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WTB Launches Bridger 27.5 x 3.0 MTB Tires, New SL8 Saddle & Carbon Rims

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WTB Bridger 27.5+ x 3.0 mountain bike tires for enduro

WTB is launching three new products at the Taipei show, but they’ve gone ahead and sent over a few preliminary pics and details.

The brand has been at the forefront of mountain bike tire sizing since the early days, and before then, near the front of the pack with tread design with things like the front-and-rear specific Velociraptors. When Gary Fisher and others needed a tire to fit those wacky new 29ers, the Nano Raptor was born. Last year, they introduced one of the first 27.5+ tires with the Trailblazer 2.8.

Now, they’ve added the Bridger 27.5 x 3.0, a proper plus-sized mountain bike tire that’s designed for ripping enduro courses to shreds. It’ll be available in two casings: The more aggressive TCS Tough: High Grip gets their sticky Gravity DNA rubber with a two-ply casing for pinch and cut protection. It takes the 27.5+ segment and puts it squarely in the realm of all-out, earth ripping performance…which is exactly where we see this segment heading thanks to products like the new Fox 34 “plus” fork and mountain bikes heading toward wider axles to accommodate such things.

There’ll also be a TCS Light: Fast Rolling model, which gives them a grippier tire for the front and faster rolling one in the rear when conditions allow. Claimed weights and prices are 1,235g/$67.95 (Light) and 1,510g/$76.95 (Tough), available in August.

If you’re sticking with your standard sized tires, there’s a new carbon rim for you, plus a new lightweight saddle…

WTB Ci24 carbon fiber mountain bike rims

First spotted at NAHBS holding up Chris Chance’s new Yo Eddy bikes, the Ci24 is WTB’s first carbon fiber rim. Available in both 27.5 and 29er diameters, the rims have been a long time in development. The goals were to make them strong and functional, adding ease of use everywhere along the path from building to mounting tires to riding them.

They use WTB’s 4D drilling pattern to align the spokes directly toward the hub flange. They say with a material as stiff as carbon, you can’t just drill a straight hole and expect good results; too much binding and bending will occur and it can make them hard to build and possible break spokes (or worse) as they’re stressed. They also use their TCS system design, which incorporates a UST-certified rim profile for secure mounting and (they say) floor-pump seating and inflation when used with their TCS tires and sealant. Claimed weights are 414g and 420g, measurements are 24mm inside width, 30mm outside. Depth is 31mm, available in 32 hole drillings only. Available in June for $549.95 each.

WTB SL8 lightweight carbon fiber rail bicycle saddle

Lastly, the new SLG saddle gets a profile that’s reminiscent of current WTB saddles, but has its own character. The nose is long and slim, and the tail has a slight upward kick. The body is covered with their lightweight DNA padding throughout, and in the carbon rail form, it’s the lightest saddle they’ve every made at just 146g. Lest you think it just for road at that weight, they’re saying it’s ready for anything, with the carbon model having been tested under Team WTB riders Jason Moeschler, Mark Weir, Ben Cruz, and Marco Osborne as well as fellow Cannondale and WTB athlete Jerome Clementz, on the Enduro World Series and Big Mountain Enduro Series events throughout 2014.

They’ll be available in Carbon, Pro and Team models with prices ranging from $119.95 up to $249.95. Available in June.

WTB.com

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SOme DUde
SOme DUde
9 years ago

fantastic. actual affordable carbon rims from a major manufacturer.

groghunter
groghunter
9 years ago

i like the look of that saddle. also, woo for those tires, they look awesome, hopefully you can actually get them in august. still no availability on trailblazers (though the dockworker strikes have a lot to do with that.)

DK
DK
9 years ago

I wonder why they went UST and not hookless not that everybody is going hookless on carbon rims.

boosh
boosh
9 years ago

Ohhh just what the EWS racers have been asking for, a 3″ 1500g tire! So Enduro!

Brian
Brian
9 years ago

DK- they’re pretty into ust. I’ve been very happy with my wtb rims, fwiw.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/ask-us-anything-wtb-2015.html

AdventuresAnonymous
AdventuresAnonymous
9 years ago

Now those are some carbon rims I’d be interested in building up and riding. Perhaps there are i30 and i40 versions in the pipeline? Been riding WTB rims for years with no problems, so hopefully the carbon hoop durability will be better than some others I’ve seen.

And yes for the B+ tire size, although that rendering makes it look like the knobs are super tall and maybe squirmy. Makes more sense to me than 29+…

groghunter
groghunter
9 years ago

I’ve seen pics of prototype i35 aluminum rims.

Farts
Farts
9 years ago

I don’t really see ripping anything but my own legs off with 1500g tires

Colin M
9 years ago

“WTB Bridger 3.0 27.5+ tires will be available in TCS Tough: High Grip and TCS Light: Fast Rolling options. WTB lists preproduction weights of 1235g and 1510g for TCS Light: Fast Rolling and TCS Tough: High Grip options with a projected availability of August 2015.”

