First Look: 2016 Michelin Wild Race’R Enduro Rear Tire

Oct 13, 2015 at 11:02
by Olly Forster  
2016 Michelin Wild Rock R rear tire

Say what you will about the volume of ‘enduro specific’ products that have flooded the market recently, the popularity of this discipline has ultimately delivered some outstanding bikes and gear, many of which have changed both our bikes and the way we ride them for ever. One such brand unafraid to use the almighty e-word in their product description is Michelin, the French tire giant.

If you go back 15 or so years, Michelin not only dominated the mountain bike tire market, but the podiums of both World Cup downhill and cross country competition as well, wracking up a serious trophy cabinet along the way. But more than that, Michelin’s innovative stance helped deliver many of the precursing designs that shaped the way modern mountain bike tires look today. After a brief hiatus, Michelin have been busy getting back into mountain biking and with some familiar faces by their side, along with some radical new tires for the discerning all-mountain shredder and enduro racer, they are well and truly back in the game. With that in mind, we headed to Finale Ligure, Italy, for the final round of the Enduro World Series and the opportunity to check out their latest offering, the Wild Race'R.




Wild Race’R Details
• Rear specific design
• Available sizes: 27.5 x 2.35 or 29 x 2.35
• Folding bead
• Reinforced carcass
• Gum-X compound
• Tubeless ready
• Dry terrain specific
• MSRP: TBA
• Available: January 2016
bike.michelinman.com / @michelinofficial

The unique pattern and shape of the Wild Race'R's central blocks were designed to offer grip across the entire contact patch without overly 'glueing' you to the trail and hindering your ability to change lines - especially important for a rear tire - and the pronounced 90-degree braking edges on the rear of the blocks increases braking performance while also delivering a consistent level of performance as they wear

2016 Michelin Wild Rock R rear tire
With a foldable bead and built around a tubeless ready, reinforced carcass, the Wild Rock'R is ready for both the aggressive terrain encountered on the Enduro World Series and the trails back home.

Fresh French rubber

Michelin’s renewed focus on mountain biking continues into 2016 with the arrival of their latest 'enduro specific' tire, the Wild Race’R. Designed in collaboration with enduro top guns, Nico Vouilloz and Jerome Clementz, the Wild Race’R’s pedigree on paper is hard to fault and represents a radical departure from its predecessor, boasting a completely new tread pattern and carcass.

Designed to deliver consistent performance on predominantly dry and challenging terrain, the team at Michelin wanted to create a true thoroughbred rear tire that would provide maximum performance with a variety of completely different tires up front. To do this, Michelin worked hand-in-hand with its pro riders for over a year to develop the Wild Race’R and with it, a greater understanding of the unique performance requirements of both front and rear tires in a variety of conditions.

Going way further than simply offering their tires in different compounds and relying on a softer front tire to provide the grip and a marginally harder rear tire to reduce the drag, Michelin's R&D team wanted to understand the unique relationship between both tires within the given parameters of all-mountain riding and enduro competition - riding up, carrying speed on flat sections and maximising grip, while descending predominantly natural trails - which helps to explain Wild Race’R’s unique tread pattern

2016 Michelin Wild Rock R rear tire
The large shoulder blocks are designed to provide support on off camber sections of trail, while the alternated pattern allows for greater line choice.
2016 Michelin Wild Rock R rear tire
Michelin's Gum-X Series tires use a harder compound than their softer Magi-X Series siblings, delivering a concise balance between grip where its needed and drag where it isn't, while also helping to improve longevity.

Riding the Wild Race’R

Getting a feel for a condition specific tire away from the conditions it was designed for can be pretty hard, so we left an unusually wet and slippery Finale and headed back to the UK, which had, until we returned, been enjoying a refreshingly dry autumn. Typically, recent rainfall had delivered a thin coating of greasy mud over previously dusty trails, but not to be swayed and eager to see how this new tire held up, we hit the trails to see how the Wild Race’R fared.

