The Racing Ralph rolls fast, that much is obvious, but I wouldn't say that it carries speed as well as a true semi-slick that sports either next to nothing down its center or low, ramped knobs. However, comparing it to a more substantial tire, say Schwalbe's Hans Dampf or the new Nobby Nic, will have you thinking that you're fitter and stronger than you actually are. The difference in that comparison is night and day, which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise given the Ralph's substantially less aggressive center knobs. What is more of a surprise, though, is the braking and climbing traction on tap so long as conditions aren't extremely dusty or a bit wet - the Racing Ralph is still very much a full fledged mountain bike tire when the terrain isn't too hectic. It'll find bite up steep climbs, and there's a decent amount of braking traction, but the caveat here is that trail conditions need to be at least halfway decent for it to work well, whereas the performance envelope of a more aggressive tire is much, much wider. Throw the Ralph into the dust bowl - we've had one of the driest summers on record here in B.C. - and it becomes less predictable, especially when on the binders. It's a tire best suited to a rider who carries momentum rather than one who skids and squares off turns. I mounted up a set of 29'' x 2.25'' Racing Ralphs on the front and back of my bike, and while the tire gets a passing grade up front, I found that it tended to push through corners more than something with a chunkier knob design. I used that exact setup for some cross-country racing, but preferred to run the Ralph just on the back of my bike when it came to everyday riding. It's also worth noting that the tire's round casing means that you can use it on some extremely wide rims without any issues: I used the Racing Ralphs on Ibis' 35mm (internal) width 941 wheels without issue, and the wide rims let me go down well under 20 PSI when conditions were right. They measured a full 2.35'' wide on the 941s, but were true to size when mounted on Easton's carbon EC90 wheels The Racing Ralph is far more useable than its low-profile tread pattern would have you believe, but it's never going to be the best tire for a winter spent riding in British Columbia or the UK. Hard to fault it for that given that isn't what it was designed for, but I can fault the Racing Ralph on two other points: wear rate and reliability. The tire's triple compound PaceStar rubber isn't the softest and slowest rebounding in their range (that's the VertStar compound), but I was still surprised at how fast the tire's edges went away. There was no chunking or tearing of the lugs, though, which used to be common with certain Schwalbe tires, but the Racing Ralph showed considerable wear after just a dozen or so rides. I also managed to put a small tear in the casing's crown that was a little too big for sealant to take care of, and the rubber plug I ended up stuffing into the hole didn't last for more than a handful of rides. Remember, the less aggressive the lugs, the more the tire's casing will be exposed to sharp rocks and the like, so a tire like the Racing Ralph isn't ideal if your trails look more like they're on a coral reef than brown dirt. Schwalbe does say that the Ralph ''is an out and out competition tire! Puncture protection and durability are limited,'' so it's also best not to expect it to have a long life. The Racing Ralph is not inexpensive by any means, it wears like Schwalbe built it out of eraser rubber, and it's more terrain-specific than what some riders are looking for, but it's also fast rolling tire that offers relatively high amounts of traction on the right kind of terrain. - Mike Levy |
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FWIW I run the 29 x 2.35" version of this tire on the rear and I have no complaints.
But I will agree with the fact that ordering a tire isn't too hard. Find what you want, and have it shipped to your house instead of the bike shop!
Now your stuck in a never ending forum, because the company is too lazy to actually market their brand in a way that makes sense to the consumer.
how do you pick the right line while riding if you cant figure out what tire you want? do you stop and get pissy it isnt like the other section on that other trail you rode...
And then there was that bike club tour in the Swiss Alps, a fellow rider *ripped* his Schwalbe on a sharp stone... unfixable. Had to walk hours to get back to town (or else ride his DT Swiss rim to death). Sorree... these are prolly excellent *racing* tires, but I'll stick to the beefier brands and ride all the way back into town.
IMHO, YMMV, etc
It's all well and good quoting lower weights to get the sale but then the buyer hits the trail with a bike that's too big for XC and not meaty enough for enduro. Or in my case a bike good enough for technical terrain but handles like a dog because the tyres aren't man enough.
Pick a spec and build it right instead of making us change parts and tyres before we can even ride it.
Also, sidewalls leaked Stans in some parts of the sidewall but not others. These are one of about four products I hate with a passion.
i ran a set of hans dampfs for 6 months before they started loosing lugs. i firgued close to 1000 miles out of em was acceptable to me. i did get a but load of flats(tubed cause im to lazy to swap em out). i never had a traction related wreck or slideout the whole time.
they looked like i had 3000 miles on em when i finally retired them but i trusted every single turn on em even in the snow.
i grabbed a new set right before i cracked my frame and had to order a new bike. the new rides high rollers will get swapped for the hans on the first day.
Love the tyre to bits as a rear tyre. Rolls very fast, drifts predictably, has impressive traction (for this sort of tyre). I has worked better for me than many other tyres including Maxxis Larsen, Ardent, Ardent Race and Bonty XR3. Easy to put on Stan rims, they inflate with only a track pump.
I am looking hard for an alternative replacement as my current rear has been on the job for like a year now. Looks fine, but as mentioned above, it has started to weep sealant at a few spots. It holds air just fine. No need to re-inflate every week.
Still - good idea to carry some fishing kit - thx!!
Idk. Schwalbe gets tons of hype and I liked the Alberts, but IMHO when you factor in performance, price, QC, and longevity they're just not even close to worth the extra money compared to Maxxis or Conti.
Great tires, fast, the Pacestar compound holds well (on this specific terrain), and wallowing of the sidewalls is only a problem below 1.8bar (and mainly because the rims are only 17mm wide).
I paid 20€ for the pair - slightly used. People dont want them....
Schwalbe tires are always very specific, they work great on one thing, but wear off or get damaged quite soon if you use them on the wrong surface.
They have alot more grip than you'd think they would. They are light and makes easy work of going up the hills.
Mounted on a Banshee Rune, it has tremendous grip on the corners. Enough to make drifting difficult on the corners. They just rail.
However, the straightline, OMG braking traction is awful. No way around it. the center lugs last forever, even after pavement miles.
Got a big ole' cut on them one day bombing down Seymour and rode down on the flat tire.. they never sat right on the bead after that.. so they migrated to the klunker/commuter as a front tire...
At cost + %10 they were a good buy. but i would not be spending $100 retail on them.
It's definitely only a tire for sitting and spinning.