Supple RH Tires for Mountain Bikes?
When Jenna Rinehart won the Lifetime Lutsen 99er mountain bike race on Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge tires recently, it raised a few eyebrows. Rene Herse tires on mountain bikes? It’s true, we’re mostly known for our road, all-road and gravel tires. But supple Rene Herse tires can also be a great choice for mountain bikes.
Mountain biking covers a wide spectrum of riding conditions. For much of that spectrum, supple tires offer the same advantages of speed, traction and comfort as they do on road and gravel.
There are some places where supple tires are not ideal: Stiffer sidewalls are useful on the gnarliest courses, because they climb better out of ruts and up cambers. As a rule of thumb, supple tires are a great choice anywhere you’d ride a hardtail. If a course calls for a full suspension bike, stiff sidewalls may be a better choice.
Pro mountain bike race courses have become significantly steeper, rockier, and more technical in recent years, hence racers now almost all run full suspension. In the past, most cross-country pros rode hardtails, and many rolled on supple tubular tires because of their superior traction and speed—as in the photo above. As courses have changed, cross country race bikes have changed, too, and we don’t see many hardtails and supple tires in top-level racing any longer.
However, not all mountain biking—and not even all racing—is on super-gnarly human-made courses. When the terrain is more natural and flowing, supple tires show their strengths. A few years back, Ashlin Barry won many mountain bike races in Canada as a junior—on Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge tires. As an aside, he was also riding a steel frame, made by his parents, who run Mariposa Bicycles in Toronto.
Let’s be honest, though: Fast tires may have helped Ashlin win those races, but his main advantage are fast legs. More recently, Ashlin has won multiple U.S. national championships on road and track. Still, we are honored when he chooses Rene Herse tires for his mountain bike and gravel races.
Endurance events are an obvious place where the lower rolling resistance of supple tires is beneficial. Becca Book won the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo (above) on Rene Herse tires earlier this year. More recently, she added the Cross-Washington MTB Race to her long list of wins. She completed this challenging 735-mile race in just 3 days 19 hours— a new women’s FKT by 23 hours! She reported:
“The route highlights the amazing geographic diversity of Washington State. We started on the rocky Pacific coast in the Quileute reservation, with seals surfing the waves and eagles diving into the water. From there, we rode through the Hoh Rain Forest, traversed the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, battled headwinds in the Columbia River Gorge, and visited the Channeled Scablands that were formed by huge mega-floods at the end of the last Ice Age. Along the way, we went up a few ‘bonus’ 4,000 ft (1,300 m) climbs and dropped into steep gorges that weren’t even strictly necessary to get from one side of the state to the other. We crossed a desert, and finally finished the race in the giant hills of the Palouse.”
In short, the course included every imaginable terrain, from rocky descents to smooth pavement. Here’s what Becca said about her tire choice:
“I ran Rene Herse dual-purpose knobbies: a 55 mm Fleecer Ridge up front and a 48 mm Oracle Ridge in the rear. The smaller rear tire gave me extra mud clearance. I was glad to have the grip of the big knobs on loose descents like Colockum Pass, and I love that the tires don’t make that terrible whirring sound on pavement.”
From these epic races, it’s not a huge step to bikepacking ultras like the Tour Divide and the Mountain Races (Atlas, Hellenic, Silk Road). What’s remarkable isn’t just how many of these big races have been won on Rene Herse tires, but also that none of these bikepackers are paid to ride our tires. Top riders like Sofiane Sehili, Meaghan Hackinen, Adrien Liechti and Marei Moldenhauer (above, on the way to winning the 2025 Atlas Mountain Race) get free tires and a little help with travel expenses from us. (We appreciate what they do and don’t want to take advantage of them.) However, they could earn more money if they rode for one of the big tire makers.
When they choose to ride and race on Rene Herse, it’s because the tires work best for them—with just the right combination of speed, grip, comfort and durability. In fact, Meaghan and Sofiane each had zero tire issues when they won the Tour Divide on Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge dual-purpose knobbies. Neither did Jackie Chasteen, who completed this year’s TD on the bike shown in the photo at the top. Her comment afterwards: “Honestly, I don’t really run anything else. Fleecers for Life!”
Supple tires aren’t just for racing. The Baja Divide is known as one of the world’s roughest and toughest bikepacking routes. The route stretches the length of Baja California, the sparsely populated peninsula where most roads are little more than trails. Rocky terrain alternates with sandy stretches, and bikes tend to be heavily loaded with water, due to the remote nature of the course. If there is a route that requires mountain bikes—or even fatbikes—it’s this one.
Meaghan Hackinen rode the Baja Divide in February as part of the preparation for the Tour Divide. One of her goals was to test the Fleecer Ridge tires, to see whether she was going to use them for the Tour Divide. After her epic adventure, she reported:
“I’ve wrapped up the Baja Divide with a total of one puncture that needed repair. It was easy to fix with a tire plug (and an allen key, since I’d lost my multi-tool with the tire plug kit on it). I didn’t even need to add any extra air. I added sealant to both tires about half-way through the trip, because I had many, many small cactus thorn punctures that self-sealed. Every time I looked at the tires, I pulled out another thorn.
“The Fleecers were fine for all but the deepest sand and roughest rocks, which I think most tires would struggle to overcome. When I was walking, I could always see other footprints in the sand as well—seems like some sections are hard to ride no matter how wide your tires are. I definitely could have done a better job managing tire pressure: I took too much out for the sand sometimes. After I pumped the tires back up on the paved sections, I didn’t always let out air when hit the rougher stuff again. My mismanagement here speaks even more to the tires’ durability!
“I’ve attached some photos of the tires after 2,785 km on the Baja Divide and 700 km on the SoCal Desert Ramble. The rear (unsurprisingly) has more wear than the front.”
After about 3,500 km (2,200 miles) of rocky and sandy terrain, Meaghan’s rear tire shows the tough life it’s led. To be honest, it looks like it’s been to hell and back. Meaghan is a strong rider, and the knobs are almost completely worn away in the center. The constant flexing and pulling on the knobs as they do their job has started to crack the (thin) rubber surrounding the knobs. The sidewalls have many scratches and scuffs—in fact, the rubber coating of the casing has worn away in the upper part of the tire, next to the tread. And yet this tire had only one puncture that didn’t self-seal during its entire life!
Are Rene Herse tires good for mountain biking? It really depends on what kind of mountain biking you plan to do. For anything that doesn’t require a full-suspension bike, they’ll work well. We suggest choosing the Endurance casing for most courses—that’s what all the riders in this article ran on their bikes. If you are a rider who is hard on tires, or if you’re heading into even gnarlier terrain, the Endurance Plus casing gives you peace of mind: It’s the toughest casing you’ll find this side of downhill mountain bike tires, while still offering the speed and comfort that Rene Herse tires are famous for. There’s no reason to give up the joys of riding on supple tires, just because the course requires a mountain bike!
More Information:
- Supple Rene Herse tires for road, all-road, gravel, bikepacking and mountain bikes
Photo credits: Andy Chasteen (Photo 1); Lifetime (Photo 2); Bikeradar (Photo 3); Mariposa (Photo 4); sportograf.com (Photo 5); Stephen Shelesky (Photo 6); Meaghan Hackinen (Photos 7, 8, 9)
