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| Negligible wear on the Motoz Mountain Hybrid after 15 hours of riding mixed road and dirt |
If you've been reading, then you know I mounted a MMH rear on the Berg over the summer. It's a hybrid trials/knobby for slower more technical riding. While it's taken a while to get brave enough to run it at the ridiculously low 5-8psi pressures it demands (and is designed for), I have been impressed with the tire. It's got a super-stiff carcass, and while the Pirelli front will often deform at lower pressures, the MMH rear resists impacts well. Off road, aired down, using a judicious throttle and butterflying the clutch, it offers ridiculous amounts of grip in all conditions. Wet, dry, rocky, sandy, stones, logs, roots and mud, it out-performs my previous experience with knobbies. The huge footprint demands your bike has torque to spare, and if it does, then starting from a stop on a steep incline, boulder, wet root or mud-hole it pulls. If it spins, you're using too much throttle, It is still taking me a while to lose the roost habit; this tire does not respond as well as a pure knobby in those circumstances. At speed it also confidence inspiring, but not as "drifty" as a knobby (which can be fun).
If you ride black-top, it gets even better. It's a DOT tire. I ride it to the dirt on the road at about 25psi, Its road manners are good, even aired down. It doesn't "blow chunks" like is reported on true trials tires mounted on dirt bikes no matter what the pressure on the road. After 15 hours it has lost perhaps half a mm of tread: it would be a good DS tire.
If you you enjoy endurocross or just technical trails, then this is the tire for you. I am considering going to the tubeliss system on the bike. The Pirelli Scorp on the front is a great tire, but it is being shown up by the MMH on the rear as the Scorp's carcass is not as robust and doesn't resist impacts as well at lower pressures. The next move may well be a Golden Tire 216 fatty for the front.
It is reported that Motoz are coming out with a lighter version of this tire. Right now I am happy with the present MMH, as I have had no punctures, and great wear, and I don't feel its weight on the bike at all. A lighter MMH may offer something else (I'm not sure what), but may not fair as well resisting pinch-flats at lower pressures or wear as well. We'll see...
The Aussie boys, as usual, have done an awesome review of the MMH tire too. So if you don't believe me, tune in below...
