Today, e*thirteen unveiled an all new tire dubbed the AT, which is short for all terrain. It should surprise precisely no one that it’s aimed at being a versatile all around trail tire that works well in a wide array of conditions. They were nice enough to send us home from Sea Otter with one of the new tires for testing in advance of their release. We’ve also been riding their SS (semi slick) tire, which was released in the fall, for a few months now. You can find our thoughts on that tire here.
All Terrain TRS
On first glance, the AT looks a bit like the offspring of a Specialized Butcher and a Maxxis Minion DHR2, and that’s just fine with us as both of those tires are quite good. In terms of profile, compared to most of e*thirteen’s tires, the All Terrain is much more round and the side knobs are a substantially lower. Much of the brand’s prior offerings have featured a relatively square shape with rather tall side knobs and fairly low profile center lugs.
The claimed (1015g.) and actual weight (1062g.) varied slightly, but for a big wheeled, 2.4″ wide single ply trail tire, the AT comes in at a very respectable weight.
A very interesting feature from e*thirteen is the Aramid protection on the sidewalls. They’ve used the material under the tread for some time, but now visible, it sports a distinct look. Synonymous with Kevlar, it’s a material that’s known for its resistance to cutting and tearing and a great strength to weight ratio.
Despite the fact that they are already lower in height, the side knobs have horizontal siping and a vertical relief channel to encourage some flex. We’re testing the single ply casing version of this tire, but it’s also available as a dual ply in both a mid weight Enduro tire as well a DH tire.
It’s always exciting testing out new compounds, and the AT tire features e*thirteen’s new “Mopo” compound. According to their description of the new rubber, it is an “ultra high-tack, slow rebound tread, with a harder base for better tread wear and faster rolling”. Upon first feel, the rubber doesn’t seem all that soft and squishy, but that’s likely due to the firmer compound supporting it from below. That support lends a hand in keeping things faster rolling and certainly seemed to help improve durability. It also meant that under heavy weighting in the corners, the knobs didn’t give way and fold over which eventually leads to tears and degradation. Credit is also due to the slow rebound nature of the compound, which helps prevent the tire from feeling erratic.
As mentioned earlier, the tread pattern was reminiscent of a mix of a Butcher and a Minion DHR2. It’s worth noting that the AT seemed to roll faster than both of those tires and while it didn’t quite have as much of a savage cornering bite as a (new) Butcher, its side knobs held up better and deformed less due to its slower rebound rubber. Braking power was par for the course for a tire of this stature – it was just the right amount. In short, the AT sports a very well rounded (no pun intended) tread pattern. As far as the casing is concerned, no flats occurred during my testing, but part of that time frame was spent with Cushcore’s new XC inserts installed. While it’s hard to make any bold claims about the effectiveness of the Aramid reinforcement, it seemed to do a good job and put the puncture resistance:weight ratio at a good place for a mid duty trail tire. The sidewalls also resisted folding over in the corners fairly nicely whether inserts were installed, or not. Their thickness sort of split the middle between the average lightweight and heavy duty casing, which is nice.
In summary, the new AT is an excellent tire and I think that e*thirteen is definitely on to something with the new Mopo compound. With that in mind, I tend to prefer a well supported, slow rebound rubber. Cornering and braking were all very impressive, but best of all it rolled very quickly and efficiently – far better than any other e*thirteen tire models out there, and better than the two tires that it bears resemblance to. Basically it’s just a damn good all arounder that should suit most riders in most conditions. I also applaud the new, rounder profile – at the end of the day, despite how stacked the tire market is, these are definitely worth consideration.
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