The week of the super moon. I thought it'd chill out a bit after last weeks big hurrah, but CDT seems to always bring about expedited days with to do lists as long as daylight. I did come away with some cool parting gifts though.
120tpi XR3 Team Issue
For being a good student and paying attention in class Tuesday night, I was gifted a set of Bontrager XR3 Team Issue tires to try out. I had a choice and was torn between the minimalistic XR0 and the knobby XR3 I opted for the meatier knobbed tire in anticipation of this weekends potentially mucky mud race. A multi-wheelsized mtb owning co-worker grabbed the XR0 to test in a 26" size so we could swap tires later on.
A little rim adjusting was needed before starting the tubeless conversion.
I used to be a Conti tire guy until they swapped to the triangular shaped knobs and started feeling all squirmy in turns on me. Maxxis has since been my go to tire the past 2 years, the Ignitor for winter and loamier trails, Aspens for everything else (cross, gravel, xc, pisgah). I really love the Aspens. It'll be a switch riding something with big knobs. It's also saying something for the tires that I'm actually taking the time to swap out and setup another tubeless wheelset. I absolutely loathe swapping out tires, which is why I run the Aspens everywhere. Yet here I am not only swapping tires, but going through the hassle of another tubeless conversion as well. Yep, the tread pattern intrigued me that much.
Bye bye stinky cloth tape.
Weighing in at 505 grams and composed of 120tpi rubber, the XR3 comes in under the 535 (120tpi) / 570 (60tpi) 2.35 Aspen tires I have. I can't find any documentation to support it, but I believe the XR3 Team Issue utilizes their Tubeless Ready technology (ok so maybe I wasn't paying that much attention. I do know the XR0 doesn't employ TRT in order to make a super light race tire, but I'm told they seal up just fine.)
Nice open lugs should be good for shedding mud. Time will tell.
I can vouch for the ease of setup on the XR3's though. Mine setup without a hitch in mere seconds. At first I thought the profile was going to be a lot smaller than the 2.25 Aspen, which has a nice high volume casing making for a fat, cushy ride with minimal weight penalties. Though once pumped up, the XR3 2.20 casing plumped up nicely.
(Left) Aspen 2.25 fresh off the trail compared to the newly setup XR3 2.20 (Right)
We got a little bit of rain today and I'm hoping to get out tomorrow on my trail out back to test how they handle. I'm a little leary the transition from center to corner might be a bit abrupt (ala old style weirwolf tires) but I'm holding out hope they ride similar to an ignitor with better shedding power. Had I paid for these tires, I'd be pretty stoked about their new guarantee:
You'll Love Our Tires. We Guarantee It.
We’re so confident in the performance of the new Bontrager tire line that we’re backing it with a guarantee unsurpassed in the bike tire business. All Bontrager tires are unconditionally satisfaction guaranteed for 30 days from the date of purchase. If you - for any reason - don’t like your new Bontrager tire, return it (along with your original sales receipt) back to the place of purchase within 30 days of purchase date for full refund or exchange. It’s that easy.
That means I can buy, try, and be confident that if they don't ride as expected, I'm not stuck with tires that suck. I can return them for a full refund or exchange them for another set. Pretty awesome.
Speaking of awesome. I took receipt of my new Raxter Thorax a couple weeks ago. Aside from them never hearing of someone named "TeamDicky" and charging me extra for merely mentioning his name, the rack lived up to it's promises. Well for the most part.
It's not as light as the site made it seem ("feather light"), though it's not overly heavy. It's a good weight, just not the lift it easily overhead light pictured. It's also extremely well made. I'm impressed with most of the details. The trays are great. The ability to adjust bikes left or right of one another makes loading multiple bikes a breeze. I love the velcro straps in lieu of the finicky ratchet strap devices common to other brands. And it folds up easily and quickly. My bikes are safely tucked up behind the car on the road and after a week of traveling with bikes on the interstate, I still got 35.5 mpg using low grade gas.
The biggest nit I have with the Thorax comes solely from the assembly stage. Paying as much as I did for the rack, I expected it to go together extremely well. And it would have. 6 simple bolts to assemble the trays and one bolt for the folding arm mechanism. The folding arm bolt was accidentally omitted from the package which made the rack unusable until I purchased a substitute bolt from Home Depot. To their credit Raxter got me a bolt out ASAP.
The tray bolts didn't fit smoothly through the square holes and required each one to be knocked in with a hammer. Each whack threatening to strip off the threads rendering the carriage bolts useless. The holes on one side were 1-2mm off from allowing the bolt to slide through. This garnered some cursing while assembling. It wasn't that the holes were off as much as it was the tray slot was bent out a bit and once one bolt was tightened, it pulled the holes into better alignment.
At first I was angry. I'd been dreaming of owning a Raxter hitch rack for over a year and finally got a car that accepted a hitch, installed the hitch, saved up and purchased the rack. I probably had some out of wack expectations due to that. Then I thought about it and realized I'd rather have too tight a tolerance in the rack than too loose, which makes for a very sturdy rack in which it is.
All in all it came together reasonably well and I've been enjoying the rack as intended. The assembly frustrations are the only real negatives I have about the rack. Raxter customer service was easy to get in touch with and responded immediately to the missing bolt. The rack easily accommodates my road bike and mtb, as well as allowing H's bike to no longer require the use of the frustrating faus bar. No more wrestling 3 bikes onto a hanging rack strapped to the back of the car. No more worries of things rubbing against/through the carbon fork stays.Three bikes fit with ease and still allow me the use of my hatch and returned to me the use of my rear wiper. Life is good. Long live the hitch rack.
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