Review - Geax Saguaro TNT 2.2"x29 Tires

[Sitar_Ned]

In case somebody wants to get a better idea of knob height and tread pattern for the Suguaro. Btw, they named this tire two very difficult words to pronounce "Geax" and "Suguaro".. not sure why anyone would make their product double difficult to pronounce. Or maybe it's just me.

[Carbon_Dude]

I am sure they will work fine.

[Sitar_Ned]

How could you do this to me Carbon_Dude? 

Hahaha... these tires are kicking my a$$! Soapy water didn't even get me close. I'm literally warming up the oven at 75 degrees as we speak to try and heat these things up for a few minutes.

[Sitar_Ned]

Success! The oven and soapy water combo did the trick.

I accidentally mounted it in the "traction" direction instead of the "speed" direction like I had planned, but there's no way I'm taking those things off the rim. I doubt there's much difference anyways.

[Carbon_Dude]

It is amazing how much variability there is between some combinations of tires and wheels.  At $68 for the pair, you will quickly forget how much work they needed to get installed .  I'm thinking I need put a set on my IP-057 but the tires that are on the bike have lots of life left in them.

 Glad you got them mounted, what do you think of the super supple 120tpi casing?  They do grip really well on the trail.

[Sitar_Ned]

Well, I haven't ridden them yet, so I don't know about the 120tpi casing but I have read lots of good reviews talking about that... but I can tell you that I actually appreciate them being such a tight fit because I think that contributed to them being super easy get to seat with a cheap $20 Serfas floor pump. I LOVE the look of the tyres and am thinking the smaller tread, and the long center tread pattern is going to be perfect for me, especially since I have to hit some pavement before I get to the trails.

For the price, I see myself sticking with the Suguaros for a while. I may experiement with a Suguaro out back and a Specialized Purgatory up front just to get a feel for different tyres and try new stuff. After I get my carbon wheelset then I will be able to keep different tyres on different wheelset - looking forward to the flexibility and options.

[Carbon_Dude]

I just ordered a new set of Saguaro 29er tires and am very disappointed upon receiving them.  I have Geax Saguaro tires on my IP-057 Chiner that I bought about a year ago and have been very happy with them, however, Geax was bought out by Vittoria and the Vittoria Saguaro tire is not the same tire as it was when it was branded by Geax.

The Vittoria tire is cheaply made, not a 120tpi casing like it was when it was branded Geax.  This is not a $50-$60 tire, it's more like a $30 tire at best.  I will be sending the tires back to PricePoint and have already ordered a set of Continental X-King 2.4 w/Black Chili compound.  The Conti is a tire that I have used in the past and have worked well, they have been reliable, and are constructed with a 120tpi casing.  I know they are good tires so I decided to stick with what I know.  I almost went with Maxxis Ikon tires, more expensive but have gotten good reviews from others, maybe next time I will try Maxxis.

[Sitar_Ned]

Good to know CD. Thanks for the heads up as I was also going to buy another set of the Saguaros. Man, that sucks bc they were a steal for the price. Also, these tires are huge.. I think they provide quite a bit of cushion for my hard tail.

Oh well. Guess I may just follow your lead again and try out the X-Kings. I've always really liked the way the sidewalls look on those tires.

[Carbon_Dude]

SN, the X-Kings have been a good tire although even those have gone up in price.  I was able to get Pricepoint to do a price match for me on the 29x2.4 Black Chili compound tires for $48.45 each, the best price I could find with free shipping and no tax.

Like I said, the Maxxis Ikon 3C EXO TR 29" tire was also on the short list, Pricepoint did a price match on those for me as well, but at $61.79 which is a good price for those tires, just more than I wanted to spend.  If you do get those however, please let me know what you think.

I'm actually replacing my worn out Racing Ralph FR/Conti X-King RR, which have been on my IP-036 (due to swapping wheels around).  The Racing Ralph is a great tire if you want to replace it often, but at $80 retail, it's too expensive and too thin for me and my riding style.  The Conti X-King on the rear has been pretty reliable, I don't think it was the Black Chili version so I am looking forward to how much different the new tires will be.  The X-Kings have a high quality feel in the construction and the compound so we'll see if it becomes my new favorite.