While greasy trails might not be the Wild Race’R’s area of expertise, the designers at Michelin never intended this tire to be a one trick pony. Surprisingly, on all but the slickest of roots and off-camber sections the Wild Race’R remained composed, calm and unnervingly consistent given the conditions. It did break away on a number of occasions, but these conditions were far from those that this tire was envisioned to master.

Upon landing on some nicely drained and sandy hardpack trails, intermingled with loose and rocky man-made sections, the speed and control of these tires really shone, going both up and down. Braking, cornering and a noticeable reduction of drag on prolonged fire-road climbs (we ran a Maxxis Shorty 3C in the front for reference) was evident from the get-go and a welcomed feature, but the speed going down and the ability to control it was by far the Wild Race’R’s defining attribute and something I'm keen to revisit when the conditions become more consistent.

The Wild Race’R, unlike some of Michelin’s other ‘mission specific’ enduro tyres, nods its head towards everyday riders as much as it does hardcore enduro racers looking for a great rear tire for the year's fairer months, making this a serious tire we can’t wait to really get wild on when the trails get dusty again.




Author Info:
ollyforster avatar

Member since Jun 8, 2005
78 articles

88 Comments
  • 73 7
 But this tyre has nothing to do with Rampage - why does this article exist?
  • 9 3
 thank you
  • 51 4
 That's the most front-specifc looking, rear-specific tire design that I've ever seen.
  • 20 4
 Typical of the French, never doing quite what the rest of the world considers normal.
  • 6 16
flag savmeister (Oct 14, 2015 at 2:18) (Below Threshold)
 @KobbyDrifter .. really ?
  • 5 1
 The tread pattern looks very much like a directional front tire, except the knobs are far too short. So grip of a front tire but the rolling resistance of a rear? I'll take that! I just hope it's like half the price of a Magic Mary so I can buy multiple sets of different compounds
  • 2 0
 They are almost half. Michelin is comparable to maxxis in price most of the time. I'm running griprs front and rear, and shipped from ireland to hawaii they came in at $100. And the performance is on par with the hr2s in my opinion. They do take some getting used to though as michelin uses a different profile despite the knobs being about the same size, at least the side knobs.
  • 1 0
 What type of Michie are you riding? I was interested in some of their beefier tires as they supposed work on loose over hard like a dream
  • 2 6
flag WayneParsons (Oct 14, 2015 at 13:33) (Below Threshold)
 I remember when Michelin made really good tires. What happened?
  • 3 2
 But still doing it better than the Taiwanese Maxxis rubbish presumably. Amazing what a group of trained engineers can achieve when they understand what they're trying to achieve.
  • 1 0
 Griprs front and rear
  • 48 17
 What is this no 26 version about ? Are there no more 26 bikes riding ? Or maybe 26 owners are considered too poor to afford a proper tire ? WTF ?
  • 20 9
 Do not worry mate. As long as Continental is in business you are safe. Better and cheaper than Michelin too.
  • 47 13
 What? No 24" option?! Damn you bike industry!
  • 30 3
 Not read any of the article. Scrolled to see available sizes - no 26. Scrolled down to comment on the lack of 26, now I'm leaving.
  • 10 0
 Scrolled for this exact comment after seeing no 26". Cheers!
  • 3 5
 dont even know why I clicked. No "rampage" in title...
  • 27 0
 just waiting for the smoke for this dart
  • 2 0
 Or a Porcupine......
  • 1 0
 HAHA that was my first thought also. What's old is now new!
  • 2 0
 I used to go for a nice mountain bike ride, but now I need to either go trailriding, or downhilling or crosscountry, or freeride or enduro or.....wtf just turn the fucking cranks around,man!!!
  • 20 2
 stopped reading when I saw there was no 26
  • 16 0
 "without overly 'glueing' you to the trail and hindering your ability to change lines" ummm what? I usually use traction to change lines. Am I doing it wrong?
  • 4 0
 I too, have no clue what that comment is trying to say...
  • 5 0
 It means they are good at washing out and look like velociraptors.
  • 19 4
 not 26" ???
  • 4 5
 ain't coming back anytime soon. Did ya get the memo?

