Steilacoom Tire Testing
We thoroughly test every Compass product before we release it. We also seek unbiased evaluations from experienced riders who weren’t involved in the development of the products. For the new Compass Steilacoom cyclocross tires, we gave them to a number of cyclocross and gravel racers. Two of them have reported back in detail, and we are happy that they like the new tires even more than we do. Matt Surch (above) is one of the fastest gravel racers in Ontario. Wade Schultz (below) is a Category 2 ‘cross racer from Seattle.
Both liked the performance on damp surfaces and mud – Matt commented: “The grip is fantastic, allowing extreme lean angles” – but that was to be expected on a tire with big, widely spaced knobs. What surprised them both was the excellent performance on pavement.
Wade: I expected these tires to be appropriately slow on smooth pavement, but was frankly surprised by how well they did. Their rolling resistance is lower than other pure mud CX tires (tight center knob spacing helps). I love the excellent transition from center to side-knobs. I did not experience any on/off traction vagary on corner lean initiation.
Matt: My Woven rims have a very good tubeless bead shelf and inner ridge that holds the bead in place. They mounted easily, and I went out for a cx rip. Wow! Seriously, I didn’t expect this tread to roll so well. Yes, it’s pretty close to linked in the centre, but with so much open space, I thought they’d feel slow on pavement. Nope. Instead, they just feel like they roll sort of crazy fast, like faster than they should.
This isn’t a complete surprise – much thought and development went into the spacing of the knobs. We didn’t want to space them so close that they’d clog up and no longer grip on mud, but we alternated them in a way that keeps the tire supported, rather than have it bump up and down as the knobs pass underneath.
The other question is what tire pressure is ideal for these tires? Matt tested the absolute minimum he could run:
Matt: I took pressure down to 27, which was low enough to fold the rear on off cambers and fold the front on some soft to hard transitions. This is the same sort of folding I’d expect from my tubulars, and I figure if I can get a tubeless tire to fold but not burp, I’m good. I lost no pressure at all after 40 minutes of trying to get them to burp. And this is minutes after mounting.
A minor note of caution: Running your tires at pressures this low gives you the ultimate in traction for cyclocross racing, but it can reduce the life expectancy of the tires, as the casings are under a lot of stress when they fold over.
Matt raced the tires in the first races of the season. He reported after the first one:
Matt: My experience through the 60 minutes of racing was overwhelmingly positive. I didn’t feel at 100% physically at the start, yet I had my best cx race I can remember, finishing closer to a few adversaries than ever before, for 4th overall in the Senior / Master 1 race.
It’s exciting that the tires work as well as we had hoped. A lot of thought went into that tread design – it’s much more than just a few widely spaced knobs – and we are glad that the tires offer the on-pavement speed and smooth cornering that we wanted to achieve. Here are the final words from these two experienced racers:
Wade: Is my satisfaction with this tire linked more directly to the casing volume (vs traditional cx tubulars) or the tread design? [I suspect the answer is: Both.]
Matt: I am extremely happy with them. Congrats on making an awesome tire.
Further info:
- More information about the Compass Steilacoom cyclocross tires.
- Matt’s complete report of his experience with the Compass Steilacoom tires on his blog.
Photo credits: Andrea Emery (Photos 1, 4, 5); Heidi Franz (Photos 2, 6) Alain Villeneuve (Photo 3).
