The summer racing season begins this weekend at the Subaru Cup, it and rest of the XC season will likely favor the hardtail, which Im super excited about. With this in mind I headed out for a 4 hour jaunt of singletrack last Sunday on the hardtail. My back wasnt real happy about this idea so when I got home I tried to figure out how to make the hardtail a little more forgiving. I settled on mounting up a set of Maxxis Ikons. They look like downhill tires they are so big. Katie was making fun of me, calling my bike a cruiser. I took off some 1.8 tires to mount these 2.2 monsters up. They arent much heavier and roll super fast. The biggest advantage is that due to the huge volume I can run them at ridiculously low psi. I rode today at 20 psi which might have been pushing it, but they were awesome. Its like riding a softail that still accellerates like a rocketship. I wish I would have put these on a long time ago. I dont forsee ever taking them off and now im sure Ill be riding the hardtail the rest of the season. Two ProXCT's, Nationals, Cheq 40, and the Iceman. I never ride the hardtail except for racing, its just not much fun. But after doing all my offroad riding on the dually or 29er, its amazing how fast and light that bike feels.
Special thanks to High Gear for getting this hot rod all ready to race.
My Brother in Law made the trip down to Austin for the Mellow Johnnys Classic and has a bunch of pictures posted on his photoblog here. It reminds me how much I like that race. Cant wait for next year.
http://rightsideroyal.blogspot.com/2011/06/day-88-mellow-johnnys-classic.html
I run 2.2 Crossmarks on the Scale at 25 psi. Its hard to beat. I wish I had a FS rig though, when I need to pedal through the chatter.
ReplyDeleteI have Ikons on pretty much every bike I have I think...never run the pressure over 18lbs and they're glorious.
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