Last week while riding the Fullerton Loop, I tore the sidewall on my Bontrager XR Jones tire which caused a flat. Although this was a bit of a bummer it did give me an excuse to go buy some new tires! I had been wanting to try out the very popular Panaracer Rampage for the front and a Kenda Karma 1.9 for the rear (the latter worked great on the KHS Tucson I previously tested).
Panaracer Rampage on Bontrager Superstock wheel
My thinking was that I wanted more grip up front than what I got on the XR Jones but I still wanted a fast tire on the rear. With the Rampage I definitely got the grip! I loved pushing the bike through the turns knowing that I wasn’t going to lose traction up front. Although the Rampage is significantly heavier and noisier on pavement than the XR Jones, the trade off for better grip was more than worth it.
On the other hand, or is it “the other tire”, the Kenda Karmas did not work for me (I just realized the KHS Tucson had Kenda Karma 2.2, not the 1.9 I bought!). On my X-Caliber the Karma felt too small especially compared to the 2.35 Rampage. They also were too squirrelly when I was going downhill causing my rear end to slip. I did appreciate the light tire as compared to the Rampage, though. I’m going to come back to the Karmas because I know they’re a good tire for much of what I ride but I’ll going to go with the 2.2 instead.
Since I didn’t like the Karma 1.9, I called the LBS where I purchased the tires from and I explained that I had purchased the Karma the night before, rode them once and found that they just “were not the tire I thought they’d be”. I asked if I could exchange them for the 2.2 and the gal said it was OK. I didn’t expect them to do that, but since they said it was OK, I was pretty stoked.
When I got there I had the intention of getting the Kenda Karma 2.2 but they didn’t have any so I went with the Maxxis Crossmark 2.1. Sad thing was the dude up front gave me a hard time about the exchange. He initially was only going to give me partial credit towards the new tire but when I brought up that the gal didn’t mention anything about partial credit, he ended up giving me full credit (I hope I didn’t get her in trouble, but employers should clarify what can be returned for full credit and what can not). He then went on to complain about how they couldn’t return the tire to Kenda and that nobody would buy them used. They have 15 miles on them; rinse them off, lower the price a couple of bucks and someone will buy them. Other then that incident customer service at the LBS was great.
The Maxxis Crossmark will be going on the X-Caliber tonight for my Fullerton Loop ride tomorrow morning.
