Challenge Limus Early Review

The Challenge Limus is a new tread on the scene, aimed squarely at the Dugast Rhino. Challenge made an attempt to produce a worthy mud tread with the Fango, but in my opinion fell well short of the mark. The Fango's knobs were too short and too closely packed to offer any real grip or mud-clearing.

The Dugast has been the king of mud treads, and for good reason. Tall, widely-spaced knobs mixed with a super-supple casing provided great grip. Unfortunately that supple casing was also the achilles heel of the tire, it was prone to rot.

While I wouldn't say Challenge has the most durable casing that's ever made it onto a CX course, mine seem to hold up pretty well for as soft as they are. That more durable casing along with the new Limus tread, is what has me excited about this new tire from Challenge.

Let's get some important info out there: the clincher mounted to a Stan's No Tubes Alpha 340 rim came in at 33.5mm wide. Not good if you plan to run the clincher in a UCI race, but what kind of UCI racer would you be running clinchers? The tubular version mounted on some Reynolds wheels came in at 32.8mm wide, perfect for UCI legality.

This first shot shows a very tall center tread which means it rolls relatively well, but you won't mistake the Limus as a file tread in the straights, that's for sure.

This shot shows the shoulder tread nicely, which seems to bite in very well. The tread is very tall, and even at relatively high clincher pressure the grip is excellent. I haven't had the chance to really get into sloppy mud, but have hit some greasy spots and the tire holds it's line very well.

Most recently I found a spot on the Des Plaines River Trail that was a nice gradual turn with some greasy mud. With a Limus clincher mounted on the front and a Fango clincher mounted on the rear I did my best to test the limits of each tire. When ridden with care both tires gripped relatively well, but as I started to push the corner the rear Fango lost it's grip quickly while the Fango held firm. At the point the Limus started to drift I feel pretty confident any tread would have been at it's limits.

While I rack up more miles in more conditions with this tire, I'm left feeling pretty confident in it's performance so far. Best of all, those who are looking for performance on par with a Dugast Rhino but in clincher form can rejoice. Now, how does it stack up against the Clement PDX?