In the late stages of planning a trip through starting Zimbabwe and riding towards Nambia via the Spine of the Dragon route in South Africa. I'm having consistent debates on which tires to use for the trip. Looking for a wide,
durable tire with a high degree of puncture resistance for mostly gravel/track rack riding. I don't have on route access to a bike shop until the 5000 km mark or so in Cape Town. I'll likely be bring the 2nd set of rubber along to replace my 29x 2.4" EXO Ardents when they wear out.
Bit of random info on my bike. I will be using a Surly Ogre 29'er ridged fork, HD touring 700x19 rim (up to 62 mm tire), total weight of me/bike/gear is about 85 kg soaking wet. Running tubes.
I read through some of the TD posts and posted on a couple Facebook groups looking for tires recommendations and came up with Geax Saguaro, Schwalbe Smart Sam Plus 29 x 2.1, and the Maxxis Ardent/Ikon/Crossmark's
My questions:
1. Any other tires that I am missing that I should be looking at?
2. Is EXO version of the Maxxis tires the most durable version of the their tires?
Thanks
Your trip sounds awesome! I did a bit of homework on the Dragon's Spine, can't wait to get that one under the belt one day!
You'll likely get a lot of varied opinions on this. Here are my thoughts/experiences.
I've been running Ikons (3c exo, as a rear tire exclusively) and Ikons and Minions (exo, front) for the last number of years (since 2012) mostly without issue, tubeless on Stans rims and this year on Derby's. I've toured in New Zealand (North island Tour Aotearoa route and roads), Chile (Carterra Austral and a bunch more), Italy (Tuscany trail route and roads) done the Colorado trail twice, tour and race. Thousands of km's all over BC on my local roads and trails, blah blah, and am generally happy with Maxxis tires. They're my go to.
I tore a rear sidewall in 2012 on the Colorado Trail and had no issues with them until this year (was injured most of 2013, didn't ride 9 mos) where I've torn 3 exo protection tires. One on the CTR this year on my last day, one bikepacking in the Chilcotins and one in Squamish on a flow trail (Half Nelson). I sewed all of them up, maintaining their tubeless and ended up finishing the trip/ride with the exception of the Squamish ride as it wouldn't hold tubeless after I sewed it and I was impatient, so just booted and tubed it and kept going.
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/question-and-answer/tubeless-tire-sidewall-repair/20/In my experience Maxxis tires have good wear life, there are enough tread patterns to keep most people happy, they mount up tubeless super easy and are reasonably easy to repair with a curved needle, mini pliers and some patience. My experience is under 'normal bikepacking' loads where at the extreme end my loaded bike weighed under 50lbs with food, water, gear, etc.. Most of the time closer to 40-45 for touring, less for racing and shorter bikepacking trips. I'm 150lbs.
If I were heading out to ride the ride your going on with the kit I normally would take I'd lean towards 2.35" Ikons as I've got miles, years and faith behind them and have fixed them and ridden on them just fine. They won't last 7000km but if you're packing two sets, or could mail one pair ahead somewhere you could push a good couple/few thousand km per pair.
Why not start tubeless? pack 4oz of stans and take a couple/few tubes to deal with as you need to?
My thoughts and opinions, we all know how tire, seat, and 'preference' threads go.
Good Luck your trip sounds incredible!
Adam.