*New patterns have been designed with 650b and 29 wheels in mind
*A 26in mould for a new design is not worth it from a business point of view
*it was developed as a race specific tyre, you shave time with the bigger wheels those days

Maybe a good tyre but all the Michelin I had over the years -cars, ute, track specific etc ... - all became cracked. Save time and money and buy Maxxis.
  • 2 0
 Track specific really? I prefer michelin to dunlop on my trackbike by far.
  • 1 1
 All my michelin tyres became cracked even if they still had plenty of life left. It's about the way they perform, I did liked them too but they just dry out and cracked. If you worn them out in short amount of time you'll not notice it, but if you don't ... And I'm guilty of not having what it takes to store tyres properly. It's like I have an issue with Michelin compound lol.
  • 2 0
 I've had quite some cracked tyres as well over the years, but never caused me any problems.
  • 1 0
 Just by Continentals and be done with it man!!!
  • 8 3
 Minion DHF Front and Minion SS back or Magic Mary front Rock Razor back or Butcher/Slaughter - that's it that's all. Large, square knobbs on the side both front and back, large center knobbs in the centre on front, small on back. All well spaced for eventual mud shedding. The rest is for XC bikes and 1% of trails on the planet. Or for people with either mad skills or... how to put it... enthusiasts with artisan taste. Man who designed pattern for Minion DHF deserves to be put in MTB hall of fame.
  • 1 2
 WTB Vigilante! WOOO!
  • 1 0
 No love for 42a wetscreams up front? Cut them down or do a few commutes to get the wiggle out of the middle. The trails around here are muddy when wet and super loose when dry.
  • 1 0
 @choppertank3e wouldn't that be a Shorty then?
  • 7 0
 And the old Panaracer Dart has returned, folks! What is old is new again.
  • 2 0
 Only if it comes in "wont stop on wet " white
  • 6 0
 I dunno michelin, I just dont know.
  • 4 0
 Is Shorty really a good reference? Pretty much anything rolls better than a Shorty.
  • 3 0
 I agree with you on the Shorty, it does drag on prolonged climbs, but I think you misunderstood? I wasn't referring to the level of drag or trying to make comparisons between the Wild Race'R and a Shorty as a rear tyre as they're two very different tyres... I was merely informing everyone to what tyre was on the front and that the Wild Race'R was great at offsetting drag.
  • 3 0
 You sir, are forgiven. Smile
  • 5 0
 looks like an IRC piranha pro
  • 1 0
 That's what it was, I had a set of those in 2004- Awesome tire! Thought of it as soon as I saw the pic.
  • 1 0
 Looks like it will hold a line and roll decently. Not sure about climbing and braking though, length of edges at 90 deg are rather short and with too much space between them. Second the Dart reference. At around a kilo, the casing should be tough enough for proper rocky terrain though.
  • 2 0
 You might not be 'sure' about that, but the article kinda mentions that there is nothing to be unsure about really. So what would it take for you to be sure?
  • 1 0
 Well, if I rode a bike with this tire mounted on the rear wheel, then I'd be "sure". Cheers!
  • 5 0
 Finally a Panaracer Dart for the rest of us.
  • 5 0
 weight?
  • 4 0
 29x2.35 = 1020g and 27.5x2.35 = 950g
  • 3 0
 Where did those weight figures coffee from? Mmmm coffee?
  • 2 0
 Strong French coffee Wink
  • 7 2
 Looks like an Ardent
  • 4 4
 such as? totally different from ardent...
  • 2 1
 Looks similar to the new Maxxis Tomahawk with smaller knobs all around. Should be a fat tire but those center knobs will get eaten upon braking, 1-2 day life in a proper DH park likely.
  • 1 0
 fast tire*
  • 5 1
 'Dry Terrain Specific' ... talk about rule out the UK why doncha !
  • 3 0
 And Scandinavia...
  • 2 15
flag MojoMaujer (Oct 14, 2015 at 5:25) (Below Threshold)
 scandinavia and uk combined are 1/2 size market than france alone... so nobody cares about wet weathers
  • 7 2
 For reference, the UK is SRAM's third largest global market, YT's biggest and Canyon's second not to mention Fox and TLD's largest European markets, and the list goes on... We love mountain bikes in the UK, hence the disproportionate number of pro riders we produce. Michelin also have a wet weather tyre and an intermediate tyre in their line up. The whole idea is to pick and choose a combo that works for you and what you're riding on, providing you know what you want from a front and rear tyre as separate entities that do two different job on your bike?
  • 2 1
 I'm not sure it's a good idea to compare French to Scandinavia or the UK's market ...
  • 3 7
flag MojoMaujer (Oct 14, 2015 at 8:40) (Below Threshold)
 I am just talking numbers... and I read them from a british magazine a year or so ago.
Largest market by volume is Usa. Largest market by % polulation/sales Italy.
MTB in France is way bigger than Uk. However props to UK ppls for riding in the mud, that is why there are so many riders.
  • 1 3
 The biggest push bike market in Europe is supposed to be in Germany -it includes all kind of bicycles-. But countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Spain, France or Italy have always been cycling enthusiasts.

