I had a bike shop for several years and we developed a niche market for custom one-offs. If you do your homework you can be very cost-competitive with typical high end off-the-shelf models. The key is knowing where to spend and where it doesn't matter as much.
My point in posting that wasn't to convince people to do frame-ups. It was to somewhat refute the idea that we're better off trusting the manufacturer's engineers to know what belongs on our bikes.
Been using the Kendas for a few years now. Really happy with them. As for the Nevagrip, IMO, Kenda made a really stupid move by reusing that name. A tire who's poor grip was only exceeded by its poorer rolling resistance is now a very fast rolling, decent grip, rear tire, with absolutely nothing in common with its predecessor.
The Hellkat is a great front tire that I recently reassigned to 2nd place behind my new fav front tire, the (drum roll please) Tioga Edge22. Very odd design that works really really well.
March 26, 2024, 11:56 a.m. - Brad Nyenhuis
I had a bike shop for several years and we developed a niche market for custom one-offs. If you do your homework you can be very cost-competitive with typical high end off-the-shelf models. The key is knowing where to spend and where it doesn't matter as much. My point in posting that wasn't to convince people to do frame-ups. It was to somewhat refute the idea that we're better off trusting the manufacturer's engineers to know what belongs on our bikes. Been using the Kendas for a few years now. Really happy with them. As for the Nevagrip, IMO, Kenda made a really stupid move by reusing that name. A tire who's poor grip was only exceeded by its poorer rolling resistance is now a very fast rolling, decent grip, rear tire, with absolutely nothing in common with its predecessor. The Hellkat is a great front tire that I recently reassigned to 2nd place behind my new fav front tire, the (drum roll please) Tioga Edge22. Very odd design that works really really well.