[bdub]

Merlin has some really good deals on Conti tires if you can afford to wait for their shipping.

[cmh]

...Not sure why, just fascinated with all the different models ...

Man, I had the same thing, puberty was a bitch. Cindy Crawford, Elle Anderson, Kathy Ireland... shit, I think I just gave away too much info about my age.

[cmh]

Okay, dickhead wise-ass comments aside...

• Geax wasn't bought by Vittoria, it's been their off-road tire brand since the early 90s. http://www.geax.com/ Looks like they're ditching the "Geax" name. I think it was kinda like Acura and Honda - nobody would buy MTB tires from an old-school European company like Vittoria. (completely my guess based on nothing resembling knowledge)
• I don't care how it's supposed to be said, I call it "geeks". That makes me laugh.
• I had a Saguaro TNT, it fit so damn tight on the rim I quite literally had to cut it off the rim when it was time to get it off. Don't know if this link will work for the general public, but photos of said cutting. A buddy who ran many Saguaros had warned me off the TNT, but I needed a tire and took one of his hand-me-downs.
• The normal Saguaro was pretty awesome until I cut a huge gash in it a week or two after getting it. That sucked. Never replaced it.
• Currently Continental are our weapon of choice. Don't remember why, I think because she used to really like the old design Mountain King. Running mostly X-Kings and Mountain Kings. She doesn't like the Race King, but I love it.
• OVEN? Holy sh... You put your tires in an OVEN to install them? I mean, not that different from a long downhill on a really hot day on blacktop, but... OVEN! What happens when you're trailside and have a flat?
• Tires are a pain in the ass to get reliable information on before purchasing them. There are huge variations in construction that happen under the same name. Thankfully Continental is pretty clear in what's what - the Race Sport and ProTection tires have the black chili compound, the RaceSport is 120tpi and paper-thin sidewalls, and the generic folders have "normal" rubber and 60tpi or so, I think. (Too lazy to look it up.) Ordering tires from somewhere like Amazon (not knocking it, I do it all the time) is a bitch as you rarely have all the info on what you're ordering, exactly. There's 20 different varieties of the Saguaro on Vittoria's site, with three separate versions of the 29x2.2. Look at the chart listing all the Racing Ralph variations - it's easy to see the differences in the tires in the chart, but try to pick one and find that exact tire on most sites (or even most shops) when all they know is you want a "Racing Ralph".
• The European shops always seem to do so much better at the Continentals, as well as finding the elusive RaceSport tires. Merlin has the X-Kings, but not the 29x2.2 X-King RaceSport, but Wiggle does.
• Someday I'll try the Saguaro again, sure seems like a great tire. Lately, though, I'm a bit fascinated by the plus size models... Husker Du, Bud, Lou, Juggernaut... sheesh, my tastes have changed. ^_^

[Carbon_Dude]

Maybe I just did not get the same model tire under the Vittoria name, like you said it is difficult to find an exact match with all the variations.  All I can say is the tire I received was not of very high quality, not the 120tpi model for sure.

Now that you mention it, maybe I should have considered a set of 29+ tires.

[cmh]

Now that you mention it, maybe I should have considered a set of 29+ tires.

That could be very cool - how big do you think you could go?

[Carbon_Dude]

On my IP-057 I measure 2.8mm clearance on the chainstays, 2.9 mm on the seatstays.

On my IP-036 I measure 2.9mm clearance on both the chainstays and seatstays.

So, I would guess the widest tire I would want is maybe 2.6mm to still have a little clearance on each side of the rear tire.  Probably not true 29+ width though.

I could put on a Maxxis Minion Downhill tire, it's 2.5" wide but the darn tire weighs ~1300 grams, that's just a little less than both of my tires that are on the bike.