New Review: Schwalbe Sammy Slick 700x35

I long for a good file tread.  One that provides minimum rolling resistance but good cornering grip.  Not asking for a lot, right?  Right.

I've long enjoyed the Challenge Griffo XS for training, but cornering with that is akin to riding road tires on ice.  The casing is supple so the ride is smooth, and man does it roll fast.

Not long ago I put a fair number of miles on the Clement LAS, which was awesome.  Great volume, very fast rolling, supple enough, and a nice shoulder that provided some great grip.  Come to think of it, my only complaint was that I was never able to set them up tubeless, but they weren't rated for that anyway.

So here I am, with a file tread I like, but that doesn't mean I should stop there.  Schwalbe's Sammy Slick appealed to me because of the shoulder it offers as well as the luck I've had in the past setting Schwalbe tires up tubeless.  I haven't tried that yet, but the tight bead of these tires I'm hoping will easy to seal up.

The tires are labeled as a 700x35, but set up on my Mavic R-SYS SLR's the casing measured a tiny 31mm, the widest point on the tread was a dismal 32.8.  Bummer since I was digging the idea of a 35mm tire.  Even more of a bummer, the tires are very short, meaning they have very little volume.  Advertised weight was 360g, mine were 325g and 355g.

On a very smooth course, I could see these tires being exceptionally fast.  Unfortunately, on a bumpy course the lack of volume would either force you to stay with low pressure and risk a pinch flat or raise the pressure and forgo grip and comfort.

I'm only a couple of rides into these tires, but so far I can say they roll exceptionally fast when the going is smooth.  The shoulder also grips quite well for a file tread, even when I was doing some hot laps at my favorite hidden gem along the North Branch Trail which offers up a lot of gravel.  The tires are pretty light, so they do spin up fast.

The Sammy Slick strikes me as the perfect tire for The Des Plaines River Trail or if you find yourself hitting some gravel roads.  You'd fly on a smooth and grassy cyclocross course, especially if that course offered some off-camber turns where most other people running file treads would find themselves slipping around.  Unfortunately because of it's narrow size and small volume, I wouldn't recommend these on a bumpy course where the risk of pinch flats would be very high.

NEW BIKE DAY! Niner Jet9 RDO with SRAM X.0

We're at it again, this is another one of those dream bikes you see highlighted on the cover of a magazine or people drooling over in bike forums.

To build the best, you have to start with the best, so the Niner Jet9 RDO was a clear choice.  Being a long-time rider of hard tails, I'm pretty picky when it comes to rear suspension designs.  I like a bike that's light and efficient and trade off the little bit of cushion and comfort for efficiency and speed.  But, after riding a few of these Jet9 RDO's, I'm realizing that an efficient rear suspension will make you faster in the bumps and on the descents, possibly keep your tire hooked up on the climbs, and have the potential to lead you to faster laps.

Enough with the theory, let's just cover this incredible ride:

The frame is an XL Niner Jet9 RDO in licorice.  Licorice has proven to be the most popular color at the shop and probably the best seller from Niner, and for good reason.  When you get up close you'll see there is actually black paint on the bare carbon making for a very stealth look.

The profile shot shows the dimensions of the frame nicely.  I normally ride a large frame from Niner, but with the seat lowered a little and a slightly shorter stem the XL didn't feel too bad!  Hmmm...

Wheels are Crank brothers Cobalt 29 3 wheels.  While I can't say these would be my first choice personally, they set up tubeless flawlessly, the weight is pretty respectable, and they match this build perfectly.  Maybe with more time on them we'll have a better sense of them.

Formula R1 brakes and SRAM X.0 shifters make for a nicely assembled cockpit.  You'll notice the Formula MixMaster clamps are missing, they hadn't arrived in time for the shoot but will be instaled shortly.

A special Formula R1 caliper laser etched for Niner is hard to beat.  At the shop we tend to stick mostly to Avid or Shimano brakes, but the lever feel and power from these R1's was really incredible.  Good enough actually that I very well may have them on my next build...

Another shot of the caliper, this is the rear one.  Post mount rear leaves you with a very stiff perch for the brake and great power with no flex.

The Fox RP23 with Kashima coat is the standard by which all other rear shocks should be measured.  This frame was produced before the CTD version, which may actually be a good thing for some.  This version of RP23 has more adjustment for the rider who likes to fiddle with his bike versus the CTD which has fewer settings.

Yup, Kashima found here.  I'll be honest, I thought it was a gimmick at first, but after some riding it's pretty clear Fox did their homework on this one.

The Jet9 RDO has the ability to easily adapt from trail bike to XC racer depending on how you set it up, this one is spec'd with a TALAS 29 fork which allows for travel adjustment on the fly.  Want 120mm to go downhill?  No problem.  Want 80mm to go uphill?  It can handle that too.

Simple CTD (Climb, Trail, Descend) adjustments on the fork crown to handle how the fork behaves.

