amount in it , but the feeling is more solid with the hard . In the sand and rocks of the Godley and Hopkins valleys the tyres worked well , giving lots of grip and biting in when they needed to . On the long stretches of gravel into the valleys , these share a similar characteristic I noticed in the Soft version - if you ride the bike like a road machine , leaning into the gravel corners , the rear feels like it ’ s a bit unstable - where there ’ s a gap in the transition between the knobs . The answer is to ride it like a dirt bike , pushing the bike down into the corner to engage the side knobs earlier . It takes a while to get used to , but feels better when the tyres are used in this way .
DURABILITY As much as it pains me to admit it , the recommendation I had from Craig Loades at Forbes and Davies ( the Metzeler tyre importer ) to run a Hard front with the Soft rear is a good one . The front knobs are shorter so don ’ t move around so much on tar seal , while the longer
FITTING I fitted these by hand using two levers and some tyre lube . The side walls aren ’ t too stiff and they were pretty easy to get on and popped out into the bead easily just using a bicycle floor pump , no compressor needed - which is pretty par for the course when dealing with a non-tubeless tyre / rim combo ( that said , some tyres are far harder than others ). I ’ ve put a tube in the rear of the MC360 Soft at the side of the trail , which wasn ’ t all that hard either .
RIDING I ’ m always cautious with a new set of knobbly tyres on tar-seal , but these didn ’ t take long at all to get rid of the sheen . The shorter knobs of the Hard version is more direct when on tar-seal , feeling more solid , less ‘ squidgy ’ when pushing on at a faster pace . There ’ s not a huge
READ THE MC360 MID-SOFT REVIEW
36 KIWI RIDER