[marshalolson]

http://blistergearreview.com/gear-reviews/kenda-bbg-2-35-dual-compound-tire

If you like to lay your bike over and corner, this is the tire for you. These might very well be the single best trail bike tire currently on the market.

stay tuned, because i know woo-kid is following up with his take as well.

 

[RUFUS]

Test trails: Colorado front range.

What particular trails were you testing these on? I went up to 3 sisters today running some monorail xc tires until I buy new ones, and was interested in these. The monorails were predictable as in I knew they would suck but I could slide them out when I wanted, especially on a buffed, loose trail like 3 sisters.

 

[marshalolson]

lair of the bear, white ranch, apex, mt falcon would be the most common rides, and several high alpine big climb/descents on CDT and its spurs.

 

[Pslide]

Nice review!

I'll just chime in with my 2 cents since I've been riding these tires (2.35 DTC single ply BBG) for a while.

I'd agree with everything in review. It's right on about the great dry performance and cornering characteristics. And the reviewer described the driving traction from that center tank tread very well.

Having ridden these in wet, I can say as good as they are in the dry, they are that bad in the wet. The lack of transition knobs makes them frightening on a slippery surface. Even the very square profile doesn't help. And braking on anything steep and soft/loose/wet can be pretty sketchy. It just can't match a knobby tire.

I also had the idea of cutting the center row to improve the braking traction in the soft/wet, but haven't done it yet.

So if you live in a dry climate, I'd say these are a great tires, especially for park riding. But if you live in a mixed climate, these tires are not very versatile.

With regards to rolling resistance, they are certainly not bad, but they could be better. I've got a set of 2.40 Schwalbe Nobby Nics. They are actually slightly larger than the BBGs, but weigh over 100 g less (with EVO Snakeskin casing). The Schwalbes roll better than the BBGs, and the Nobby Nic is a full depth knobby tire!

I think Kenda's construction could be a bit more optimized. My BBGs weighed 800g, but they have very little tread except in the shoulders, and the casing has no reinforcement around the bead and lower sidewall (next to the bead). Considering that, the tire shouldn't weigh that much. I think there is actually quite a thick layer of rubber at the base of the tread and upper sidewall (near the tread) which is contributing to the weight and additional rolling resistance. This might be good for durability in rocks, but is a little overkill for a trail tire in my opinion. It makes me wonder if they are using the same casing from another, more knobby tire, and just sticking it in the BBG mold, when ideally they would have taken some rubber out of the tread area of the casing to opimize it for the mold.

I'd love to see them move some of that tread area rubber down to the lower sidewall to beef up the bead area a bit more.

 

[Dogboy]

Nice review Shame about Kenda's sidewalls.

 

[Jeremy R]

Having ridden these in wet, I can say as good as they are in the dry, they are that bad in the wet.

Ha, I don't need to read a review of that tire.
I took one look at the tread pattern, and knew they would never grace my bike.
That tread is not Pisgah root compatible.

 

[marshalolson]

FWIW i have torn more schwalbe 2.25/2.4 snake skin sidewalls than any other brand. just my personal experience.

these kendas were right at 750g for me, and have lasted as well or better than any other trail tires in that 700-800g class. no pinch flats at 35psi w/ tubes - though i did flat at 30-32psi.

are they the best sidewall in the business? not even close. do they totally suck? not at all.

i would rather see an 850-900g UST version of this tire than anything.

 

[Gary]

Hmmm... Maxxis should never have discontinued the Bling Bling.
Cheers for the review (and looking forward to Woo's take on them)
From your review and some of the points raised about how to improve them the old Bling Blings would possibly be closer to what you were looking for.
blings ride in a similar "If you like to lay your bike over and corner, this is the tire for you" way and drifted soooo predictably but as luck would have it had surprisingly good characteristics in all but the thickest mud too, they never clog (there's not enough tread to clog) and when they slide they'd hook up again predictably as the sideknobs perform in pretty much exactly the same manner as a DHFs do. Granted they weren't brilliant at climbing in the mud (but not really any worse than say a DHF would be). and they didn't brake efficiently at all in mud (mud slows you down enough without braking most of the time anyway)

 

[kidwoo]

Hmmm... Maxxis should never have discontinued the Bling Bling.

For what it's worth, these things have much better braking traction than the blings.

