Ok, so I've been on a prototype mountain hybrid for about 3 months now. Thought it might be time to write a review of the tire. The tires are here in the states now and should be available any day now last I heard. Price will be $98.99. The only size available will be 120/100-18. Bikes tested on: 1996 Husqvarna WXC 410 2008 KTM XC 300 If you are a trials tire rider you will instantly notice the mountain hybrid is not a standard trials tire. The sidewalls are stiffer and there are actually side knobs to allow cornering. If you are not a trials tire guy/gal then at first glance the tire looks pretty much like a basic trials tire. There were 3 compounds of this tire made for the prototype stage. I have the hard compound. The production tire is the soft compound so performance will likely be a little different than what I found. In talking with another tester who has tried them both it sounds like the differences are minimal though. Most of my riding with the tire has been in dry desert type terrain. Sand washes, hard pack gravely 2 track and very rocky loose hill climbs are where I have spent most of my time with this tire. First off, the pro's. The tire mounts pretty easily. You won't be doing tire changes just for the fun of it, but it is slightly easier to mount than a standard tire in my opinion. Slow technical riding with loose rocks is where this tire loves to live. More than once I found myself bushwacking through the giggle weeds straight up a hill covered in loose volcanic rock just because I could. Stuff that with a standard knobby would require a good amount of momentum, and lots of tire spinning I was able to climb up at whatever pace I felt like. If you can keep the motor running this tire will most likely find traction and keep climbing. Fanning the clutch to keep the power right in the nice predictable spot I was climbing rocky hillsides I wouldn't even consider with a standard tire. If there is a downside to this aspect of the tire it is that it allows you to ride into situations where your skill level might not be able to keep up with the terrain. On your average trail that consists of a variety of obstacles I felt the tire fell more in line with a standard knobby. Loose rocks, wet rocks, roots, wet roots and other tricky trail hazards the tire will handle better than a standard tire. Mud, snow and sand the tire falls a little behind a regular knobby in my opinion. Overall handling of the tire is pretty predictable. It corners well. It hooks up pretty much everywhere. Rarely does it break traction unpredictably. The downsides to the tire are that it doesn't hook up in sand as well as a regular tire. It seems to want to float on top of the sand and spin rather than dig in and go. You can get up to speed and go ok with it, but you never get that feeling of thrust you get from a standard knobby. Braking in sand is also a downside. The knobs seem to pack up with sand allowing the tire to just slide along the top of the ground. The bad sand characteristics seem to be amplified as your speed increases. Mud is a bit of a grey area for this tire. If you are riding just after a small rain shower and the mud is just a thin layer over dry dirt then the tire handles it just fine. But, if we're talking about deep mucky mud then I'd much rather have a standard knobby. In my testing I felt that the tire likes medium to low speed type riding. 1st to 3rd gear type. Slow technical stuff is where this tire impressed me the most. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with this tires ability to climb steep, loose rocky hills. As speeds increased my opinion became more muddled. 5th gear wide open trails had me second guessing things with this tire. It never steps out or does anything bad. It just has a different feeling compared to a knobby. At 60mph through the chico bushes I prefer the known feeling of a knobby. I doubt this will become a race tire for me. The weird different feeling at speed is enough to make me shy away from racing this tire. If I were to enter an extreme enduro type event like KOM or Erzberg then yes, I would choose this tire in a heart beat. I will end up using this tire for casual rides with buddies, exploring new trails and deep gnar gnar stuff. For racing, or rides where I know the speeds will be higher I will be going back to a knobby. I stalled out on a steep hillside trying to find the limits of this tire and the result was me tumbling down the hill for a bit. The camera in my camelbak got a little smushed in the process so I only have a few pics.
Ya, in the end it really shouldn't be surprising. Knobby/trials hybrid should result in knobby/trials like performance. I have settled on 8psi for all around riding.
Have you run one of the upper end trials tires before Michelin Pirelli Dunlop If so how would you compare it to them? thanx, nice review. HR
No, I have never run a trials tire on anything other than a trials bike. So I can't make a comparison to anything other than traditional knobbies.
I just rode my Motoz Mountain Hybrid this weekend in NorthWet Oregon. Test bike is a 05 Honda CRF 450X w/ Dr. D pipe and silencer. Much more bottom end. Weather was 50-60 degrees, the ground was perfect. Started out with 4 1/2 lbs of air. Rode some virgin low speed tight woods trails and then got into more open, faster trails. Tire was not doing real well on traction. Stopped and let some air out. Down to 3 psi. An took off on 3 miles of gravel road. Back into the woods trails again. Lots of 2-3 gear trails and one good hill. Dirt on hill was not loose and hardly no rocks. Traction now is an issue. The Motoz is NOW hooking up. Adjust throttle movement to keep front end on the ground. At this point breaking is getting better. Not sliding rear tire too much. Trials tires will never brake as well as a knobby. Like, there is no perfect tire. If it works for you, then it's a good tire. Continuing on with more trails, getting use to tire now. One trail we took was rutted and had some real gooie mud. Other than the gooie mud it works great. It WILL spin in deep mud, but I didn't get stuck. Wet muddy rocks and tree roots, no problem. Toward the end of the day there's a trail with lots of rocks and it's up hill. Great suspension test. Stretch Creek for all you locals. This tire tracks pretty straight. I noticed that it had a real dead feeling to it. Combo of low air pressure and stiff sidewalls and heavy tire. After all it only weights 16 lbs. I didn't notice any other bad habits with tire. Got on to some high speed gravel roads. Man, this tire corners great. With or without throttle. Breaking is typical of trials tires, not great but not bad. I can live with it. Overall I'm really happy with this tire. Your results may very. Gramps
I was playing in the snow a bit last Sunday with one of these. Seemed to work well at 8 psi. Terrain is hard pack/rocks under the 2-4" of snow. Small hill we usually monkey around on. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSNvVBslo-U
Geez, I didn't know there was any life left after those two terrible blizzards back East. Like it never snows there. Nice helmet, love mine. I wondered where than rare earth magnet was that I lost. Now I know where it is. LOL Nice video. Gramps
I have no idea on either question. He has had it since last summer I believe. Next time I meet up with him for a ride I'll ask.
First ride on the MotoZ Mountain Hybrid yesterday. Ran it at 8 psi per the local bike shop recommendation. Pinch flatted within the first 40 minutes. Yesterday was a little more open, fast and rocky than my normal riding. We'll see how it goes today in a normal area for me. While it was inflated it was really nice. Interesting in that the pinch was right at the rim lock. I think this is going to be a candidate for a drilled GT mousse.
Thanks for the feedback. Sucks about the flat. I've had really good luck with no pinch flats on Motoz tires for a few years now. Probably get several this year now that I said that.
