Kenda Junkie

by Rob Blue on July 13th, 2007

I think I have as many, if not more, Kenda tires than my local bike shop. Have I gone into the bikes shop business? No way, it’s just a matter of when I find something I really believe in I tend to go a bit overboard.

I am a bit obsessive compulsive. I think a lot of people that are artistic also have a touch of OCD. Sometimes a bit more than a touch, often quite a bit more. This trait in myself makes me a devoted fan of the things I love. It has definitely caused me a bit of trouble as well but those are stories for another time.

Why do I need so many tires? Well, honestly I don’t “need” all of the tires I have sitting in my garage. I picked them up because for as long as I have ridden bikes I have always bought a set of tires, rode them until they were worn out, and then bought a new set. This method works fine and is the most practical way of doing it but I want to try a bunch of different combinations and see if there is a better setup for me than what I currently ride.

Mountain bike tire technology has developed to a point where there is a lot of thought put into specific tires for specific conditions. Kenda’s offerings alone give you dozens and dozens of different possibilities. Nowadays you can really fine tune your ride with the proper tire selection that suits the conditions of the trails that you ride.

This expermentation is a lot easier said than done. First, it is not cheap. Yes, Kenda is one of the Evomo MTB Team sponsors but we are not rock stars of the sport so although we do get lots of love from our friends at Kenda I still paid for all of those tires in the photo. Next, you really need to be good at changing a lot of tires quickly. This is especially true if you are running them tubeless with Stan’s NoTubes sealant like I do. Finally, I think it will take a lot of thought and paying attention to details to make any worthwhile judgements. So I am looking forward to the task but it will probably take a while before I can pass along any of my findings.

My first test is going to be swapping out just my front tire. I have been riding the Kenda Small Block Eights front and rear for over a year now. I like these tires a lot. They roll really fast and work well on the trails where I ride and train. I was not completely happy with how the front end felt up at the last Big Bear race though. The really dry and loose conditions up there made me feel that the Small Block Eights low knobs were not getting enough bite in the sandy and loamy corners. My first experiment will then be to just swap out the Small Block Eight front tire for the legendary Kenda Nevegal.

The Nevegals are highly rated by most people but I have never tried them. I think that the Nevegal will work well with the conditions up around Big Bear. I am just going to swap the front though because I feel like the Small Block Eight in the rear with the lower pressure I run by going tubeless works just fine with plenty of climbing traction and fast rolling on the downhills and flats. It’s also a lighter tire and I am a card carrying weight weenie afterall.

Swapping out the front is quick and painless with the right tools.

To make tubeless installs easy you really need an air compressor. I have also found that having some sort of stand to hang the wheel on makes the initial bead setting much easier. Even a broomstick wedged into something will work and it really does make a huge difference in how easy it is to get the bead to lock. The other trick is to use a bit of foam from soapy water around the bead to act as a lube. You don’t want to use the watery part, just the foam. Too much water in your tires will just dilute your Stan’s sealant.

With my tire changing tools out I also took the opportunity to break the bead on my rear tire and refresh the Stan’s sealant. I have found that out here in the dry conditions on Southern California that you get about 2 months tops before you need to add a but more Stan’s. The sealant needs to be in a liquid state to work and if it’s hot and dry that stuff will evaporate even though it is inside your tire.

While I was in tire changing mode I also put a set of Tinker’s new C2C road tires on my road bike’s wheels. They look really cool and I believe they were the tires Tinker used to do the RAAM so they must perform as well.

The last activity for my day was a final bit of race prep that I wish I had done prior to the last Big Bear race. I rigged up the handy Big Air inflator.

Bringing a pump on fun rides or even all out training rides is fine but during a race the time and effort you waste pumping up a tire in just not acceptable. I am still kicking myself for not having this ready to go a couple of weeks ago. I would have saved at least 5 to 10 minutes by having this for my last race.

A couple of notes about why I chose this setup the way it is in the photo. Big Air cans do not contain CO2 like most inflators. They are actually propane. Don’t light a match around these things and deflate and put regular pump air in after you use Big Air. Why do I use propane? CO2 freezes the Stan’s sealant and makes it almost useless. After the tires warms back up you will get back some of the Stan’s capability but not all of it. The Big Air propane does not seems to get as cold. You might also note that I have attached the Big Air to my seatpost with good old duct tape. There is a reason for this, I am not just cheap. Duct tape can fix a bunch of stuff that may break on the trail. For years I used to wrap a piece around a CO2 cartridge just in case. I have now updated that idea to use the duct tape instead of a Velcro strap to hold the Big Air can in place. I fold the end of the tape over itself so it is easy to remove in a hurry and now I have a bit of extra on the trail repair power for say a ruptured derailleur cable housing.

So the Turner Nitrous is prepped and ready to race Rim Nordic this weekend. I am looking forward to having some fun and doing better than the last race.