After a quick five minute walk down arhe backstreets and ginnels of Finale, Dave got a sneak peek at what’s coming next from the busy bees at The Hive…
The big news is that E*Thirteen are one step away from producing their own tyre. After years of testing different manufacturers offerings as part of their rim development process, they’ve decided to take the best of what’s on offer as inspiration and develop something that is a good balance of rolling resistance to grip; to create an all rounder suitable for enduro and all mountain riding. It’ll be 2.4, available in 650b and 29er sizes, and two different rubber compound mixes, and should weigh in at roughly 850g and 950g for the more gravity orientated race version.
The tyres have been designed around a 27 – 32mm rim width to match the current trend towards wider rims and feature a wide and fairly open paddle like pattern, fairly low profile in the centre, with a decent transition onto stiffer edge blocks to provide grip when cornering. A 42/50a mix gives a decent dual compound tyre that rolls well while still providing traction and grip when necessary.
The tyres will be manufactured by CST, a tyre maker for several popular brands including Maxxis, and the hand cut samples here reflect the finished tread design. Final versions will also have a slightly heavier casing than the prototypes to help prevent squirming and pinch flats. There’s 700 tyres so far, all hand cut (a summer job for a French 15 year old who has clearly been living the dream) and Dave’s managed to grab a sample to see how it fares on local trails.
“First up it’s probably the easiest tyre I’ve ever had to seat and inflate on a tubeless system. I even managed to get it seated and pumped up with just a hand pump so it definitely gets thumbs up for that.
I’ve managed to grab a handful of rides on the TRSr tyre so far, I’ve got it on the back of the Norco Range and have to say I’ve been impressed with the handling. On long haul climbs the dispiriting rasp of the previous sticky tyre has gone, and the tyre is barely noticeable giving the impression of being particularly easy to roll on tarmac. Sure there’s a little drag but it measures up well compared to others.
A weekend of riding in autumnal Calderdale has managed to throw together a decent mix of dry gritty trails, some peaty mud and a good helping of green slimy rock and it’s coped with all, the wide open design clears particularly well and even deliberately hitting some sketchy slimy rock lines it’s held a line in a predictable manner. I’m liking it. Next up I’m aiming to spend the next two weeks on rocky, dry and loose and hopefully a bit of loam so we’ll see how it stands up to its all rounder aspirations. Then it’ll be time to try and get a front one to match”
Expect availability of the finished tyre in May 2016. Price is expected to be competitive.
To go with the new TRSr tyre there’s a pretty sweet looking Carbon Race rim again available in 650b and 29er sizes with a choice of two spoke drillings; 28 and 32 hole. It’s got a 27mm internal width and is again aimed at enduro and all mountain. The compression molded rim looks good, and we’re particularly liking the internal profile between the well and side of the rim which looks like it’ll make seating a tyre a doddle.
E*Thirteen will be producing their own rim tape which has been designed to better resist puncturing in the event of spoke breakage.
In other news, there’s a roll out of new seals which can be retrofitted across the whole range of bottom brackets and hubs.
The XD compatible TRS+ cassette is available in 11 or 10 speed and comes in three parts, each individually available. Weighing in at a claimed 300g for the 11 speed (320g for 10) there’s a 9 tooth to 44 tooth range on 11 speed cassettes while 10 speed gets a 42 top end. The large end of two or three gears is machined from aluminium while the remaining part of the block is steel.
And there’s some matching carbon cranks now in production to finish off your build. Intended for “winning enduro races” the molded carbon cranks can be used with either single or double GuideRing chainrings which attach via a lockring that uses the same interface as E*Thirteen’s bottom bracketso only needs one spanner to do both jobs. They’re available in BB30, BB92, PF30 and 83mm threaded options and weigh in at a claimed 441g for the cranks only.
More info here: http://bythehive.com
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Will the new seals be free to all the unfortunates who already have E13 hubs>