I’ve been running the 26″ x 2.0″ Michelin WildRace’R tires on my mountain bike since August 2012. All of my riding is in dry conditions. When I ride trails, I change to a knobby tire so I’ve used these tires primarily for asphalt and dirt/gravel road riding.
Michelin describes the WildRace’R tires as follows: “Features a broad distribution of knobs across the tread to promote efficiency and help ensure excellent resistance to punctures. The position of the shoulder knobs helps provide superb grip when climbing out of ruts or when leaned over. This also helps offer more predictable, progressive cornering.”
They were only about $15/each so a pretty reasonably priced tire. However; my tread pattern is much different than that shown on the Michelin website (http://www.michelinbicycletire.com/michelinbicycle/index.cfm?event=wildracer.view) so I suspect I have an older model. That probably explains the price.
I ride in rural New Mexico so there are lots of thorns, goat heads, and crud on the shoulder of the road (glass bits and stones). To date, I’ve never had to fix a flat on the side of the road with these tires. However; that isn’t the whole story. I run a set of the very heavy Slime inner tubes which I know have saved the day, many times. Every time I switch tires, I pull at least a half dozen thorns out of the tires/tubes. These buggers are generally pretty long too – all the way into the tube.
I’ve put approximately 1000 miles on them and they have held up very well. The knobs on my version of the tire are pretty close, more like a road tire than a dirt tire. The rolling resistance of these tires seems to be slightly less than my knobby tires but I can’t put a unit of measure on it, sorry…
For such a reasonable price, I am happy with them.
Leave a Reply