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Ritchey WCS Shield 27.5 tires. REVIEW

15K views 24 replies 11 participants last post by  jeffrey j 
#1 ·
Hey so finally got some dirt shoes for my whippet conversion! I will be testing these out tomorrow! See how they grip, etc. They are very light weight at - claimed - 533g. for each tire. Mounted up nicely, running tubes because I don't have the tubeless stems for stans rims! But they are tubeless ready. They fit the whippet like a champ, with ample space left in the back, and obviously the front; wishing they offered a slightly bigger shield tire. Heres the info from their webpage: Ritchey Logic - Mountain - Tires - Shield

I'll hit the dirt tomorrow and post what I think about the tires! :thumbsup:

Heres a pic of the bike!



 
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#6 ·
Alright, so here is the first part of the review:

Because it's their first use, they did have that stickiness that picks up every little pebble and throws it all around! The first thing I noticed is that they roll fast! As fast as my Randonneur Panasonics which are slicks, this is on hardpacked dirt on the way to the trails, they feel great on hardpack, pavement and little soft patches of dirt.

On the trails:
First of all, the trails are a mix of hardpack, because of the dryness of my area, and some soft muddy patches of dirt left from rain a week ago, sooo...Overall, the tires are very grippy, I think because of the sharp lugs it has, and not as ramped as some other tires (think kenda or maxxis). And speaking of Kenda, they seem more grippy and as fast rolling as my Slant six tires, which I really like! So that said, I really like these tires as well. If you grind off the saddle in a loose over hardpack, you'll probably slip a couple of times, but I managed to control the bike while it slipped a little bit on a steep uphill. The dirt slinging went on like crazy! Seems like these have a softer compound, but they seemed to held up to braking and carving.

Corners:
I tried to push hard on some of the corners on my trails, the ones I felt familiar with, and it turns on a dime, man the shoulder knobs are great! I like the roundness of the tire, buy they seem to wash out compared to a more squared profile, but these are something else, ritchey really did their homework! I would REALLY want a 2.3 Shield tire up front for even more bite, but so far these seem to be the ticket.

Sidewalls:
Because I'm running tubes, I'm running more pressure than usual, to avoid pinch flats, as I don't carry anything with me. They seem stiff, but not in a bad way, like supportive stiff, not like the flimsy sidewalls kendas have. Even after pushing hard on a corner they don't seem to roll. This has to be proven with a tubeless setup, to check hows the burping on these. If they don't burp I will buy another pair once these wear out.

On the downhills the braking is nice. I like my brakes to be very touchy, and skidding on these was very controlable. They don't wash out while you skid...with skidding I mean, an easy, normal, skid...not a moto skid.

The front tire tracks very good, and doesn't go all over the place when things get rough!

And well, this is one ride. I need more rides on it. Set it up tubeless and run lower pressure to see if it really shines!

I would loooove to have a pair of Racing Ralphs to do a comparison, but they are very pricey so...no comparison are to be made.

So far...I like em'! They are very grippy, work like champs on the hardpack and they are light!

Heres the thread (rear tire) after the ride.


Still sharp! :thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
Ok, before I go riding, and in the purpose of having a well done review of this specific tire, I want it to be as complete as possible...So I'm posting the "before and after" pics of the tread, to somehow calculate how good, or bad this tire wears out.

So, heres the new tread, nice and sharp!



 
#15 ·
Yes...they are pretty pricey. A little less than Racing Ralphs, but pretty close!
I went for another ride today, very wet, muddy spots here and there, and they just work great! I love how well these corner! They looove to stick to dirt! I did pack it with mud pretty good once since the knobs are pretty close together, but traction wasn't affected that much. I like these tires! I give them 9/10 just because I don't have anything right now to compare them.
 
#23 ·
Yes, they copied Conti's design, but in my honest opinion the WCS Shield cornering blocks have more "bite" on turns. Also, the dual compound makes this one fast roller and the sidewalls are more supple and tougher too. A true-width, 2.10 tire is about the limit of speed, large-volume comfort and control. Anything narrower and the tire folds on itself cornering. The Ritchey WCS Shield possesses the best of both worlds; all-day trail epics, and XC/Marathon capability.
 
#25 ·
So I got this tire mounted up on the back earlier and went for a ride at my favorite aggressive, sandy trail today. We had a TON of rain last night, which makes this trail MUCH better (I usually don't ride here unless it rains the day before) and this tire absolutely rocked. It's obviously pretty narrow compared to my 2.35 Nobby Nic front, but it worked great on the rear. Trail has about 20 large jumps, a few 2-4' drops, lots of coquina rock, and lots of sand (which was wet/packed) and didn't have ANY issues with the tire at all and actually preferred it to the Nobby Nic I had on the back for the last 8 months. Seemed to handle leaning into corners a bit better, and had nice grip/traction on the climbs too.

Tire weighed 510 grams (bought 2 and the other is 520g) so it dropped quite a bit of weight as the Nobby Nic I removed from the back weighed 740g.

One and only downside was tubeless mounting. Likely would have gone better if I rode with a tube for day or two, but I was jonesin to put it on. I had to remove my core, crank the pressure up on my compressor, and kept soaping the bead....must have taken about 30 minutes to get this thing seated! Once on though, NO sidewall leaks and didn't need any more pressure once I got to the trail, and this was using just 1 cap of Stan's.

Last bit of info...my rims are 27mm internal Nox AM27.5 and this was on my Santa Cruz 5010. Like this tire so much I ordered one for Trek Superfly 29er back tire too!
 
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