1510 grams! hahhaha This 27.5+ tire idea is such a joke.

chasejj
chasejj
9 years ago

I do find the march to larger and larger rims and tires to be mildly hilarious since forever lightweight and rolling resistance were so important. I have to wonder what the point of CF rims are (at least light weight ones) when you slab a 1500 G tire on it? There are wheels that weigh 1500 grams!!

chasejj
chasejj
9 years ago

My previous post failed to mention that that tire looks to be absolute BOSS for hard surface and loose over hard trash we ride here in the west. Reports of 27.5+ advocates are getting me thinking about it on my next bike purchase.
I guess the wheels will have “momentum once up to speed “(that will be the catch phrase by the ride reviews). Acceleration will be a forbidden word.

MTBRDR929
MTBRDR929
9 years ago

Derby Rims FTW

endurbro
endurbro
9 years ago

WTB has me scratching my head a lot these days. First they release the “first B+ tire” that is advertised as a 2.8 but actually measures 2.6 to the casing on a 50mm rim at 30psi, with a 2.25″ tread and a height that’s just a few mm’s taller than a 27.5×2.35 on a wide rim. Of course it fits on a 29’er, it’s just a kinda tall kinda narrow 27.5 tire. Now they give us this 1500g monster “enduro” B+ tire that no one is asking for. If it’s that heavy they better hope it measures as advertised at a reasonable pressure. 1500g is a couple hundred grams heavier than a super awesome 27.5×2.5 slow rebound, two ply, WC class DH tire… B+ sounds like a nice enough idea, but enduro? Really? Actual riders who ride actual enduros want this stuff? This feels like an enduro tire designed by someone who just reads about enduros on the internets and in snarky bike rumor comment threads. If I was going to push ~3000g of rubber up a EWS all weekend I think I’d choose the tasty double ply DH rubber.

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
9 years ago

RE: @MTBRDR929 Derby rims are ok, nothing special other than they are wide. I’ve built a few sets but they are straight drilled, so at full tension the inside edge of the nipple ends up grinding against the barrel of the spoke. Not ideal, and odd considering every rim mfg worth talking about drills their holes at angles. The WTB Ci24’s are drilled at an angle which makes for a much stronger/stable build and less stress on the spokes.

Cornelius
Cornelius
9 years ago

Total mtb nOOb here with a question: could one theoretically run a 27.5+ on the rear of a 29er hardtail to get some of the suspension benefits of a FS 29er? I’m going to try my hand at a couple of Xterra races this season and I’m not sure if I should put down the extra coin for a FS bike. Thanks.

grog
grog
9 years ago

@Cornelius It depends. If you do some googling, there’s some people who’ve gotten prototype tires that have tried them on a boatload on 29ers: long story short, with the 2.8s, they sometimes had to go with a narrower rim to fit, but got them into pretty much everything they tried. hardtails fared better than FS at running wider rims. For example, I know that On-one Parkwoods can work with a 35mm internal rim in the rear. I’ve got one showing up tomorrow(i bought it because of the tire clearance) & will try it with a i45 scrapper, as there was still some space, if the tires ever come into stock. grr.

chasejj
chasejj
9 years ago

In speaking with a well known framebuilder the next wave of cool is mid travel 29ers and rigid frames that are designed to accommodate 29ers and 27+ on the same chassis.
Wider hubs and forks will enable this trend to take over.
It may be the ultimate quiver killer when you think about it.
A simple wheel change for 2 totally different rides on the same chassis.

Hubert Riis
Hubert Riis
9 years ago

We gathered in Spring 2015 to watch some of the MTB world’s longest-lasting manufacturers display their latest wares. What developed was a strange viewing of a shotgun-blasting blind hunter, pointing his gun in all directions and firing at random, hoping to hit something with at least one meager pellet from one of the many shells fired off. He shot here, he shot there. He even shot way over there.

Among the audience were numerous MTB riders who have been riding a long time (10+ years), people who have seen silly fads come and go. These riders count on the long-lasting manufacturers to ignore fads and leave them to the opportunistic merchants of snake oil and assorted tools for snipe hunting. But on this one occasion in Spring 2015, the long-standing riders were baffled by the long-standing manufacturers, who seemed to care only about trying to spot a fad and glom onto its mayfly-like longevity.

A tear was shed, but the rest of the audience — faddists to a person, eager to prove individual merit through possession of hot new trinkets — mocked the tear-eyed old-schooler. “You fool. Bicycles are status symbols, not tools to recreate in the woods.”

It didn’t take long for the faddists to gather up rocks and begin pelting the tear-streamed face of the old guardsman. “You can’t stop progress!” they chanted as they hurled rock after rock, triumphant to a person.

Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago
Reply to  Hubert Riis

BRAVO!!!

CornerCanyonRider
CornerCanyonRider
9 years ago

What kind of warranty (if any) will WTB have with these carbon rims?

Will
Will
9 years ago

Hubert, count me as one of the long-time riders that is a bit baffled by the rush to shiny new stuff.
I’m not anti-progress, but you definitely don’t need the latest and greatest wheel size to have a good time.

martini
martini
9 years ago

Why would I ride a 1500g 3.0″ tire, when my 26″ by 4.8″ Surly Bud is 1500g. And there are lighter ones out there too. ALL of the 29+ rubber out there weighs less than the ‘superlight’ WTB. C’mon WTB, I love ya, but you have to make these lighter to make me want to ride them.

Trail Dog
Trail Dog
9 years ago

^ What hubert said

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