The WTB Dissent 29″er tire is the newest design from the fertile mind of Mark Slate, WTB’s tire designer, and is unlike any other 29″er tire out there now. You can take a look at the “Out Of The Box” post here. Now I will give you my first impressions on how this “knobbly beast” performs.

But before I delve into the performance aspects, here are the hard numbers I have on the Dissent 2.5″er so far:

–Weight: The two tires I received as test samples weighed in at 1220 grams and 1290 grams.

–Width: I set up the Dissents with Slime tubes and mounted them on Gordo rims (35mm wide) at 30 psi for 24 hours and the measurements were: Casing: 57.7mm. Knob to knob width: 62.2mm. After a few rides, these measurements have increased. Casing width is now at 58.3mm and the knob to knob width is now at 62.7mm. The diameter of the wheel with the Dissent mounted is approximately 29.5 inches. Casing height is approximately 54.8mm.

The tires mounted up with some difficulty to the Gordo rims. I had to use the assistance of a plastic tire lever to help the last bit of bead up over the rim. The beads of the Dissent sat firmly into the Gordos rim bead channel. Because of this, the tires sat evenly into the rim and mounting other than the tighter fit was a non-issue. (Note: The WTB Dissent 2.5 29″er tire is not a tubeless tire, nor tubeless ready)

I noticed the “Inner Peace” pinch flat protection as a stiffer sidewall from the bead to about half way up the casing to the knobs. Interesting feature, and it made me wonder about how the tire might ride. I was thinking perhaps it would be on the harsh side. The knobs also are huge. This in tandem with the weight made me wonder if the Dissent would be a chore to pedal. I was fully expecting them to be exactly that. The rubber felt pliable, but the knobs seemed well supported, and the casing felt thicker than most any other 29″er tire save the pre-production Stouts that I tested a couple of years ago.

I should also add that these Dissents are from a first, small production run, and full production of the Dissent will be started soon, if it hasn’t been already. Expect Dissents to be available after the first of the year.

I mounted the wheels to the Salsa Cycles Big Mama with a bit of anxiety about the fit. Those big knobs stuck out a ways and the casing is pretty tall on these tires. Not to worry though, as the pictures above prove. The Big Mama has plenty of room to fit these meats.

However; I had heard that the clearance on a Rock Shox Reba was minimal, and I found this to be true. About 1.5mm on each side where the fork brace arches inwards and the corners of the outer knobs pass. Hmm…..this made me a bit concerned. Perhaps a narrower rim is in order. I do have a set of Bontrager Rhythm wheels with 28mm wide rims versus the Gordos 35mm wide rims on stand by should I need to swap to something to reign in those side knobs.

Ride Impressions: The first few rides are in and here are the conditions I have put the tires through already. Concrete/pavement, hard pack, tacky dirt, sand, wet roots, wet rocks, mud,and gravel. The tires have been ridden at pressures from 30 psi down into the upper teens psi on both front and rear.

My first spin to check things out after mounting the tires was eye opening. The Dissent 2.5 inch 29″er tires are the heaviest tires next to the 36″er tires that I have ever ridden. I was ready to feel the resistance and weight as I put the first few pedal strokes into the Big Mama. But hey! What’s this? The bike was rolling along just peachy. Like it did before with the Captain Control 2.25 tires on. What? I went around the street in front of my place several laps worth in amazed silence. These shoes can run! Rolling resistance is uncannily low. Then on the way into work the next day, I felt little vibration on pavement and very little noise. Weird for such a knobby tire, I thought. The casing and the rubber compound must be just right for suppleness with the Dissent. Much to my surprise, I might add.

All righty then. Enough with the pavement riding. The trails were getting covered with leaves here, and on one of my rides, the misty rain made for some slippery roots and rocks, not to mention making the leaves slippery that had fallen. I found that the Dissent’s propensity to roll was not subdued out in the woods. I did find that 22psi was too much air pressure. The tires were losing grip on some of the roots, and I stopped to make an air pressure adjustment. Now I should also mention that I did get occasional buzzing on the fork brace with the Dissent/Reba combination. This was rather unsettling for me. I wasn’t too confident about pushing it really hard because of the situation. However; after dumping about 5-7psi, I found that the tires pretty much stopped hitting the fork brace at all. Maybe once or twice more did it happen, but I was fine with that for now.

The air pressure dump increased traction and made the Dissents work even better. Traction up climbs was superb as long as no wet roots were present. I found braking traction to be excellent. Cornering limits were not found for the most part. I did force the issue on a service road just to see how they would break loose. Both tires let go at approximately the same time in a controlled manner. I liked how they did this, since I could feel that I could trust them to be somewhat controllable even while breaking loose. These are tires that like leaning over into a turn. I pretty much had the bike slammed over on one side in my tests. Gradual lean angle turning styles need not apply! The Dissent features a blank transitional groove on either side of a double row of big center knobs, and then a burly set of edge knobs on either side. The cornering style these tires enhance are the more aggressive lean angle styles because of this.

The tires seemed to laugh at sand, and surprisingly did not pack up with mud and become big rolling dirt donuts. The spacing between the knobs, which is generous, and the size of those knobs seem to be why this is. The supple casing also helps to evacuate any dirt that does adhere. Beware of flying dirt clods once you get pointed downhill! Overall, the Dissent handled everything I’ve thrown at it so far with few issues.

Now not everything is “hunky-dory” with the Dissent. Of course, you can only do so much with rolling resistance, and while the Dissent rolls uncannily well, it is still brutally heavy. You will feel this at slow, crawling speeds and when getting started from a stop. I was not 100% impressed with how the Dissent handles wet, slippery rocks and roots either. The big knobs tended to slip out here, and I got unceremoniously dumped going up over one root that lay across the trail on a climb. My thinking is that a tire like this with many, smaller knobs might grip better. The upcoming Kodiak may be that tire, so for the wet, slippery, rocky, rooty trails, I might wait to see how that big meat will do. The Dissent isn’t terrible in this situation, but my estimation is that it likes tacky, loamy dirt to hard pack best. Basically anything dry, and I think the Dissent will hold its own. Then the Rock Shox clearance issue is a concern. I am hearing that other brands clear the Dissent/Gordo combination better. So, I may be in for a fork swap, or at the very least, swapping over to narrower rims to see if that makes any difference with the Reba.

I will be trying out the Dissent in some varied situations over the coming months. I may be playing the tubeless card as well. Also, I will be exploring the lower pressure limits of the tire as I have it set up. I ended up my last ride in the upper teens psi and I think I could go lower yet. Stay tuned for a Mid-Term update in a month or two, or…… (Depends on when winter shuts me down!)