Interbike 2013: WTB Tires and Rims
WTB was showing the new aggressive Warden and Vigilante tires, along with a couple of cross country oriented ones, including the 27.5″ Bee Line and 29er Nine Line. They have a new lightweight race rim, aptly named the KOM, and a wide and stiff Enduro rim to cover the gamut of riding types. To help with their TCS or Tubeless Compatible System, they have added additional tubeless tape in varying widths, and some nifty colored valve stems. They had a Greg Minnaar saddle with his South African world colors on display, though I am not sure if it’s for sale?
Tires
The Vigilante was one of the beefiest tread designs I have reviewed from WTB, but the new Warden is even more aggressive. The deep waffle tread pattern, and open design is meant for wet, muddy and really loose conditions. The Warden uses their TCS Aramind bead (Tubeless Compatible System), Gravity rubber compound and Enduro casing, for a robust and tough tubeless ready tire. The knobs use their pyramid architecture and an open block footprint to help evacuate mud and debris, and provide traction in less than ideal conditions. The Wardens only come in 26″ x 2.3 size, weigh 895g, and retail for $77. I am looking forward to trying these out in the winter time here in Colorado, since I think, they’ll work ideally in the local mixture of snow, gravel and mud.
The WTB Vigilante is a 2.3″ Enduro tire, that comes in 26″, 650b and 29″ sizes. The All Mountain beef Meister uses an aggressive open block tread design, is TCS, and is available two different compounds, the Dual DNA and the beefier Team Issue Gravity DNA. The tires have three different sidewall protection systems; the normal TCS version, the reinforced AM version, and the Enduro tough Team Issue version. I tested them throughout the season and found the Vigilante to be sticky, durable and pliable, and its open tread design and square knobs, along with it large footprint and volume, offer great traction, braking and cornering.
Other new tires are the cross country Bee Line 27.5″ x 2.2″ ($62-$68) and the Nine Line 29″ x 2.0″ ($70), and a revamped Wolverine in a 27.5″ size ($63-$68).
KOM and Frequency Rims
WTB had a couple of new TCS rim offerings, including the KOM i23 and Frequency i25. The KOM is a race and lightweight rim based on the Frequency series, in which they eliminated the I beam and made a subtle profile change to save around 80g. The KOM i23 comes in 26″, 27.5″ and 29″ sizes, weighs 408g, 425g and 448g respectively, and retails for $95. Mark Wier and his teammates have been using these on the racing circuit which definitely a testament to their versatility.
The new wide Frequency i25 joins its i19 and i23 brethren, but is meant for gnarly All Mountain to downhill usage, where additional strength, toughness and width are a necessity. The Frequency i25 comes in 26″, 27.5″ and 29″ sizes, weighs 490g, 512g and 550g respectively, and retails for $75.
Valve Stems and Tubeless Tape
For this year, WTB is adding a set of tubeless valve stems in an aluminum and brass version. Both versions come in either 34mm or 46mm lengths, and the aluminum comes in black, red and blue. To match up with all their rims, they have a tubeless tape in 24mm, 26mm, 28mm and 30mm widths, since meeting the tubeless standards require the tape to be 5mm over the inner width.
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