After loving several of Onza’s tires at the Cane Creek Double Barrel Inline launch, we’ve been paying closer attention to the brand. They, like virtually everyone else, are bolstering their offerings for both 27.5″ wheels and the enduro discipline.
For the latter, their new EDC enduro casing uses a folding Kevlar bead and a thin butyl rubber layer from the bead all the way up the sidewall to the start of the knobs. Their DH tires use a thicker, shorter butyl section to protect the rim, but these use a thinner, taller section to provide better sidewall protection while keeping the tire more supple and much lighter.
The Ibex (2.4 in all three wheel sizes, plus 29×2.25) and the Citius (27.5×2.4) will get the new casing. The Citius are shown above, the Ibex is below along with a cutaway of the different sidewalls…
The EDC casing will come in a bit heavier than the FRC casing, which are shown here. Look for the 27.5×2.4 EDC model to hit the scales around 1,110g. To illustrate the difference the TPI makes, the 900g FRC120 Citius version sat directly next to…
…the standard 60tpi FRC model at 955g. All three of these use a softer 55a rubber tread over a 65a base. There’ll also be a fourth model with the EDC casing and a softer, grippier 45a-over-55a rubber. The Citius is designed for minimal rolling resistance on dry, dusty conditions.
The Ibex gets new FRC and FRC120 casing options for the 27.5×2.25 with higher end rubber compounds. For big wheels, there are new 29×2.25 sizes with the FRC and FRC120 casings.
Weights range from 730g to 770g for FRC and 695g to 735g for FRC120. There’s also a new Ibex EDC 27.5×2.4 at 1,050g. A second, softer 27.5×2.4 version will follow soon. Everything mentioned above is tubeless ready.
Based on customer demand, everything’s now available in a 27.5″ diameter except the Greina mud DH tire, but that one will likely get the nod in summer 2015.
On the top is the DH casing with the thicker butyl layer near the steel wire bead and two ply construction. In the middle is the new EDC enduro casing with a taller butyl inlay that’s a bit thinner and only has a single ply construction. This protects the rim and sidewall, but also keeps things lighter and more supple. Note the massive bump in rubber under the side knobs, too. For comparison, the 27.5″ Citius EDC weighs the same as the smaller 26″ Citius DHC. Claimed weights for the 27.5″ DHC tires are TBA.
On the bottom is the lighter FRC casing.
