The updated Maxxis High Road debuted with very limited information at Eurobike. Now we have the full details on sizes, weights and options. Starting with the rubber, the new ultra-grippy HYPR compound has an extremely high Silica content that gives it 23% better traction in the wet. It also rolls faster, with a claimed 16% less rolling resistance.
Underneath is the same puncture protection breaker that the Santa Cruz Syndicate DH mountain bike team has been using. Funny enough, it actually started as a road tire technology, but worked so well they put it in their DH tires for team riders. Now, it’s back on the pavement and called ZK…so that K2 hot patch will change for production tires. They say ZK has 20% better puncture protection than K2 for the same weight.
The High Road will come in tubeless-ready and tube-type versions. The tubeless-ready version (shown at top of post) gets the more supple 170tpi casing, and the tube-type clincher uses a 120tpi. Why? Because the higher thread count is actually a different liner, a butyl one, to make it more airtight, but with the side benefit of being their most flexible casing. Which basically makes the TR version their best clincher road bike tire.
They have 700x28mm in development, and 700x25mm available now in both sizes. Claimed weights are 245g (700×28) and 220g (700×25) for tube type, and 290g (700×25) for tubeless.
The Greg Minnaar inspired Assegai downhill race tire launched in April, but only with a DH casing. Soon, they’re offering it with lighter and more pliable options for all-mountain and enduro riding. Look for options with EXO, EXO+ (adds bead-to-bead Silk Shield on top of the EXO sidewall cut protection) and Double Down casings in the near future.
Filed under things you probably can’t buy are the Chinese-market-only Hot Shot mountain bike tire on the left, and the DTR-1 urban 650×47 tire they make for Cannondale. The Hot Shot is a 27.5 or 29er 2.0 tire, which is too narrow by today’s standards for mass market appeal, but has its place. The DTR we just thought was funny because of it’s asymmetric tread pattern…and because Cannondale is big on asymmetric designs.
