Serfas “Krest” 2.1″ Tires: Final Review- by Guitar Ted

In the world of 29″er tires, we do not often get a pair of sneakers that fly in the “budget” range for pricing. The Serfas “Krest” tires are such an animal though, and here are my final words on these tires. The last post on these tires can be read here.

In my first post, I wrote about how these tires were surprisingly easy rolling and felt supple. That still is the case now with even more varied trail conditions. In the length of this review period, trails have gone from pure wet and mud to hard, cracked earth, and dry. So a full gamut of trail conditions have been seen and this has made it easier to ascertain the Krest’s “all arounder” claims.

Looking at the types of trail conditions I have encountered with the Krest tires, I have to tip my hat to Serfas as these have done a workmanlike job in almost every scenario I have ridden in. Only in deeper, fine, loose sand do they misstep, and maybe deep, sticky mud as well. In between those extremes you can be assured the Krest will roll fast and quiet with a high degree of traction.


Conclusions: The Serfas Krest tires are a budget tire that is tough, fast rolling, and covers a wide variety of terrain conditions reasonably well. However; it has to be underscored that all this goodness comes balanced with the weight of these treads. That can not be overlooked here, and when you pack 900 plus grams into a 2.1″ casing, you know that going up will be a chore. That’s really a big negative, but gladly, the positives may offset this for you, and there are a lot of good things going on with the Krest. It certainly belies its weight with its fast rolling feel and super-grippy tread. The puncture protection in the casing may be a blessing to those in areas with problems with flatting and the tougher casing should be a guard against tire ripping rocks.

The price is also another good thing here, but anyone looking at the Krest will have to make peace with the weight issue. Again- I would be really intrigued by a tire like this at 200 less grams and in a 2.35″ width. It could be an all around trail gobbling monster at that dimension and weight. As the Krest is though, I have to say it is a great tire hampered by a weight issue. You may find its attributes to be worth rolling the weight that they are, and I could see where some riders would do that. For the rest, the choice is a bit harder.

Note: Serfas sent over the Krest tires at no charge to Twenty Nine Inches for test and review. We are not being bribed nor paid for this review and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.