The ATC casing (tested) is lighter weight and designed to be more supple than its more gravity-oriented counterpart. Now, everyone pull out your marketing-jargon bingo cards for the next few paragraphs. Currently available in one width (2.4) for both 29- and 27.5-inch, the Pinner is initially offered in two casing options: the Advanced Trail Casing (ATC) and the Advanced Gravity Casing (AGC). The result of this collaboration is the Kenda Pinner Pro. It’s impossible to build a tire that’s not going to slide but, I prefer a tire that has a lot of feel and allows me to predict when it’s going to break loose.” A lot of times in loose conditions you don’t have much traction and the bike will slide around. The number one thing I look for in a dry tire is a consistent and predictable feel. “At home in SoCal, they’re ideal, and I also like to use dry tires at the World Cups as much as possible. “I prefer to run well-rounded dry tires whenever I can,” explains Gwin, a five-time World Cup Downhill champion. ![]() We then made molds of the original version and the version with his input.” He came on board just before we had our molds cut, so we clued him in to the design and he suggested some modifications for the tread pattern. “We had established our benchmark goals for the tire, determined the areas where we wanted it to excel, and had the foundation for the tread pattern design before Aaron was signed. “We kicked off this tire project in the beginning of 2019, and around that time we’d also signed Aaron,” explains Tony Yandek, Kenda’s Project Engineer. Not surprisingly, the Southern-California-based rider had some thoughts on what an aggressive tire intended for loose-over-hard-packed terrain might entail. ![]() Shortly after Kenda began development of a tire in this category, they also signed a certain World Cup Downhill champion, Aaron Gwin. Missing from the Kenda line was a modern, aggressive tread pattern specifically designed for hard-packed and loose-over-hard-packed terrain. The Hellcat has a smallish and more pointed tread block (for a gravity-oriented tire), yet these sharper edges are intended to work well for penetrating softer trails and overall looser terrain. I’m not so worried about ekeing out a pinch more straight-line speed through a lower-rolling-resistance at the rear tread.Ī few years ago, Kenda introduced the Hellcat, which brought the brand back into the conversation about tread patterns with durable casings intended for downhill, enduro and just plain aggressive riding. Today’s mid-travel bikes with big wheels and slack geometry carry momentum incredibly well over rough terrain, and in turn, my tire preference has shifted, putting a premium on balanced, front-to-back traction, braking performance and overall control. And on the rear, I’d run something that’s faster rolling. For years, mine lead me to run a meatier, more aggressive tread up front, which I could reliably lean on in varying conditions. Tire choice is almost entirely determined by one’s terrain and riding style.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |