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26x5.05 XXL

351K views 2K replies 224 participants last post by  mikesee 
#1 ·


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#1,067 · (Edited)
I love the tires, best tire to increase your fatness to proper levels. The flotation/grip that these tires have is amazing. I would love to try the tires in snow with low psi but here in Texas we get snow only one day every few years. I ride my bike on pavement and local dry trails and I felt way slower. I have 2 pairs, the PSC (cream) and the Silica (black) and I hate to say goodbye to them but I think they belong in the snow. Two rides on both pairs $200 for the cream and $185 for the black plus shipping, PM me.

Picture shows 4.5 snowshoe on the rear, that one is not for sale.
 

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#1,068 ·
So I see 2XL fits the 9:zero:7 fork. I was thinking of giving it a shot with keeping the Lou out back.

My concern is what little I read on here about the amount of snow that sticks to this tire in less than powder conditions.

Anyone ride regularly in really wet snow to almost slush conditions like in the northeastern U.S? How bad is it, really?
 
#1,069 ·
So I see 2XL fits the 9:zero:7 fork. I was thinking of giving it a shot with keeping the Lou out back.

My concern is what little I read on here about the amount of snow that sticks to this tire in less than powder conditions.

Anyone ride regularly in really wet snow to almost slush conditions like in the northeastern U.S? How bad is it, really?
If you can get the PSC version (white), get that. Snow sticks like a maniac to the black version once it drops below freezing. In + degrees Celsius there's not so much an issue..
Wet snow doesn't stick so much, it's actually powder thats the biggest issue.
 
#1,071 ·
I haven't noticed anything unusual. Tall tread will pack snow, if this is a constant issue where you ride, something with wider spaced tread like the Flow/dunderbeist might work better. My only bad issue was riding through some mud in a gravel pit. ( was a tire track from a large vehicle). It solidified to the point I almost needed a chisel to get it off. I've only had one ride with snow and a muddy parking lot packed a snow/mud mix that was hard to cleanup, but it did not hinder my ride any. Still had enough tread to bite despite what packed up. If you are riding slush, stay out of the mud.
 
#1,073 ·
I'll report back on how the standard black 2XL does in my snow conditions. I'm not too worried about the tire somehow being more sticky to snow. I don't like the look of the cream colored tires. Are they supposed to be softer rubber or something?
 
#1,074 ·
Veetire Rubber Compounds:
MPC– Multipurpose Compound – Longer wearing, all terrain compound with a durable 56A Hardness

Silica – A compound designed to hold traction at lower temps. Rated 57A on Vee’s hardness scale.

PSC – Pure Silica Compound – Even better cold weather traction. Rated 50A for hardness (White Tires)
 
#1,090 ·
Once my tire comes in I'll post about my experience with it in coastal, south central AK. We usually have an abundance of wet sticky snow but so far the temps have stayed below freezing and the snow is very dry and powdery. So far I've noticed nothing weird with my Bud/Lou's carrying more snow on them. I'm curious to see if the 2XL turns out to be different. The dry powdery snow with the 36" we've received so far this winter has been sucking to ride on. It won't pack down well at all so I need more floatation. I don't recall experiencing snow so resistant to packing down. It'd be great snow if I owned a set of XC skis. Looks like I need to buy a set of those as well so I can take advantage of every winter condition.
 
#1,094 ·
My tire came in this morning! I mounted it on the front and it fits just fine but is rubbing on the right fork leg because it doesn't run true. I'm not too concerned about that right now because I think it is due to the tire being deformed from shipping and I think it will work itself out over time.

It was 9°F and I rode my bike with the bud/Lou's at 5 psi and my bike was squirrelly on the snowmachine trail out of my yard that we had walked on and made lots of footprints in the dry, loose snow. It made it to the groomed trail but it wasn't too fun. I rode back on the same trail, mounted the 2XL, inflated it to 5 psi and rode the same trail staying to the side of my earlier tire track. It was quite a bit easier to ride the trail and the additional floatation was noticeable. It was pretty impressed! I rode a little bit on the groomed trail and it was less squirrelly than my Bud. I then rode down a snowmachine trail I put in yesterday afternoon and I was able to ride it. Wow! So far, with my very limited experience, I think this tire works better than my Bud for the current conditions because it is slightly wider and the profile is more square and flatter than the rounded, balloonish Bud. It is too early to pass judgement but so far I'm really happy with the tire. The knobs look like they will take grip studs okay and the tire feels stiffer than my Bud.

What surprised me is this tire is not as large as the claimed measurements or what others have posted on here. For me this might be good because I may be able to fit it on the rear of my bike and will be trying at this weekend. It appears the tire is stretching out as it is being ridden so I pumped it up to 20 psi, came in to eat lunch and post on here. What was surprising is the tire at 20 psi stopped rubbing on my fork leg and the width decreased slightly. Here are the measurements I took.

4.872" wide at 5 psi before being ridden.
4.992" wide when I returned from a 15 minute ride.
30" tall at 5 psi, my wheels are 90mm wide

4.858" wide at 20 psi
30 7/16" tall at 20 psi

I'm hoping this tire stretches out and gets bigger as it is ridden or I'm going to feel like I got ripped off. Then again, it may fit on the back of my bike as my Lou is 4.532" wide at 4 psi and I've got a little bit of room available. Maybe the quality control and tolerances on these 2XL tires isn't very good and the sizes very? It says 5.05 on the sidewall, 120 tpi.
 
#1,095 ·
Mine's true to size mounted on CS rim. I've ridden it on few rides now, from fresh pow to packed. If I'm honest, I don't feel much advantage to Lou's I had. And the Lou's were much more supple. The sidewalls on these are so stiff. I'll probably go back to Surly after this wears out
 
#1,099 ·
Here are some photos:

Unboxing the monster. I'm thinking the way it was packed has caused the weird run out in the tire that I'm hoping will run itself true.


I was thinking, "wow, this thing is huge!". At 5 psi it wasn't as big as I expected.

Bud on the front


2XL on the front


View from the bars. I did notice a little bit more snow sticking to the tire than the Bud. The 2XL was less squirrelly than the Bud and held its line better in the 9*F dry, loose snow.






Fork clearance on my '15 Fatboy SE with the aluminum fork. Tire was at 5 psi on the stock 90 mm wheel.


It was noticeably wider than the Bud and the flatter profile worked better for me.


Another view of the front tire.


I was pretty pleased with how if performed on the snowmachine trail I made.
 
#1,101 · (Edited)
With the wobble in the tire you should closely inspect if the tire is seated all the way. Mine were a real bear to get onto the beads. Bud and Lou can go on with little trouble but these fit tight. Probably due to the fact they are tubeless ready.
the sidewalls on mine wrinkle up like a top fuel dragster at 1-2psi.
ak-rider...why did you go for the non psc tire? And these fit the rear of a Specialized Fatboy?
 
#1,103 ·
With the wobble in tire you should closely inspect if the tire is seated all the way. Mine were a real bear to get onto the beads. Bud and Lou can go on with little trouble but these fit tight. Probably due to the fact they are tubeless ready.
the sidewalls on mine wrinkle up like a top fuel dragster at 1-2psi.
ak-rider...why did you go for the non psc tire? And these fit the rear of a Specialized Fatboy?
Is the PSC tire the cream colored one? I didn't care for the way those looked. The wobble has subsided enough after two rides that it no longer rubs on the fork. You are right, the tire wasn't seated evenly around the wheel. I didn't do anything about it but pump it up to 20 psi and then air it back down to 7 and rode it. It seems to have fixed itself ?. The tire was really easy to mount, I'm using a tube.it seemed a bit looser around the wheel than the Bud.

I had a set of 2xls that were wobbly due to a defect so watch for that.. the other 2 pair i have are straight and true.. sidewalls on mine fold right up at 2 psi.. and out perform a bud or lou in deep soft snow, in my experience so far.. I have about 300 miles of soft dry snow riding on mine this winter
I'll keep an eye on the wobble. I've only ridden slow, granny ring trails today and didn't notice it wobbling back and forth like the first ride. I was impressed with the handling and floatation at 7 psi this afternoon. It was a superior tire to the bud in today's conditions. Since I commute to work I'm always trying to run as high a psi as I can and still float so I'm faster. About 1/4 of my commute hits plowed roads on my way to work and it is a literal drag to be a low pressure and then have all that resistance and bio pacing, hopping on the plowed roads. I noticed this tire floated better over the chewed up groomed trail where a snowmachine with a paddle track tore it up. It was noticeablely better than the Bud in this circumstance. The 2XL also seemed to grip the plowed road with hardpacked snow better than the Bud. So far I'm thrilled by the tire. I can't wait to ride it tomorrow!
 
#1,102 ·
I had a set of 2xls that were wobbly due to a defect so watch for that.. the other 2 pair i have are straight and true.. sidewalls on mine fold right up at 2 psi.. and out perform a bud or lou in deep soft snow, in my experience so far.. I have about 300 miles of soft dry snow riding on mine this winter
 
#1,107 ·
The floatation from this tire is so noticeable that I'm planning to buy a KHS 1000 so I can have a 2XL as a rear tire. Right now my Lou rear tire will trench out causing me to stop. I need more float in the back!

In general I think fatbikes are way over priced so the KHS is the best, least expensive bike I've found that will fit the 2XL's front and rear. Plus it has better standover clearance than my Fatboy so that will be nice.

I'm not sure why some posters don't seem to want to accept that a better tire has come along from the bud/Lou but I feel that has happened. It's still a bit early for me to post that, but I've got almost two years experience with the bud/Lou and the fact that this tire is 1/2" wider and keeps getting bigger is proof enough it's going to float better. Right now I'm kinda thinking that the bud/Lou are too soft and balloonish and that is what causes the squirrelly handling at times. Maybe I'll find out I'm wrong but so far I think the 2XL works out as a lot better front tire over the bud.
 
#1,110 ·
I have a set of Bud and Lou that I want to mount for the fat bike races this winter. At the slow speeds in deep snow there is no way I can tell if the front is better than anything else as its all about flotation and grip.
But the races will be run on somewhat groomed and packed trails where these larger tires will have no real advantage. But since I live in the country I make my own trails, and the tires have so much more to offer in the snow then the Bontrager Barbegazi that came on my Farley or the Vee snowshoes on my Norco Bigfoot.
On the back these tires just wrinkle up and push me forward, letting me crawl along where I should be pushing.
 
#1,112 ·
I am riding in snow that I could not ride in the past years. Not that it isn't a lot of work. My HRM was going off and that's a sound I usually hear in cross or road racing.
The problem is the engine now, not the machine.
One thing that is very tough is restarting in deep snow. I stopped today in knee deep snow and it took a few tries and a lot of effort to get moving again.
Running 1.5psi rear and 1psi front today.
I am also not a fan of the color of these tires, but if they work this well in snow I guess I would buy them again knowing how well they work.
 

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#1,113 ·
I had similar issues today trying to get going again. It was really good practice to improve your bike balance. It never had an issue with the 2XL sinking in but my Lou did, over and over or trench out. We were riding on a snowmachine trail I made on Friday and because the snow is so dry you'd break through here and there. The snow was about 2.5' deep off the sides of the trail and you'd post hole all the way to the ground when you stepped off the trail. I can't wait to get a new bike that can run this tire on the back. I've noticed I don't have to run as low of air pressure in the 2XL as I did the Lou for floatation. Kinda nice to to have to mess with your tire pressure all the time. I can see this tire not being for everyone. If you don't need more floatation then it doesn't make since to run it because it slows you down on harder surfaces. I noticed it's a lot more tire to push than my wife's bike with 4.6 ground controls. We switched back and forth and she had to run lower pressure than me to float and I outweigh her by 70 pounds.
 
#1,114 ·
Oh it's a lot more work alright. I was soaked when I got home today, and it was -30 or so. My Farley is a 29 lb bike though.
But I think it has more to do with the pressures I'm running now. With the 4.8 Bontragers I never ran below 5 psi. But these tires have so much sidewall height I run 1-1.5 no problem. I absolutely love how tall these tires are. On an 80mm rim at 1.5 psi I am getting the entire contact patch on the snow and I still have great retention and a mile of sidewall to keep the rim off any rocks or stumps.
It may not measure 5 inches at the top but it sure does at the ground. And that is where it matters.
 
#1,124 ·
How that is weighted? Normal personal scale? Fish scale?

I have hard time believing that that's accurate if everything else is stock and it's with pedals.. Mine is size L though, it was ~15.5kg before tubeless. Weighted with calibrated industrial scale and checked it with 20kg calibrating weight so should be quite accurate. :)

Hopefully new weight and pictures in the end of next week, some parts haven't arrived..
 
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