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Vittoria’s New World Championship Winning Peyote & Mezcal XC Mountain Bike Tires

Vittoria Peyote and Mezcal XC Race updated lightweight wide cross-country racing mountain bike tires, side by side(Photos/Jordan Villella)
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Having been raced to both UCI XCO & XCC World Championship wins, now Vittoria is making public the new Peyote & Mezcal mountain bike tires that their factory team have been racing for the past 2 seasons. New treads, widths, casing, and race-winning rubber.

Vittoria Peyote & Mezcal updated XC mountain bike tires

Vittoria Peyote and Mezcal XC Race updated lightweight wide cross-country racing mountain bike tires, on bike
(Photo/Vittoria)

Backed up by both short and long format cross-country World’s titles, Vittoria explains there new XC Race mountain bike tire development as the direct response to the greater demands put on tires by ever-faster, ever-more-technical cross-country courses. “Producing tires that are not only tougher but also faster is a tall order“. But that was the goal of this all-new Peyote and the updated Mezcal.

All-new Peyote

Vittoria Peyote XC Race updated lightweight wide cross-country racing mountain bike tires, sidewall
(Photos/Jordan Villella)

Vittoria created the new Peyote to race fast-rolling ‘hardpack to fine loose’ trail conditions. Calling it a tire built for the cross-country racers looking for the’ seeking the ‘ultimate edge’ over their competition. This is a meant to be one of the fastest tires you can slap onto an XC bike. Vittoria says their own telemetry testing data backs up the Peyote as ‘fastest in its class’, claiming the new tire to be up to 4% faster than their biggest competitor.

When designing the Peyote, simply going fast wasn’t the goal. Instead, we viewed success as the reduction of time from point-A to point-B, taking speed, grip, control, dependability, and rider fatigue into account,” said Ken Avery, SVP Product Development.

29x2.4" Vittoria Peyote XC Race cross-country mountain bike tire, brown sidewall detail

Pick from classic 29er x 2.25″ widths for faster, less techy racing. Or go for the new bigger volume 2.4″ width that has become the norm as XC racing has become more technical.

Fast-rolling XC tread design

29x2.4" Vittoria Peyote XC Race cross-country mountain bike tire, detail
(Photo/Vittoria)

The all-new Vittoria Peyote tread design slots in between the gravel Terreno and cross-country Mezcal. It offers fast rolling with its continuous central tread band, but plenty of high-speed grip due to the thin lines of these low-profile V-shaped chevrons. The Peyote’s classic elongated Vittoria V layout promises to “dig through loose terrain to find traction while evacuating debris laterally”.

29x2.4" Vittoria Peyote XC Race cross-country mountain bike tire, tread detail

Alternating transition knobs and thin transition ridge lines are designed to provide predictable and reactive control while leaning into corner. Then, two rows of alternating shoulder lugs provide more supportive grip the deeper you lean, with longitudinal sipes cut into each for more edges to grip “directly opposing the path of cornering forces” at every lean angle.

A bigger Mezcal XC Race, too

Vittoria Mezcal XC Race updated lightweight wide cross-country racing mountain bike tires, sidewall

To pair with the all-new Peyote, Vittoria gives their “World Championship-proven Mezcal” a big new 2.4″ option too. It gets the same supple casing as before.

29x2.4" Vittoria Mezcal XC Race cross-country mountain bike tire, tread

But now you can mix and match 29″ x 2.25″ or 2.4″ versions of both the Peyote & Mezcal to fine-tune your balance of speed and grip depending on XC course conditions.

New Vittoria Race Formulation XC Tech

Vittoria Peyote and Mezcal XC Race updated lightweight wide cross-country racing mountain bike tires, tread comparison
all-new Vittoria Peyote (l) & Mezcal XC Race (r)

The all-new Peyote and Mezcal XC Race both are made with the same top-spec XC Race Formulation construction that their factory riders race on the UCI pro circuit.

That Race Formulation rubber mixes in Graphene and Silica to deliver enhanced wet conditions grip, from what are otherwise low-profile XC race treads you’d expect to be limited to dry conditions. That supple grippy rubber combines with a relatively thin 60tpi casing and the lower pressures from wider tire volume to deform over obstances for improved grip. Vittoria explains that this combined construction has proven to noticeably decrease racers’ fatigue while at the same time imrpoving the reliability of the new tires during intense racing.

The new casing, new compound, and new size addition of Mezcal shows a 3% improvement in rolling performance on its own, while the new Peyote Tread shows 6% improvement in total when combined with this new casing and compound. When applied to a real-world scenario, this means that a Peyote rider in a typical XC race scenario will gain ~0.75 km/hr. of average speed over the course of the race. These benefits are in addition to an 11% increase in grip (especially in wet), and durability of the new casing without impacting dependability.

New Vittoria Peyote & Mezcal XC – Pricing, options & availability

29x2.4" Vittoria Peyote XC Race cross-country mountain bike tire, brown or black wall
(Photo/Vittoria)

The all-new Peyote and updated Mezcal cross-country tires are both offered in 2.25″ and 2.4″ sizes. And they both come in black or brown wall options with this top-spec XC Race 60tpi TLR casing with Race Formulation rubber for $99.99 per tire.

Weight claims run from as low last 680g per 2.25 Mezcal or 710g per 2.25 Peyote. Black sidewall tires are generally 10g heavier than brown. And 2.4s are 10-20g heaver than the 2.25″ tires.

Vittoria Peyote and Mezcal XC Race updated lightweight wide cross-country racing mountain bike tires, on bike
(Photo/Vittoria)

All of the new 29×2.4″ Vittoria Peyote & Mezcal tires are available now. But you’ll likely have to wait until August for 2.25 Mezcals, or even next season for 2.25″ Peyotes.

Vittoria.com

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Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
7 months ago

I like the Van Halen tread pattern!

Oliver
Oliver
7 months ago

They should be doing 2.0 or 2.1″ for gravel bikes. It’s where both racing and noodling is headed.

Shackleton
Shackleton
7 months ago

That is some janky cable routing on their display bike.

Large D
Large D
7 months ago

The new tires sold out in a day.

Carlos Cortes
Carlos Cortes
7 months ago

Where must I put peyote (front or back) and mezcal (front or back) when I put a mix of these tires?

Jordan Villella
Editor
7 months ago
Reply to  Carlos Cortes

Im a fan of the Mezcal (or Barzo) front and the Peyote (or Mezcal) rear

Guest
Guest
7 months ago
Reply to  Carlos Cortes

The quicker tire goes always into the back, since it’s assumed that the slower one has more grip. Loosing grip on the rear is considered less bad and you have more weight on the rear which mean reducing rolling resistance there has more of an impact. Peyote should be faster than the Mezcal. Which would mean: Mezcal front, Peyote back.

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