Last year, the Geax line of mountain bike tires was rolled into parent brand Vittoria. Most of the existing models carried over, and the Peyote, Barzo and Jafaki are the first three new treads to roll out under the Vittoria name.
The Jafaki is a moto-inspired tire with big knobs and even bigger side knobs to keep your firmly planted during high speed (read: descending) maneuvering. The widely spaced center section should clear quickly, making it a solid choice for enduro on anything but very dry hardpack.
The Barzo and Peyote skew more toward all purpose trail and XC use with lower profile knobs and faster rolling center sections. All three tires use sipes on the tread blocks to improve grip.
These join the “giant donut” plus-sized tires introduced at Frostbike to round out their collection.
The Barzo will come in 29, 27.5 and 26 by 2.25″, claimed weights are 600g for the folding bead. There’s a wire bead, too. The Peoyote (Peyote?) comes in all three with 2.1 and 2.25 options, weight is about 620g for the 29er. The 26 and 27.5 Jafaki bumps up to a 2.25 and 2.35 and a hefty 1,390g thanks to its tougher casing and bigger tread blocks.
The treads look good on all there, but the prices look even better. With many tires creeping upwards of $80, these are hitting around $50 or less.
Vittoria introduced their new Graphene enhanced carbon fiber rims last fall with full tech details, so this is just a closeup look at two of them.
While Graphene is insanely light, it’s mainly used here to improve strength, stiffness and heat tolerance on the road rims.
They use their easy-to-switch hubs, letting you pull off the entire freehub body with the cassette attached, making for quicker cassette changes if you buy a spare body. Or if you want to quickly swap between deep or shallow section wheels on race day.
It’s also used on their Race 29 Tubular mountain bike wheels.
Those get swappable axle systems and Centerlock rotor mounts.
