Take two of these and call me in the morning.
Chunky! Too chunky, in fact.
There’s something to be said for a tire that looks as good as it performs.
Last fall, Airborne was blowing out their Sabre 26″ hardtail mountain bikes, right around the same time I was looking to get Katie on a bike. The price was far too good to pass up, so I picked one up for her, even though it wasn’t precisely the bike she was looking for. Primarily, her rides are on the bike path or around the neighborhood, so a full-on MTB is a little bit of overkill. But I assured her that a well made hardtail would be perfectly fine for those rides, and give her the ability to tackle any of the local singletrack as well.
In the year since we’ve gotten it, she’s grown more comfortable on the bike, and now goes out for rides on her own or with my sister and niece, with increasing regularity. But she’d had quite enough of the increased pedaling effort required by the stock Kenda Kinetics, which are meant for loose gravel and mud, more than pavement.
I picked up a set of Kenda Small Block Eights to replace them, and she’s in heaven. They’re a tire that perfectly matches her requirements for the bike, having low rolling resistance, excellent traction, and enough tread to handle any of the local trails, provided that they’re dry enough.