Maxxis Tyres is in the happy position to have a mountain bike world champion riding its tyres.
Nino Schurter is the reigning cross-country mountain bike world champion and has been a technical advisor on the latest tyre offerings from Maxxis.
The American brand’s fast-rolling Aspen and Rekon Race tyres are now available with a wider casing. As cross-country and downcountry mountain bikes add dropper seatposts and become more capable at descending, riders are seeking larger tyres, without sacrificing low-resistance tread patterns.
Maxxis has responded to this change in the market by increasing the size of its two most popular 29er mountain biking race tyres. Although the tread patterns remain unchanged, the high-volume Aspen and Rekon Race tyres both gain WT (wide-trail) certification.
With tyre volume growing to 2.4-inches in width, Maxxis is confident of these new Aspen and Rekon Race WT tyres providing more traction and terrain absorbing ability, without adding excess drag.
The increase in tyre size has also changed the ideal mounting profile. As such, the Aspen and Rekon Race 2.4s work best with a rim of 30mm internal width. Maxxis says that rims narrower than 25mm aren’t recommended for these new Aspen and Rekon Race WT derivatives.
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Structurally these new tyres have a 120TPI casing and feature EXO sidewalls, to mitigate the risk of casing cuts from sniper roots and oddly angled rocks.
Weight ratings are 720g for the Aspen and 760g for the Rekon Race. For the sake of comparison, a similar Aspen 2.25 width Maxxis tyre is 645g and the Rekon Race 2.35 weighs 710g. Riders seeking the additional damping provided by a larger tyre will see the negligible increases in mass for these new 2.4 versions as entirely justifiable.
The Maxxis Aspen and Rekon Race 2.4 WT tyres are both set to retail for $70.
