Kenda Honey Badger Pro 2.2″ 29″er Tires: Final Review- by Guitar Ted
Honey Badgers on the Blackbuck
It is time to render my final thoughts on the Kenda Honey Badger tires which I’ve been riding most of the Fall here. See the previous post on these here. Right now, let’s take a final look at these trail treads.
Tubeless Performance: As has been stated before, these are the first tubeless rated 29″er tires I have tried from Kenda, and I am happy to say that they have been flawless as tubeless tires. This is a huge improvement over the hit and miss tubeless conversions of previous Kenda non-tubeless tires. Thanks Kenda for making true tubeless ready 29″er tires!
Ride Performance: The Honey Badger tires have been mostly excellent in the dry conditions we had previous to the late Fall. Then things moistened up a bit, the trails became covered in leaves, and the conditions were more treacherous. Here the Honey Badger was affected negatively. The tread block height just doesn’t quite seem up to grabbing looser. slipperier terrain as well. 
The late season leaves and moistness packed in the tread and made the Honey Badger less effective, so I am going to call the Honey Badger more of a dry conditions specialist than an all around trail tire. That said, when it is dry the Honey Badger is outstanding.
Conclusions: The Honey Badger is a voluminous 2.2″er that makes for a wide, capable tire on a wider rim. Narrower, XC-ish rims don’t bring out the Honey Badger’s potential goodness at all. On a wider rim, and in drier conditions, the Honey Badger can be counted on to roll fast with really good traction. However; when things get loamy, wet, or looser, the Honey Badger’s performance falls off and it is not as effective in these situations.
I liked the Kenda’s tubeless ready performance and the fact that the tire measures out per spec and weighs within specs as well. Both are unusual in tires we test. Overall it is a great addition to the 29″er’s tire arsenal, and comes with a big recommendation to those looking for a tire for a rigid bike set up, or for a very fast, grippy trail bike tire in dry conditions.
greetings. what would you consider a good ‘fall foliage’ tire? Here in Western MA, the leaves are deep – I took off my RR for singlespeeding because they wouldn’t grab.
Maybe the industry should market a ‘leaf tire’ …
@Adin: You might try a mud specific tire, which has spiky tread blocks that might pierce those leaves, but then that may end up clogging the tires as well. 🙂
Would you say that this tire is fairly similar to the Slant Six? I’ve been running that as a rear tire – decent volume, fast rolling, great on hard, dry trails. But not so hot in the loose stuff.
@Mike. Hmmm…..I didn’t like the Slant Six,and I don’t think it is as big as the Honey Badger either. The Slant Six had a really pronounced “crown”, or in other words, a very “C” shaped profile that I found wasn’t as nice as the HB. Perhaps a Slant six on a wider rim would change my tune? I’ll have to look into that….
I’m running the Slant Six tubeless on a Halo Vapour 29er rim (22.4mm internal width – good rim for the $$) and it measures an even 2.2″. For typical Colorado Front Range conditions (dry) it works fairly well as a rear tire (Ardent up front). But I do wish it had a bit more ‘bite’ in looser conditions – seems like the HB might be a good replacement.
We typically don’t do much mud here because it is so destructive to our trails, and just about everything hooks up here when we have hero dirt. It’s when the trails are roached and dry that tires earn their keep here.
I liked the performance of the Honey Badgers that came on the Ellsworth Evolve TNI test bike on our sun parched SoCal trails. Excellent manners, and plenty plump on wide-ish rims. They definitely have earned a spot on my ‘list’. It’s a good list.