General Tyre choice for Epic 2017

[Rudi Pollard]

Would like to mention that for this year's W2W I went with Vittoria Barzo/Saguaro combo. Not one problem on them. Was not even necessary to pump them the 3 days. I am sold on this combo.

 

I previously tried Onza Canis and Spez Purgatory on the front.

 

The Barzo has more grip than the Canis and only slightly slower, if at all, while the Barzo has about the same grip as the Purgatory but is quite a bit faster.

 

I also found the Canis to wash out very easily on sandy corners once they are a bit run down. But if you know you are going to race on lots of hardpack, then the Canis will be good. But we all know the Epic will almost always have loose rocky stuff.

I also used that combo at W2W this year, and had quite the opposite experience. I cut the Saguaro at the back about 10km's into stage 1 and had massive problems from there with the cut just growing on me. We made it to the tech zone where the put on a new tyre as the cut had grown over 1cm. Unfortunately the mechanic that put on the new tyre was a bufoon and tore my rimtape. We only realised the leak at the top of the portage. Took about 10 bombs to nurse it home from there.