Kenda cycloross tires for late season mud-fests
From the muddiest cross courses to year round gravel riding, new tires have you covered
As cyclocross season moves into its final races, and series finals, course conditions tend to deteriorate at an accelerated rate. Where once there was easy traction, there’s now a slimy, off camber pit of mud.
When you’re searching for traction at late season cyclocross races, or just riding around for fun, Kenda has two new options to help you hold on in the muddiest course conditions.
Kenda Cholla Pro
New for this year is the Cholla Pro, a tire focused on traction in all tough conditions. It’s not just a mudder, though. The taller tread design is designed to grip in all sorts of adverse conditions. The aggressive side lugs, designed to mimic the hooked barbs of the cholla cactus, dig in to mud, wet grass, loose dirt and the always-tricky loose debris over hardpack surfaces.
Cholla Pro's sizeable lugs are tighter spaced down the centre to keep rolling resistance in check, while still offering traction
Solid side lugs will hook up where faster treads falter
Kenda Cholla Pro, with CX-DTC compound
As the calendar advances and temperatures drop, Kenda’s CX-DTC rubber compound is soft enough to hold traction through deep mud and near-freezing conditions. The option to run this clincher tubeless opens up the lower range of psi’s without worrying about flatting a tube mid-race. Mounting the Kenda’s was manageable by hand, but the tire creates a confidence inspiring connection to the rim bed that should calm and concerns over burping air.
Kenda’s Cholla Pro tire is available in the UCI legal with of 700x33c. It features a folding bead, is tubeless ready. Compared to some pricier race tires, the Kenda Cholla Pro retails for a wallet friendly USD $60.
Kenda Kommando X-Pro
The Kommando X-Pro isn’t an entirely new tread for Kenda, but the improved version of the original Kommando expands its sizing options this year. The versatile tire is now available in a 700x36c option for non-UCI racing and gravel riding.
While designed for gravel riding year round, it’s also a great option for non-UCI cyclocross racing on rocky courses where a little extra volume goes a long way. The full, race-ready 700x33c version is still there for any time the commissar is intent on making sure everything is on the straight and narrow.
The “X” factor in the Kommando X-Pro is taller side knobs for more traction on muddy corners. The new, taller tread design keeps many of the features that made the original successful, including widely spaced lugs that help clear mud. It also keeps the dual-direction tread of the original, with the center lugs being either ramped for speed, or squared edged for traction depending on which direction you run the tire.
Kenda's upped the Kommando X-Pro's bite with taller lugs
The Kommando X-Pro works in a wide range of conditions
Ramped center lugs rol fast
Or put the Kommando X-Pro on the other way for more bite in slick mud
Kenda's bright branding doubles as a reflective strip to keep you safe in the dark on your ride home from the race, or when gravel riding
The Kommando X-Pro is ideal for those slick, muddy courses where tires and drivetrains seem to instantly clog up with mud. The tread pattern also works on mixed conditions and loose dirt, making it a more versatile tire if you’re not the type to show up for a weekend of racing armed with a full array of tread options.
Like the Cholla Pro, Kenda’s Kommando X-Pro is tubeless ready, and creates a solid connection to the rim that inspires you to drop a couple more psi for more traction on the start line.
Kenda’s Kommando X-Pro retails for the same USD $60 as the Cholla Pro, and is also a folding bead tire.
