Specialized Clutch SX Tires - Review
A while ago a friend of mine bought a wheelset on ebay that came with some Specialized Clutch SX tires already installed. He didn't think much about them, figuring they were OEM throwaways, but out of curiosity he left them on for a ride and was pleasantly surprised. A few more rides and he was even more impressed. After his glowing recommendation I decided to try a pair of these tires for myself, inside you can read about my impressions.
Read on...![photo]()
This is Specialized's "freeride tire" and is 2.3" wide and uses their SX casing. The sidewalls would be considered a 1.5 ply, much tougher than a standard single ply. Weighing in at 970 grams, it is a bit heavier than your standard single ply tire, but at least 200-300 grams lighter than a full DH tire. If you're interested in saving weight, your wheels and tires are the most beneficial place to do it. The Clutch SX uses a dual rubber compound, 45a on the side knobs and 50a on the center knobs. That's pretty soft, I figured that would give them great traction, but lessen the tire's life. More on that later. Size wise, the 2.3" Specialized is very similar to 2.5" Maxxis tires. I run all my tires tubeless on Stans' strips. Bryan runs Mavic tubeless rims. Both setups worked well with the Clutch SX. We both use compressors for inflating tubeless setups so I can't speak for the ease of setting them up with a hand pump.
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Dry Conditions
These tires hook up like glue in dry conditions. If you're wondering about grip, check out the sidewall flex in this photo. That's at 30psi, these tires are gripping hard and you never get the feeling that they are rolling over. I had these tires on my bike when we did the Race at the Ranch preview and found them to work very well in the dry, dusty conditions.
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Wet Roots, Rocks and Loam
The Clutch SX works really well in wet conditions, the rubber is very soft and clings to wet rocks and roots like gum to the underside of a desk. Riding in the mud doesn't pose any issues, although they do seem to pack up quickly (while simply rolling along), but they clear out quickly as well (once back up to speed). I found them to be very predictable when starting to drift and rarely found myself in an uncomfortable situation that I wasn't expecting.
Here's a few shots of Bryan rolling some wet roots, rocks and loam. Sometimes you just have to know your tires are going to be there for you, and the Clutches never let him down. Braking on the wet rocks and roots didn't phase the tires, there's tons of traction. I'm assuming this is mostly due to the soft rubber compound and siped center knobs. The same goes for off camber roots and slopes. The softer side knobs grip like there's no tomorrow.
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Climbing, Rolling Resistance and Tire Wear
If there can be a con to these tires it might be that they are slightly slow rolling. It's a bit noticeable on longer fire road like climbs, but I'll gladly take that trade off for the wicked traction they offer. Increasing the air pressure lessens the rolling resistance, but reduces traction as well. I run them around 30-32 psi and found it to be good on both characteristics. But if there's yet another pro, it would be tire wear. This took me completely by surprise since I thought for sure that the soft compound would result in quick wearing tires. I've got a couple of months on them so far and they look like new. Bryan has a full season on his set, he figures 40+ rides and they are still in fine shape. See below for a comparison photo of a brand new Clutch SX compared to season old tires on either side of it.
![photo]()
To summarize, Bryan and I both really like this tire. It is definitely an extremely good "do everything" tire as long as you are willing to sacrifice a bit of climbing efficiency for great traction during the descents. They exhibited great traction in all the conditions we had them in, and we really can't find anything worthy of a complaint. If you're building a light freeride bike and can't afford to cut corners on reliability or deal with pinch flats, these are definitely worth checking out. MSRP is $60 USD and considering the fantastic wear we're seeing so far, I'd say it's a bargain.
See more at Specialized's website.
Read on...
This is Specialized's "freeride tire" and is 2.3" wide and uses their SX casing. The sidewalls would be considered a 1.5 ply, much tougher than a standard single ply. Weighing in at 970 grams, it is a bit heavier than your standard single ply tire, but at least 200-300 grams lighter than a full DH tire. If you're interested in saving weight, your wheels and tires are the most beneficial place to do it. The Clutch SX uses a dual rubber compound, 45a on the side knobs and 50a on the center knobs. That's pretty soft, I figured that would give them great traction, but lessen the tire's life. More on that later. Size wise, the 2.3" Specialized is very similar to 2.5" Maxxis tires. I run all my tires tubeless on Stans' strips. Bryan runs Mavic tubeless rims. Both setups worked well with the Clutch SX. We both use compressors for inflating tubeless setups so I can't speak for the ease of setting them up with a hand pump.
Dry Conditions
These tires hook up like glue in dry conditions. If you're wondering about grip, check out the sidewall flex in this photo. That's at 30psi, these tires are gripping hard and you never get the feeling that they are rolling over. I had these tires on my bike when we did the Race at the Ranch preview and found them to work very well in the dry, dusty conditions.
Wet Roots, Rocks and Loam
The Clutch SX works really well in wet conditions, the rubber is very soft and clings to wet rocks and roots like gum to the underside of a desk. Riding in the mud doesn't pose any issues, although they do seem to pack up quickly (while simply rolling along), but they clear out quickly as well (once back up to speed). I found them to be very predictable when starting to drift and rarely found myself in an uncomfortable situation that I wasn't expecting.
