All-Black Tires are here!
One of the most common requests on our Suggestions form is for all-black tires. We’re already offering many of our Extralights in black, but what if you need the extra protection of the Endurance casing? Or if you want all-black versions of our wider gravel and bikepacking tires?
Permanently adding yet another variation to our program isn’t really feasible, but we do what we can to honor these requests. That’s where the crowdfunding idea came in: If there was enough interest, we’d make the tires. We were happy to find that the all-black tires all met their crowdfunding goals.
Now the all-black tires have arrived, and we’ve shipped the pre-ordered tires to the customers who made this possible. Thank you!
We made a few extra all-black tires, because we never know how many are rejected during quality control. For most models, we’ve got limited quantities in stock right now. If you’d like your bike to roll on all-black rubber, get your tires now, before they’re gone.
There’s also one all-black Extralight model in this batch. Here’s the story behind that: When we first developed the 26″ x 2.3″ Humptulips Ridge dual-purpose knobbies, we made the prototype Extralights in all-black. The reason is simple: That’s the casing we had in production at the time. Tire casings are custom-made for us. Until they are vulcanized, they have a limited shelf life, so we produce them specifically for each production run—and not all models are in production at a given time. (Once the tires are vulcanized, the casings don’t deteriorate as long as they are protected from ozone and UV light.)
I spent a lot of time on the all-black prototypes, and they showed up in many photos. Ever since, customers have been asking for all-blacks, but they aren’t part of the regular program. As much as we like all-black tires, the overwhelming majority of our customers prefer tan sidewalls, especially for our wider gravel and bikepacking tires. With the crowdfunding drive, we saw an opportunity to finally make these unicorn tires available—in Extralight and Endurance casings.
It’s always fun to hold a new product in our hands, even if it’s ‘just’ a different color. Beyond personal preferences, there are bikes that just look better with all-black tires. The amazing bikepacking machine above, built by our friends at Fern in Berlin (Germany), is a perfect example.
The all-black tires are available as an option on the same product page as the regular models:
Knobbies:
- 29″ x 2.2″ (700 x 55) Fleecer Ridge Endurance
- 700 x 48 Oracle Ridge Endurance
- 700 x 44 Manastash Ridge Endurance
- 26″ x 2.3″ Humptulips Ridge Extralight
- 26″ x 2.3″ Humptulips Ridge Endurance
Semi-Slicks:
Smooth All-Road Tires:
- 650B x 42 Babyshoe Pass Endurance
- 700 x 44 Snoqualmie Pass Endurance
- 700 x 38 Barlow Pass Endurance
- 700 x 35 Bon Jon Pass Endurance (sold out)
Other Rene Herse tires:
- Rene Herse tires, including all-black Extralights
