Review
Most riders with even a hint of grey hair will remember Kenda’s Nevegal tire. Designed by John Tomac, it was apparently a tire for loose and rocky conditions or hardpack. I say apparently because I don’t think I ever rode one, and they don’t sound ideal for the North Shore. Kenda hasn’t made a big splash with mountain bike tires for some time now, and this is the year they decided to change that – with the K-Series.
About Kenda
Before we get into that, here are some things you may not have known about Kenda. This is their 60th year making tires for bikes. The company was founded in Taiwan even earlier, in 1962. It remains a family-owned company, and they now make tires for just about everything that needs rubber: motorcycles, ATVs, cars, skidsteers, wheelbarrows, tractors and forklifts. They are also the world’s largest supplier of golf cart tires, with as much of 80% of the global market. The company produces 800,000 tires per day, so Kenda knows its rubber. Fortnine, which carries moto, MTB and some offroad vehicle tires, sells 184 Kenda SKUs.
The Double Black up front shows very little wear, despite being nice and sticky. The side knobs are well-supported and you can feel their bite in the corners. It seems to roll pretty also but that’s not a big concern of mine on the Shore – grip is king. Photos – Cam McRae
K-Series
The big news here is Kenda’s new K-Series sub-brand, aimed at distinguishing the best-performing tires they sell. There is a new model that comes along with this – the Double Black – but existing models will get upgrades to K-Series tread compounds and casings as well, including the Hellkat I’ve been riding.
While Kenda hasn’t been marketing or selling top-level gravity tires until recently, they have been making them for their race team (the Kenda NS Bikes UR Team) and other riders they sponsor. As a result, they had lots of feedback and good data to start this project.
I believe that’s a Double Black with Enduro casing under that mud. Photos – Cam McRae
I’ve never seen anything quite like it. This was tenacious muck.
The top of this trail was the only place on the mountain with good drainage. After that, it was a luge track covered in banana peels.
Double Black
The headliner for the launch of the K-Series is the Double Black tire. It was designed to tackle every DH track on the circuit, which is a big ask considering the variety of trails and conditions. It comes in four different casings (DH, Enduro, All Mountain and Trail) and two compounds (Dual Layer for DH and Enduro and Triple for All Mountain and Trail).
I first rode the tires in the Vienna Trail Centre, just outside of the Austrian Capital. It was a little ski hill that was converted into a bike park, and it has some fun terrain. Unfortunately, the weather just before my arrival was very wet, and it continued the day I rolled up. Hubie Hager, who is an old friend and the European marketing director for Kenda, asked me if I wanted to go for a ride when I showed up. I did indeed. It was mucky and wet, but a ride is the best cure for jet lag known to man. Hubie told me later he was in no mood to ride at all.
On the Shore traction was a notable feature, climbing, braking and cornering. Somewhat surprisingly, the carcass of these tires compared favourably to Schwalbe Radials. Photo – Deniz Merdano
The Vienna Trail Centre
The bike park has a little T-bar, and you head up just as you would on skis, with the bar under your ass. This feels very strange at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly. Once we arrived at the top, the challenge was to find the most rideable trails. The soil at the centre has a high clay content, and once you started to slide in the muck, there was no stopping. The good news is this was perfect for tire testing. It didn’t take me long to sort out the predictable slide that would occur on every corner as long as you kept your speed in check. It was the kind of slickery that made even berms treacherous. Setting up for jumps was terrifying, and the entire experience was hilarious. This was particularly true when it came time to clean the bikes. With excellent forethought and self awareness, the bike wash station was equipped with pressure washers but even with these high-pressure blasters, it took about ten minutes to clean each bike to the point that you could give it back to the rental shop without feeling like a cretin.
This is about three months of heavy winter riding on the rear-mounted Hellkat. It looks beaten but I’ve had no reason to consider swapping it out just yet. The sticky rubber continues to bite very well.
Things started to dry out a little as the weekend went on, and by the end, I was having a blast with a couple of buddies. There was one trail that had some steep switchbacks at the top, and below were some long, lazy, flat corners. At speed, these became long two-wheel drifts that were controllable if your balance was perfect – a tribute to the grip and pattern of the Double Blacks. Unfortunately it never dried up enough to make the bigger jump trails rideable. Even Fabien Cousinie was having trouble generating speed in the slop.
The transition between side knobs and intermediate is seamless. This is likely one of the factors that made the tires so good in the mud.
K-Series on the Shore
I was only able to get my hands on 29″ double blacks, so for the current tester, I got a 27.5 Hellkat (K-Series version) for the rear and an Enduro casing DB for the front. These tires have been excellent through the winter on the Shore. The dual hardness casing grips well on rocks and roots, to the point that I can turn and track in situations where it would normally be impossible.
I did some back-to-back testing with Schwalbe Radials (Gravity casing, Albert rear, Magic Mary front) and in some situations, the Kendas actually felt more supple. The Enduro casing K-Series tires probably sit somewhere between the Gravity casing Schwalbes and the Trail casing. This isn’t a perfect comparison because it was on different bikes with different wheels, but tire pressures and trail conditions were controlled and this was an on the trail swap.
The Hellkat/Double Black combo loved the steeps on the Shore – particularly the twisty bits. Photo – Deniz Merdano
I have yet to flat on these tires, despite the rear getting a little long in the tooth, and they aired up and mounted easily with the help of my compressor. They went on so smoothly, I’m sure a floor pump would have worked great.
Kenda K-Series Double Black MSRPin Canada (rumour has it distributors should be getting stock shortly. Availability of DH and Enduro casings may be limited at the moment.
Trail – 113 CAD / 99 USD
All Mountain – 130 CAD / 99 USD
Enduro – 139 CAD
Downhill – 139 CAD
These are some great tires for all sorts of nasty conditions and I’m very happy to be riding them. Look out for them at your LBS.
There is also a K-Series for the graveleurs: the Crusher. It is also meant to be an all-around tire for any conditions. It sells for 74 USD.
Trail Brunch?
Kenda gathered journalists and industry types together during an annual event they hold at the Vienna Trail Centre, Trail Brunch. This weekend was the brainchild of Kenda’s Hubie Hager, and it brings local kids together with sponsored Kenda riders for a weekend of stoke and coaching. With the awful train conditions, most of the stoking happened into the brand new airbag and the young riders were throwing down.
Riding with the pros was a great experience for these kids – and it seemed the feeling was mutual. Photo – Markus Fruehmann
The kids were throwing down!
The T-bar was hilarious but efficient.
Every time a young rider landed a trick for the first time the crowd went nuts.
Who cuts the cake to celebrate five years of Trail Brunch. The King of Trail Brunch of course! Kenda’s Hubert Hager!
The crew at the end of the day. Smiles all around.
Trail Brunch is a great initiative by Kenda that seemed to be loved by the kids, the pros and the entire community. The Vienna Trail centre would be a fun place to ride in better conditions, but I’d say it’s a place to visit if you happen to be in the neighbourhood. If you want to go to Austria to ride, there are other great bike parks with lots of vertical and a great trail selection (like Saalbach or Leogang) but I’d love to have a place like this in my neighbourhood for racking up lots of laps.