How To NOT Be Challenged By Challenge Tires

Now with pictures (I hope)!

I am incredibly happy with the Challenge Eroicas I purchased last year. Great rolling tires and no punctures or defects to date. That's high praise for any such top shelf tire which often seem to skate the thin line between performance and durability.

I did have a HUGE problem mounting them. It ended up taking me several days, using successively larger tubes to form the tires.

Apparently there is a much better procedure, that was sent to me from Chris from Challenge. It follows below:

Due to the construction of our handmade open tubulars, they tend to lay flat and tight on the rim. Once installed and a tube inflated, they take their shape and stretch a little making future removal and installation easier. It’s that first installation that can be a real pain depending on the rim.

Working with the folks in our factory we found another method for installing these tires. Rather than pushing everything on from one side, as is traditional, follow these steps:

1)      Place the rim in the center of the tire

2)      Center the rest of the tire over the rim

3)      Install one side of the tire

4)      Install the tube from the other side

5)      Install the remaining side of the tire

We’ve found this to help immensely with tighter fitting tires like our handmade open tubular tires.

Doing it that way should help you hurry up and get out the door in order to start doing some of this:

Schwalbe Thunder Burts... I like 'em!

Schwalbe Thunder Burts have become my favorite tire!

They float over soft stuff

Perfect on hard-pack (Strada Rossa there, people!)

And they roll great on asphalt!

Although labeled 2.10", the 27.5"/650b/584 tires measure 49 mm wide at casing, and 50 mm at knobs on 28mm wide Velocity Blunt rims. So more like a 2.0" tire."

These are the dual-compound tires, not the EVO tires. I bought them a German retailer as they met my needs perfectly. EVO line would be nice to run tubeless, but that's the only downside to the dual compound in my opinion.

These are perfect all-around tires for my dry conditions. I ride about five miles to the trail heads on streets, so want something that does good on the road. But then I need it to dig in good in the dirt. I have been running Kenda Slant Six tires on my 29er, but will probably switch to these there as well!!!