Fast Tires for Leadville

When it comes to the Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race, tires are the most hotly debated tech topic. The participants' page and other forums are littered with discussions on what tire to run, what tire is best, what tire is the lightest, and so on. These discussions can be somewhat beneficial but what most of them lack is real data. Well we found one tech head who is putting XC tires to the test to come up with actual numbers that characterize a tires’ rolling performance. 

 

John Karrasch of Cahaba Cycles is our guest and expert for this episode. John has been on a quest to find the fastest off-road tires. Some of the tires he’s been testing are gravel tires but most are the kinds of tires a Leadville Racer would run: XC mountain bike tires. The Vittoria Peyote, the Continental Race King and Dubnital, and the Maxxis Aspen and Aspen ST are all tires John has tested in the field. He’s been feeding GPS, power, speed, weight, and wind resistance data into a program to come up with rolling resistance figures. 

 

We’re not gonna lie, this is pretty heady stuff. But by the end of the interview we boil it down to the tires that roll the fastest and hopefully point Leadville racers to a handful that will do best at Leadville. 

 

Mentions in this  episode: 

 

John’s Instagram - flexfitbyjohn

 

Rolling resistance effect on power and speed - gribble.org