 2.91” to 2.95”.

The first ride was a 4.5 hour escapade, mostly singletrack, some fireroad, and a little pavement to connect the dots. The fireroad climb would have been easy on nearly any tire, but the singletrack was very tight, made of decomposed granite and it was quite off camber in places like a toboggan run. Right away I noticed the Captains had a tendency to cut into the sand a bit more on corners than the Ignitors did. Perhaps the even rows of knobs rather than an offset pattern like the Ignitors were the cause. However, once they took a set and began the turn, it was like the edge of a ski in the snow. Very controllable. I did notice the rear tire breaking away more than I would have liked in the rear, such as when riding up into the side of the toboggan groove, it would cut in and drop a few inches toward the low side. I let some air out and that helped.

It is a very neutral feeling tire and, unlike the Eskar, seemed to be very happy carving, diving, whatever, through a turn. The rear tire hooks up pretty well climbing and braking, but I really think the front is where it shines the brightest. In fact, the thing that makes it such a great front tire seems to work against it in the rear. There I would prefer a more aggressive center section of knobs and larger side knobs to keep the rear end from getting knocked sideways on trail edges, rocks, etc. and hang onto an off camber surface a bit better. Not a deal breaker, but there it is.

I hit the pavement to connect the end of the ride and I was immediately struck at how quiet and smooth they felt. Very nice rolling tire.

To sum up:
-Fast rolling tire on smooth surfaces.
-Decent casing size, now a true 2.2 by my measurements.
-Great turning and braking characteristics across a variety of hard to loose surfaces. Never got it into mud.
-Climbs and hooks up well, but not quite as well as the Eskar. Not a surprise when you look at the tires profile.
-May not be the best rear tire if you need an aggressive outside edge to hang onto off camber surfaces, ruts, ledges, etc. It may tend to lose contact and cut away.

Really an excellent all a-rounder for XC use, maybe a bit heavy in the non-S version for racing.

I really like this tire after riding it now for 20 hours or so. I think I am going to eat a bit of rolling resistance and run an Eskar on the rear with this in the front of the Lev. I bet that will be a killer combo. Expect a long term follow up in the future.

Oh, and Ned, you are still the man.

grannygear

Look for an update from the Mid-West on these tires soon!