I'll be happy to look at your numbers @MojoMaujer , but I do think it depends of the type of bikes. They do like DH bikes in the UK for example. On the other hand, the french Joe rides a 130-160mm dually with (over)dialled suspension.
  • 1 1
 yeah, the article only considered performance bikes, not commuters etc... germay is a big market because they are like 100 milions... but the % of recreational riders is very high compare to people who do it for sport. anyhow the country i have seen more people doing serious riding is hands down italy. you see them in hundreds during weekdays. numbers came from mtb uk magazine i think...
  • 1 0
 but you guys have to realize that there are a lot of people that benefit from a dry seater tire. The west coast of the united states, for example. Everybody needs tires, including UK riders, as well as other people who ride dry stuff.
  • 9 5
 no 26? no customer from me.
  • 1 0
 Good looking tire... can't really see why it's marketed as a rear specific though. Looks like it'd be equally effective, if not more effective, as a front tire judging from the tread pattern.
  • 1 0
 Olly, what about the weight?

As people have note it looks like the Panaracer Dart, which was front wheel specific tyre. They never worked that good for me as a rear tyre when I was pushed for cash and that's all I had.
  • 1 0
 The weights are below k-too. They are from Michelin, so they could be out a few grams here and there... At first glance, yeah, I see a Panaracer Dart too, but look closely and its a completely different tyre. If you have someone like Nico Vouilloz helping you develop products - one the most technically astute racers ever - you know its gonna be special. That trophy cabinet does not lie!
  • 1 0
 No 26? Really stupid! A lot of People still have it. And there are companies (Liteville) that stay 26" on the rear in Future.
  • 2 0
 i like it! with some bigger knobs and a larger casing that would be a downright respectable DH tire too!
  • 3 0
 Ardent-ish with bigger side knob ? What's not to love ?
  • 2 0
 Ok so we have a tire based off of an ARDENT and I thought of the old 90s SMOKE
  • 5 3
 It looks like a mouthful of crooked teeth
  • 5 5
 First you cancel the legendary DH16, which was one of the best tyres ever created... now you don't even sell 26" anymore.
Michelin, you are doing it wrong.
  • 2 0
 ENDURO ENDURO ENDURO EVERYTHING
  • 2 0
 Can I get it in mint green?
  • 2 0
 Not for me. I ride All Mountain.
  • 1 0
 Tires like this with the large gaps between shoulder tread never corner well
  • 1 0
 Looks like a Tioga Psycho from back in the mid 90's
  • 2 0
 BFD.
  • 1 0
 Looks like a cross between an Ardent and a Minion...
  • 2 1
 Michelin- Projected MSRP (somewhere between $400 and 500 per tire...)
  • 2 1
 they finally brought back the Bontrager Revolt ST - excellent tire!
  • 1 0
 History repeatin itself. WTB called, and they want their patent back
  • 1 0
 Do the sidewalls come already dry rotted?
  • 1 0
 Interesting that a journalist from Bristol spells tyre the American way
  • 1 1
 Good thing its a rear tire, I wont have to look at it....
  • 1 1
 RAMPAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!







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