Despite having one of the earlier tubeless road bike tires (Padrone), it took Maxxis a while to fully invest in tubeless designs across their range. Now, thankfully, almost all of their mountain bike treads and more road options have gone tubeless ready.
The Radiale (left) is a new tubeless ready road tire that uses a radial casing, meaning the strands run straight across from bead to bead rather than at angles. They say it makes it ride much smoother. The 700×22 is 285g and the 700×24 is 310g.
The Campione and Forza now come as tubulars. The Forza is more of a training tire at 270g with a 60tpi casing and dual compound tread for the 700×23. The Campione is the race tire with 120tpi casing and triple compound with puncture protection. It comes in at 260g.
Roll past the break to get dirty. And fast…
The gravity oriented tires above and XC/Trail models below all join the Ikon as Tubeless Ready. They include the Highroller II, Minion DHR II, Minion DHF…
…Crossmark, Ardent and the new Ardent Race, which has smaller, lower profile knobs than the original with a bit tighter spacing for better rolling resistance. It’s meant to bridge the gap between the Ardent and more XC-ish Ikon.
The other big news for 2014 is a wide array of 27.5″ offerings. The Highroller (2.3), Minions (2.3), Ardent (2.4), Ardent Race (2.2, 2.35) and Crossmark (2.1) all get one or more widths in the middle wheel size, and some have various compound/casing options as well.
The Shorty is an all new mud tire for DH and similarly aggressive riding. It has their triple compound Maxxgrip rubber with deep, widely spaced knobs and well supported side knobs.
For commuters and e-bikes, the new Roamer and Gypsy are certified for motorized bicycle use.
