Kiwi Rider June 2025 Vol.1 | Page 24

attract your negative side – let me explain … Before delving into the new T33, here is my list of things I wanted improved – not expecting my opinion to matter a damn, but hey. First has more to do with the carcass construction than anything regarding traction. I felt the T32 was‘ thuddy’ I know, more a Kev-ism than good English but as a non-word it works for me. The tyre felt lacking in pliancy from my previous sets, feeling like I had chucked cheaper, blunt suspension on. That resulting dead feel didn’ t affect grip on smoother surfaces at all but, for us fussy units, it irked a tad. I was quite willing to forgive that downside for amazing lifespan, an aspect which was above average but not head and shoulders above the pack, so I was a bit‘ meh’ about them. Good? Sure. Great? Not really.
FITTED READY TO GO Just grabbing the tyres out of the wrapping and giving them a good squeeze or two, as most of us do with new hoops, raised an eyebrow.‘ This is not the same construction as the T32’, I
thought. I didn’ t slice the things apart to check the weight, angle and pitch of the chords, neither did I measure the maximum thickness of the wedge section. No core sample was taken of the compounds … but I had a hunch. And then there is the totally different tread cut. These are a new tyre, not a‘ refreshed’ tweak. I got quite excited. A quick check with the boffins confirmed new, more flexible chords, as well as new compounds and tread pattern. New tyres and it is pissing down. Oh well, just keep that in mind. The profile is familiar, retaining a fairly shallow profile for touring, rather than the pointier sports preference, so nice and stable and predictable – handy in the wet. With no physical mould release used, those first few kilometres on wet city streets were both careful and uneventful, so, as town turned into country, and lean angles and road friction gradually warmed things up a little( I stopped and felt both tyres to settle my mind) I was already happy that the‘ thuddiness’
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