Prior to purchasing these tires I had never owned a dry weather CX tire (living in Oregon where my Clement PDX's have long been the tire of choice for our wet climate). I found that the grip is a vast improvement in dry conditions over my wet and intermediate-weather tires!
I have been using a set of these for a little over a month, and mostly love them.
Most of my miles have been on pavement, but quite a few have been on local singletrack MTB trails, where they (and my new cyclocross bike) have worked surprisingly well.
A couple of comments these are the easiest tires I have ever mounted. Never even thought to use a tire lever. Good thing, because I have had a lot of flats. Not a lot of puncture resistance.
Second comment...tire has a really tall profile, and just barely fits my bike. Lots of room to go wider, but absolutely no room to go larger diameter.
Last comment re mud. Don't encounter much of it here, but ran into some recently. Had virtually no climbing or breaking traction, although the taller side knobs provided a lot more cornering grip than I had expected. Not a concern for my riding conditions, but something to consider, depending on where you ride.
Overall, I have been really happy with these tires.
This has been a very good tire for CX, to the point where i am continually amazed at how many different surfaces it can handle. This is in general a fast course tire, thing dry grass, hard packed dirt, some loose dirt, light mud, and pavement. It can handle all of them very well. The side knobs are great in hard turns. I use Challenge latex tubes on 25mm rims and can get the pressure pretty low. At 150lbs i can get down to 35-40 with no fears of pinch flatting and could probably run at 30 on a course that had no hard bumps.
It mounted easily, seems to have good tread life, and is a bargain at the price point.
Careful going back to the pavement with this tire, the file pattern tread has nice grip on dirt but far less on the road. Otherwise a nice reliable tire.
Running these tubeless on Stans Iron Horse wheelset.
They roll and grip very well and I plan on getting another pair when these wear out.
These tires are one of my three favorites on hard pack/commuter training at a high end quality level, the other being Challenge Grifo XS's, and Vittoria XN Pro's. They all ride very smooth and fast(the Challenge slightly nicer though the rest), and are super supple and light. The only complaint, though not a huge one, is that these have no puncture belt built in. This is no big deal as I just add a Panaracer Flataway stip 25grams to the rear tire and away I go! One other oddity of these tires, is that while mounted on a Velocity A23 rim, these measure 36.05mm at casing 60psi in front, and 36.75 casing 70psi in rear. Make sure to size the internal width of your rim and most importantly your frame clearance before simply purchasing these, as I run them on my Steven's Prestige race frame and they barley clear the rear chain stays, but all good everywhere else!!
I bought these for a gravel frame intended to clear tires in the 35mm range fenders comfortably. These tires are marked as 33. Mounted on Hed Ardennes Disc wheels they measure 38mm! And close to 40mm at the knobs. They just barely fit on the frame. The height is off as well and causes some toe overlap.
That said they seem ride very well (paired with Challenge latex tubes for some extra give). Haven't put too many miles on them yet but over a mix of dry pavement, rough dirt/broken pavement, and compact/wet sand they performed very well (surprisingly well in the sand). Cornering on pavement was a particular concern and they have done very well so far.
I got a set of Clement LAS 33s to put on my touring bike, and I'm very impressed with their ride quality and low rolling resistance. They seem to ride as fast as road tires. However, they are much wider than spec'd and they only way I can use them on my touring bike is to remove the fenders. I will use them on my cross bike instead as I need fenders on my tourer. These tires might work on a touring frame with massive amounts of tire clearance and very wide fenders, but don't expect them to fit if your frame clearances are not large.
I've used this tire in dry races, on tacky single track, and for general shenanigans all around. This tire is light and fast rolling. I'm 175lbs and inflate these to 40psi for offroad riding, and 60psi for pavement. I've used this on my cross bike for all-road adventures in the off-season. I liken these tires to the setup Rally Car drivers have to use when they race in Italy, Spain, or Greece. They're the best weapon if you're going to be riding on mixed terrain in dry conditions. I appreciate the fact that I can use this tire just as well on-road as off-road. It's plenty wide, especially when you set them up on a set of Stan's Rims. (Mine measure at 35mm on a ZTR IronCross rim). I would not recommend this tire for wet weather riding, either on- or offroad. I also would not recommend riding this tire in conditions where you're bound to see a lot of broken glass or excessive road debris. If you live in a dry climate for the majority of the year, this is your tire. Great for gravel rides.
tough fast good on pavement for short periods
10 flats in 24 hours - go figure
Smooth ride with good grip. Matches well to my Continental tire on the rear wheel.
My thoughts on getting this tire were for use during the first couple races of cyclocross season, when the courses are typically dry grass. This year the first race was still on grass, but it had rained the week before. The grass was going to be less dry, but I wasn't expecting any mud.
The course on race day included some off camber hairpin turns, a couple of small roots, and the area around the barriers got a bit muddy. The tires performed admirably under those conditions and even helped me keep traction on a particularly tricky off camber corner where the grass had been run down to dirt.
I initially tried to set these up as tubeless with a Stan's conversion kit on Shimano RS hoops, but they would blow out on me at lower pressures. They were impossible to inflate (tubeless) without a compressor. I did a write up here [...]
I ended up running these with Challenge latex tubes at 30 PSI front and rear (rider weight 195 lbs).
I mounted the LAS on both my commuter bike and my cross racing rig. Too new to evaluate its durability (which is what I value most in a commuter tire), but so far it has performed as advertised - fast and dependable cornering on pavement and in dry grass and hardpack dirt.
I have used this tire just on gravel roads so far. The traction and ride quality is much improved over the Maxxis Raze that I replaced with these. I made the mistake of trying these tubeless on a Stan's 340 rim - I had too much pressure in it and blew it off the rim. The only improvement that I would like to see is this same tire with a tubeless bead.
I bought this tire for a mostly dirt road gran fondo and it seems to fit the bill nicely. Lots of air volume to take care of rocks and smooth out the ride. File tread is lightning fast on dirt roads and packed trail. This is the fastest rolling cross tire I have have ever ridden.
Bought this to ride both road and trails with my cross bike depending on the weather. Very fast tire on both surfaces. Looks more like a 35 than a 33. This is a big tire so great cushion and pinch protection. Probaly have 600 miles on it so far, most of it road since the trails have been too snowyicy. Starting to show wear in the middle but I'm not concerned. So far has shown great grip on smooth trails and fire roads, it's got nothing when is muddy.
I use these on my CX bike I use to tow the kids around in a burley. I've also used the bike to tool around in the winter crap up here in New England.
Running this tire with Stan's Tubeless, fast, grippy, rolls well
I started racing CX this year and this is the only tire I have used so far. I mounted it tubeless to my Stan's Crest mtb rims and it has worked great. The wide rims spread out the tire making it closer to a 38 than a 33. No problems getting it sealed and I've had great results in dry conditions consisting of grass, pavement, dirt, rocks. I have even used these a couple times for trail riding. I have to use these with tubes now since I have punctures that won't seal. These tires are a good value.
