A Tire For All Seasons

WHAT: Bulldog Air Light 2.3 WHERE: www.hutchinson.fr/tires HOW MUCH: $55

There used to be a gap in Hutchinson’s tire line. There were tires with wide-spaced, aggressive knobs, like the Spider, that excelled in very loose soils, and there was the close-spaced, minimally-knobbed Python which worked great on dry hardpack, but the French tire manufacturer didn’t produce a real all-purpose tire. Then along came the Bulldog.

Like its Python sibling, the Bulldog tread features a bed of uniformly-spaced tread knobs. The center and shoulder knobs, however, are much more aggressive than those on the Python.

The result is a “do-it-all” kind of tire. Rocky trails, dry trails, moist trails—the Bulldog is designed to take them all on. There are actually several varieties of Bulldog tires, as they range in side from an XC-oriented 2.1-inch model to a full-figured 2.5-inch model that’s better suited to freeride applications. In addition to the lightweight Kevlar-beaded Air Light model tested here, there are also tubeless versions and dual compound versions. In short, even thought the tread pattern remains consistent from tire to tire, there are actually several models to consider.

Like I said, I’ve been riding the Air Lights. Been riding them for a year now. Haven’t done a ton of dry hardpack riding on them as I only encounter that type of soil when I pack up the car and drive down to the Bay Area. Most of our terrain is fairly loose and, depending on whether I’ve pissed off the Almighty lately, dry or sopping wet.

For starters, I’ll firmly state that the tire rolls well. The center tread is aggressive, but the tightly packed center knobs provide relatively little rolling resistance. On those occasions when I’m forced to include a leg of asphalt in my ride, I’m never staring down at my tires and cursing them. In dry conditions, the tire holds its own quite well.

During cornering the Bulldogs hook up fairly well. They don’t feature as aggressive a shoulder knob as some other tires, so the bite isn’t stellar, but on the flip-side, when you lean too much into a turn, the Bulldogs give you ample warning before they break loose. You don’t get that sudden “oh, shit!” loss in traction that you encounter with some more square-profiled tires. If I had to err one way or the other, I’d opt for that consistent feel possessed by the Bulldog.

As for wet conditions….hmmm…well, the tire works alright in the wet. The Bulldog is not a mud-shedding champ, per se, but it doesn’t clog up with much really quick either. Very middle of the road performance in the wet.

What else is there to say? Hmm…., well, I imagine you know that every tire manufacturer seems to measure their tire width differently. My 2.3-inch Bulldogs looked a bit skinny alongside some other companies 2.3 tires (which usually possessed a larger volume casing). Not a negative, mind you, just something to keep in mind if you’re partial to running monster truck-style treads on your bike. Oh, yeah, weight. These Air Lights weighed 620 grams. Yup, almost freaky light for a 2.3 tire. Given the low rolling resistance of the tread, it makes for some pretty snappy acceleration.

I think that sums it up. You’ve probably heard this before, but it bears repeating: there is no single tire that will work perfectly in every condition. Just ain’t gonna happen. The Bulldog, however, makes a game attempt at it and comes off pretty darn well—though I’d say it’s biased a bit towards looser soils.