OFF-ROAD GAME CHANGERS: GUMMY TIRES AND NO FLAT TECHNOLOGY

GUMMY TIRES AND NO FLAT TECHNOLOGY

Extreme, or hard enduro is a new niche in the off-road arena and was sparked by the evolution of the sport. With less useable riding real estate, the enduro world has split into two arenas- Sprint type events and Obstacle driven events like Erzberg, the TKO and EnduroCross. With the latter, the equipment has morphed also, and huge gains have been made in the traction and grip world of tires and tube/mousse technology. Gummy, or sticky tires dominate the obstacle driven ‘hard enduro’ sport and technological gains have skyrocketed in foam insert products.

The Gummy tires have super soft and very flexible knobs that grip and bite on feisty terrain that has little purchase. Logs, rocks, roots basically anything ugly. In the right environment the Gummy is a total game changer getting grip and traction in spots that weren’t fathomable a few short years ago.

The hot Gummy tires that we’ve tested come from Golden Tyre (first used by Taddy Blazusiak and Graham Jarvis), MotoZ, IRC, Shinko and Kenda. Dunlop offers a Gummy version of the AT 81, and there are more coming. There is a lot of disparity in brands and knob designs as some are very short-term tires designed for major grip at the expense of durability and others that try to walk the fence between great traction and a longer life. At the bottom we have a guide that we came up with last year and are working on updating it as we speak.

Gummy (Sticky) tires perform at their peak when low air pressures are used so that the sidewalls flex and help the tire bite and hold even better. But here, a normal tube struggles as pinch flats become an epidemic. Just a few short years ago there were very few companies offering foam inserts and they were hugely expensive and had a very short shelf life.

Nutech offers their Tubliss dual chamber technology and the NitroMousse foam inserts.

Nutech is at the front of the tubeless/foam insert race with their Tubliss system and the NitroMousse inserts. The Tubliss system uses a bead lock system, no main inner tube and you can run super low air pressures without fear of flatting. The Nitro Mousse is their foam insert and they have filled that slot with firmer inserts for desert/MX and a Soft, or plush insert that mirrors the lower air pressures needed for Hard Enduro obstacles. We run the NitroMousse anytime we’re going on a serious off-road ride, want the ultimate in traction and don’t want to flat. Their line of products is definitely a game changer.