2-6-07 // Online Exclusive: Michelin Press Camp

Michelin's Reinforced tire technology

Michelin hosted a two-day product release in Boulder City, Nevada last week. The event focused on their new all-mountain (or “enduro,” if you’re from Europe) tire line. Toughness, weight, and traction are optimized in their new casing design called “Reinforced,” which is based on Michelin’s motocross tires. Reinforced casings have four layers of protection under the tread surface and three under the sidewalls. This design provides one layer more than previous, but gives the tire a claimed 50 percent increase in strength.

The new tires cover a wide range of trail conditions.

The new tires come in three tread patterns that should be familiar to Michelin fans: the X’Trem, for rocky terrain; the A.T. (all terrain), for mixed and wet; and the Dry2, not surprisingly, for dry hardpack conditions. The tires come in 2.5-inch, 2.35-inch and 2.3-inch sizes, respectively. The X’Trem also includes dual-compound rubber.

Bootleg Canyon mountain bike trails have a reputation for being one of the roughest proving grounds for bikes in the US. Its trails are very technical and the ground they are built on consists of unforgiving slabs of cheese-grater sharp volcanic rock, loose ball bearing-sized stones and sand. Brent Thompson, the trail builder at Bootleg, says most tires only last one or two days of riding before the knobs start getting torn right from the casing, not to mention pinch flats that are about as common as a Britney Spears film clip on YouTube.

Michelin flew in over thirty journalists from around the world to test out the new tires so it’s obvious they are serious about the new technology. Additionally, they had nine-time National Champion Adam Craig and ten-time World Downhill Champion Nicolas Vouilloz on hand to lead group rides around Bootleg Canyon on the new tires.

The A.T. on the left and Dry2 on the right.

Just how did the tires perform? Ideally suited to the riding conditions in the desert southwest, the new Dry2 has an incredibly durable rubber compound. After several days of riding under Adam Craig, his tires still retained some of their rubber nibs from the tire mold. Moreover, out of thirty plus journalists, two pros, and a handful of Michelin employees there were only two pinch flats after as many days of riding on the Dry2, and one of those was on Nico’s bike—that’s unheard of for normal Bootleg Canyon rides.

The Michelin Man drove us to the top of the Bootleg Canyon trails

The Dry2’s round profile and compact directional tread are very fast rolling, similar to a WTB Weirwolf 2.55 LT, but its Reinforced casing makes it more durable, a bit heavier, and more resistant to abuse. The Dry2 corners very nicely, breaking loose only in sandy, washed-out corners when it encountered ball-bearing loose rock portions of trail and even then it did so predictably and seemed to hook back up after sliding a bit. The 2.35-inch A.T. model worked better in loose rock but seemed to lack the side knob bite of the Dry2. When the A.T. broke loose it did so fast and resulted in more than one rider getting dumped on the ground. The A.T. might perform better in wet conditions. We did not get to test the X’Trem tread, which was unfortunate because Bootleg is the very definition of the “rocky” conditions it’s designed for.

For more information about Michelin go to their website HERE.