The TALAS adjustment knob that allows for travel adjustment on the fly is easily reached.  Personally I'd run this thing in the 120mm mode most of the time as the fork is just so smooth.

Kashima makes an appearance at the front of the bike as well.  You just can't go wrong here.

Glamour shots are needed from every angle, but I had to get one from the front as most of the time you'll only see the rear of this one.

X.0 rear derailleur is consistent and light.  We've been running a lot of SRAM bits for years, and SRAM's 10-speed groups are awesome off-road.

X.0 cranks set up with a 38t big ring for all-mountain use.  A racer may favor a 39t big ring, but this 38t is more than enough if not racing.

With the advent of 10-speed also came super-wide-range cassettes, this one is an 11-36 X.0 model.

A Cane Creek 110 headset handles the steering duty on this bike.  A US-made headset is always a nice touch, and Cane Creek makes some amazing products.

There you have it.  A killer Niner Jet9 RDO that was a pleasure to build.  While these frames are next to impossible to get, you know where to go when you need someone to hunt one down.  Every time I build one and get to ride it I realize why people are willing to pay so much for these frames!

Recent Niner Builds

Air9 Carbon RDO with Shimano XT/XTR, SID XX World Cup, NoTubes Crest, 

Niner/Thomson cockpit

Air9 Carbon with Shimano XT, SID XX, NoTubes Crest, Niner cockpit

EMD9 with Shimano XT, SID XX World Cup, NoTubes Crest, Niner/Thomson cockpit

EMD9 with Shimano XT, Niner Carbon fork, NoTubes Crest, Niner/Thomson cockpit

Niner Jet9 Carbon RDO with Shimano XT, SID XX World Cup, NoTubes Crest, 

ENVE/Thomson cockpit

Niner Jet9 Carbon RDO with Shimano XT, SID XX World Cup, NoTubes Crest, 

ENVE/Thomson cockpit

First Rides: Schwalbe Rocket Ron 29 x 2.25 EVO Pacestar Tires

This year I've made it a point to try as many new 29er tires as reasonably possible.  When I started with 29ers, I loved the Maxxis CrossMark.  The tread is still really nicely designed, but weights of tires has come down a lot in the last 5 years.  At well over 600g per tire, that weight no longer constitutes a race tire in my opinion.

My search stayed with Maxxis originally, and I fell in love with the Aspen.  It's a fast-rolling tire with more cornering grip than the CrossMark with a weight that's almost 70g lighter than the CrossMark, the Aspen was a big hit.

Of course, since I'm on a roll, there's no need to stop with "good enough".  Being a fan of Schwalbe treads on CX tires, namely my FMB Grippo XL sporting the old Racing Ralph tread, I decided Schwalbe was the company to turn to next.  Their tires aren't cheap, which is why I carefully selected the first Schwalbe tread to try.  The Racing Ralph is ever-popular, but with rain predicted when I was placing the order, I decided on the Rocket Ron.

The Rocket Ron 29 x 2.25 EVO with Pacestar tire is much higher volume than I am used to, measuring 2.22" at the casing and 2.32" at the tread.  Being used to a 2.1" tire, this was a change for me.  The height of the knobs was way out of my normal comfort zone having spent so much time on super-fast-rolling XC race tires, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Claimed weight is 520g per tire, actual weights were 525g and 531g.

When mounting the Rocket Ron on my NoTubes Crest rims, the tires popped immediately into place, formed a great seal, and didn't have any sidewall air leaks.

I don't toss this out there very often, if ever, but this is a "hero" tire.  You may or may not have heard of "hero dirt", the kind of tacky soil that makes anyone corner like a pro.  Well, this tire allows a guy like me to have that connected-to-the-trail feeling I assume XC pros feel every day.  The tire also rolls unnaturally fast, with very little resistance.  I was absolutely stunned at how quickly this tire gets you down a nice trail.

On the flip side, the size and spacing of the knobs made me believe this would make for a good mud tire.  Their first ride was in an XC race that probably shouldn't have even happened because of the trail conditions, but it did.  I assume any tire would have been a disaster, but this tire did disappoint that day.  Since then I've found myself on the trail in a couple of muddy spots and the tire has performed respectably but not incredibly.

The Rocket Ron tread is an aggressive all-conditions XC tire.  In my opinion it's not a mud tire, and it's not the absolute fastest XC race tire.  If you need to choose one tire for all conditions, this one will be tough to beat.

As an aside, I have had a few issues with glass on this tire.  I firmly believe the glass that cut these tires would have cut anything, and I believe I just found myself in some bad conditions, but it should be noted that I did get a few cuts very early on.  The tires did eventually seal  with Stan's NoTubes sealant, but it makes me nervous to be riding a tire with a few big cuts and would really irritate me to have these cuts on a $95 tire (EACH!!) if it were my only set.  Again, I think the glass would have cut any tire, but not every tire is $95.