 

[marshalolson]

For what it's worth, these things have much better braking traction than the blings.

and in anything loose over hardback (sand, decomposed granite etc) they pedal with much more bite than the bling bling.

oh, and on the front they steer (i.e. when the bike is not layed all the way over on the corner knobs) way better than the bling bling

 

[slimshady]

and in anything loose over hardback (sand, decomposed granite etc) they pedal with much more bite than the bling bling.

oh, and on the front they steer (i.e. when the bike is not layed all the way over on the corner knobs) way better than the bling bling

I was going to point out a similar experience with the Bling Blings. I've ran a set (a regular 2.35 in front and a reinforced Exxon 2.35 in the rear) for about 6 months. I ended up ditching the front one, because its square profile lost traction too soon...

 

[Gary]

I finally fitted the BBG I picked up a while back to the rear of my new short travel bike. (DHF up front)

first ride yesterday. a quick local XC ride with a couple of dirt jumps thrown in mid ride then a short drive to the hills for a proper ride. It's been pretty dry and dusty round here this week and OMG! These things absolutely rule!
In the dust they slide even more predictably than Blings, feet up drifts to straight back on the gas out of turns!!
I rode a couple of wet typically Scottish #Enduro (Urggh!) trails on them too and again they did nothing but impress... sliding sideways (on purpose) over wet roots onto catch rutted corners felt amazing.
on faster rocky trails they behaved just as expected.
Can't really comment too much on braking traction as not a great deal of rear braking was getting done!

It's obvs early days for me but as long as the casing holds up I'm well and truely sold on these. That Brian Lopez guy's a fuckin genius! Who'da thunk?

 

[jackalope]

It's obvs early days for me but as long as the casing holds up I'm well and truely sold on these.

Good info, but this is the issue I'm curious about, as Kenda sidewalls have been known to "breakthrough" more often than the cheap toilet paper at my office.

 

[Gary]

Yeah, more than wary of them myself

 

[kidwoo]

as long as the casing holds up

It won't.

 

[blindboxx2334]

Wow, a RM thread where Kenda is not the punching bag.

What the hell is up? Ya'll are scaring me.

 

[kidwoo]

What the hell is up?

Tire company responsible for 9,000 version of nevegal makes good tread.

Discontinues all useful version of it.


You know........Kenda!

 

[marshalolson]

dammit, i thought this thread got bumped because they are making them again.

 

[kidwoo]

Nah the limey's just catching up.

It's kenda.

When have they ever made the right choice at any fork in the road ever?

They're like the imba of tires.

 

[Gary]

BBGs were really hard to find over here.. I finally picked one up a year or so back but still have a stash of Blings so just never got round to fitting it. New bike mean't I was finally ready to accept a change

 

[slimshady]

It's kenda.

They're like the imba of tires.

Quoted for truth.

 

[Jm_]

I see they incorporated the removable knobs feature from their other tires.

 

[kidwoo]

I've been riding one for almost two years now sporadically.

^^ That shit still hasn't happened.


It must be punishment from jesus for buying a fucking retarded tread design. Gotta say, I think he has a point.

 

[Jm_]

It looked like they were doing that in the review, but maybe that's just the tread design and they put more material there so it would take longer to rip off?

 

[kidwoo]

The one I still have is a dh casing so it's definitely soft rubber. It's getting pitted at the bases but nothing unlike what a maxxis supertacky does. It's a lot more even than just ejecting the whole thing like that pic. Kenda is pretty good at that stuff though. I had a el moco do that.

The trail bike tires I killed pretty quickly so I never got a chance to worry about it.

 

[Sandwich]

ugh, that's a blue groove and it's better with everything torn off than being anywhere near a bike.

 

[Jeremy R]

 

[kidwoo]

Just saw the dh ones (the good ones) on chainreaction for 30 bucks.

 

[Gary]

Got 300+ miles on these things now.

Not a sign of wear anywhere yet. (kinda odd, seriously they still look brand new)
No punctures.
Casing's holding up fine (and I've been running lower pressure at times than usual too)

Subtle differences I've found between these and Blings
Initiate a drift easier
Don't rail quite as well when leant right over
Not nearly as good at holding a line half leant over.
Centre tread is nowhere near as good in the damp (except for when climbing)
Even worse on wet grass (if that's even possible)
Way worse in deep ruts (dry or wet)

These things still have me laughing when they break loose and drift in the dry/dust but overall for Scottish conditions/terrain Blings are def still a better all rounder. The BBG just doesn't give the same confidence due to the completely completely different traits of their centre tread, larger mid to edge transition and less supportive edge knobs.

Glad to have tried them.

Still swithering over putting something with a tread actually designed to work in the damp (for the first time in a decade) or just back to the old bling for our winter months.