[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmt02COlmb4?rel=0&w=640&h=360]
The Juniper Ridge 650B x 48 mm dual-purpose knobbies have arrived. Unlike any other all-road tire, they combine excellent speed and cornering grip on pavement with unrivaled traction in mud and snow. At 450 g (Extralight) and 510 g (Standard), they are among the lightest tires in this popular size.
We had a lot of fun testing the new tires in the Cascade Mountains, and you’ll have a lot of fun riding them on your own adventures. We made this little video during our testing, showing the new tires in their native habitat.
The new Juniper Ridge tires are now in stock, but supplies are limited. More are on the way.
Click here for more information or to order.
So what fenders are you guys running over those things?
With knobbies, you need a lot of clearance to run fenders safely – at least 30 mm above the tire. We offer the 650B XL fenders specifically for use with road cranks. (Fenders wider than 62 mm don’t clear the chain in the smallest gears.) In the movie, you see some prototype fenders that are wider, intended for use with mountain bike cranks.
My Allroad bike uses MTN cranks, so I’d be interested in wider fenders!
I too would be interested in wider fenders for my vintage MTB. About how much wider than the existing Honjo 650b XLs are the new prototypes?
We’re testing many widths. Once you go beyond what clears a road crank, it’s hard to decide which cranks the fender should clear, and which it doesn’t need to clear.
Did you have any problems with sidewall cuts while testing? This would be my only concern regarding these tires.
We had no sidewall cuts, even though we rode at high speeds across rough gravel, including night-time rides. In all these years of riding supple tires on rough terrain, I’ve had only one sidewall cut – during the Otaki Mountain Bike Race in Japan. The cut only went through the first layer of the casing, so the tire continued to be rideable. I only noticed after the race, and I continued to ride the tire on a tour, until I returned to Tokyo and replaced the tire.
Whether you need sturdy sidewalls depends on the terrain where you ride – some rocks are sharper than others – and on your riding style. ‘Riding light’ and letting the bike dance a bit under you, rather than forcing it into rocks, helps prevent most tire issues. Of course, there is also an element of (bad) luck involved!
I got a few single-layer cuts on my rear extralight Barlow Pass 38mm… also on a rough trail in Japan that may well have damaged any tyre without a thick rubber layer on the sidewall: A steep descent that I had to creep down on very loosely packed 0.5in-5in rocks that the bike was sinking into and sliding around on… the small stuff would wash out and the tyre would slide past the edge of an underlying bigger rock, etc. It was a very uncommon type of gravel that I will walk if I ever encounter again rather than change tyre.
I have not noticed any creep of the cut layers nearly 5000km later, and feel the lower pressures run in these wide tyres make such single-layer nicks less of a critical issue than for a 120psi racing tyre.
Any plans to offer something like these in 700c x 48mm?
We’d love to offer them in every possible size, but tire molds are very expensive. Right now, our 38 mm Steilacoom is the only 700C dual-purpose knobby in the Rene Herse program.
Are the casings on these narrower (slightly less volume than the SBHs) to allow for the extra reach of the knobs?
Same size casing for the smooth all-road Switchback Hill and the knobby dual-purpose Juniper Ridge. The knobs don’t stick out on the sides, so the knobby tires aren’t wider, but they are a little bit taller. Not as much as you’d think, since the tread between the knobs is thinner than on the road tires – it doesn’t wear! I’d say allow an extra 2-3 mm in height.
Are 23mm internal width rims wide enough for these?
Absolutely. That’s what we’ve been using in our testing.
Still curious about expected life and wear patterns. An all purpose knobby tire that rolls great sounds great on paper but if the knobbs wear down quickly riding a majority paved roads then this will quickly get very expensive. Either way I am about to figure it out myself (Order placed at Box Dog) but would be interested what your and Ryan’s experiences are so far.
The knobs are tall enough to have a long life. The 700C version lasts at least 3000 miles of all-pavement riding – longer on dirt. The wider 650B tires will last even longer (more knobs to spread the wear). Our prototypes have no discernible wear after 1000 miles.