Here's a few shots of Bryan rolling some wet roots, rocks and loam. Sometimes you just have to know your tires are going to be there for you, and the Clutches never let him down. Braking on the wet rocks and roots didn't phase the tires, there's tons of traction. I'm assuming this is mostly due to the soft rubber compound and siped center knobs. The same goes for off camber roots and slopes. The softer side knobs grip like there's no tomorrow.
The tire is tough enough that you never have to shy away from any terrain, big or small. Here Bryan launches a burly line.
Climbing, Rolling Resistance and Tire Wear
If there can be a con to these tires it might be that they are slightly slow rolling. It's a bit noticeable on longer fire road like climbs, but I'll gladly take that trade off for the wicked traction they offer. Increasing the air pressure lessens the rolling resistance, but reduces traction as well. I run them around 30-32 psi and found it to be good on both characteristics. But if there's yet another pro, it would be tire wear. This took me completely by surprise since I thought for sure that the soft compound would result in quick wearing tires. I've got a couple of months on them so far and they look like new. Bryan has a full season on his set, he figures 40+ rides and they are still in fine shape. See below for a comparison photo of a brand new Clutch SX compared to season old tires on either side of it.
Brand SX in the middle with season old tires on each side
To summarize, Bryan and I both really like this tire. It is definitely an extremely good "do everything" tire as long as you are willing to sacrifice a bit of climbing efficiency for great traction during the descents. They exhibited great traction in all the conditions we had them in, and we really can't find anything worthy of a complaint. If you're building a light freeride bike and can't afford to cut corners on reliability or deal with pinch flats, these are definitely worth checking out. MSRP is $60 USD and considering the fantastic wear we're seeing so far, I'd say it's a bargain.
See more at Specialized's website.
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Specialized Clutch SX is an amazing tire that just won't stop gripping. Seems to grip better in the intermediate area of the knobs compared to a minion.
Now, I do have about 175-200 rides on my specialized pro 2.4 dh tire and it is only now wearing to the point I gotta change it, just because I'm starting to break loose if I'm really diggin it into turns. other than that rides decent still. Specialized tires are no joke people. They are better than anything else I have tried, including maxxis.
I'd be stunned to get 40 proper rides out of an ST Highroller
40 proper rides for a tire is complete and utter bs. So basically 2 days in Whistler and you need to buy new tires. That's absolute shear and utter bullshit. You should be able to throw some tires on and ride them for a full season, or if you are losing traction maybe 2 pairs a season. But say running 50 pairs of tires in a Whistler season (at 140 a pair... do the math and your absolutely smoking crack, as that's 7,000$ in tires for one season). Race tires are different as people who are sponsored don't shell out coin for them. Everyone I know who is serious about racing and doesn't get free rubber buys shit that lasts near an entire season, as they have to have backup rubbers on hand incase one breaks (that's what she said).
And "proper" what do you mean by that. You saying us Cali guys don't ride "proper" rides? We shred our gear as hard as we can, in some of the most notorious riding conditions around.(there is a reason most pros speak about CA just as highly as Whistler and North Shore).
What is this "2 days in whistler" nonsense, 2 days isn't 40 rides, it's 2 rides.
Also if your burning through a set of tires in 2 days at Fort William, you really need to learn how to stay off your brakes in rock gardens, basically chunking your tires into shreds. 2 days of berms won't kill a tire, and 2 days of rock gardens won't either, but basically skidding through rock gardens definitely will.
PS, judging by the gouges and dents in your hub splines in your pictures... there is definitely something wrong with the riding to cause that.
And the needledink comments generally come with people lacking in that area. If you can write good articles, why not present yourself as a professional adult in the comments, even when mediating between discussions.
And lastly, I could care less if you get a notification everytime someone posts. If you've bothered to read the integrity of posts on pinkbike over the past 6 years, you'd immediately know to use a secondary email for notifications.
tubeless!?
I tried the Clutches for the first time on my Enduro 05 today. Super grippy, very draggy on the tarmac to the trail but I can live with that for the grip. I measured them as just a touch smaller than 2.5 Minions [maybe 5mm narrower] and, I think, almost as grippy as a supertacky and way grippier than Maxxpro compound.
I mounted them to Mavic 823 rims and after an hour of trying to get one to blow up tubeless I gave up and put in a tube. The beads seem pretty lumpy but actually I never got as far as asking them to seal because they never blew onto the rim.
I'm pretty long term tubeless [4-5 years no-tubes] normally I use Stan's rim-strips or my Mavic EX823's, I've mounted many tyres, proper UST tyres, "tubeless ready" versions and standard "non tubeless" inc Maxxis and Michelin and get on fine with almost every tyre I've tried.
But these just would not have it. Any tips please?
Maybe I got a pair with particularly lumpy beads. In fact, though, as they never blew out of the fitting groove in the middle of the rim I don't suppose that's it.
Strange, Bontrager Big Earl Wet ARC Tubeless Ready just blow up immediately (with the compressor of course) on those same rims. I did note that the Clutches asre quote loose, as in real easy to fit without tyre levers.
Please tell me how to get a seal on a Mavic tubeless rim guys.
thanks lots
That trail looks pretty cool.
Cheers,
Might wanna try them out, just to differ.
Cheers
"The Clutch SX works really well in wet conditions, the rubber is very soft and clings to wet rocks and roots like gum to the underside of a desk."
Why push when you could pedal? I mean come on.
You can always push my bike up the hill if you think your a man