Tire Test: Geax Barro Race 29er TNT Casing by D.O.

Fat Bob called me up and said he had some cool race tires for me to test – I have been bugging him for some go fast stuff so I could gain an advantage over my riding buddies.

At first glance the Barro’s look very fast with very short low rolling resistance knobs and a stiff sidewall.

My Racing Ralf’s are starting to wear down some and they are so light that the side walls love to weep air unless you keep plenty of fresh Stan’s in them so the new Geax Barro Race tires and there super tuff looking sidewalls peaked my interest.

I should have been suspicious when Fat Bob mentioned that these tires might be a little tuff to mount and to make sure that I had some tire tools.  I quickly found out what a under statement that was - impossible to mount would be more like it.

tight fit!

The Ralf’s came off without tools but the Geax tires seemed just too small and the fight was on.  I could not get even the first bead to go on my Stan’s no tube rim – what the hell is up with these tires – they had 29 printed in big numbers right on the sidewall but they refused to mount.

After bending the crap out of every tire tool I had I finally got the first side to bead on the rim and guess what, the inside of the tire was very tight fitting even in the center of the rim.  So after I started beading the second side and inserted the proper dose of Stan’s sealant I hit a brick wall no way was the tire going on.  I then recruited my super strong son that would just love to show up the old man – it did not take to long for this tire to whip him too.  His comment I better order a 29 ½” tire this one is too small and I agreed.

I faced a real dilemma I had a week of riding planned and a tire that won’t go on.  I had a good 10 inches of bead left and ¾” overlap with an almost zero stretch side wall.  I tried several side wall lubricants (soap / alcohol / water) to add some slip but no luck.  My thoughts cure it or kill it – its not my tire it’s Fat Bobs – is he playing a trick on me?  After searching my garage I settled on a well worn 12” Craftsmen flat blade screwdriver.  I finally had enough leverage - either this tire is going to rip or the rim is going to bend but it is going on and it did along with some new scratches on my high dollar rim.  Well a tire that tight should bead up real easy right?

Well it would if you could get the air to go in but the tire was so tight on the center of the rim that it is blocking off the back side of the presta valve– no air would go in even though I pumped 140 psi.  I finally pulled hard on the sidewalls while holding an air chuck and got the tire to pump up.

Note the side wall in relation to the valve stem.

A simple tire change had turned into an all afternoon ordeal.  Fat Bob then tells me the tire was not compatible with my rim – no sh_t / then he said the tire needs UST rim. I never attempted putting the second tire on the rear.

Test Setup:

Front tire – Geax Barro Race 2.0 – rear tire Schwalbe Racing Ralf 2.25

Test bike:

Niner RIP 9

Test results:

At different NC trails

White Water trail in Charlotte A+ dry very hard pack clay

Warriors Creek Wilkesboro /A+ machine cut smooth hard pack clay

Wild Turkey Greensboro /A- hard pack clay with a little loose sand

DuPont State Forest / A+ on the granite stuff, B+ on the hard pack trails

Governors Creek / A- dry hard pack clay some sand and pine needles

Harris Lake / B hard pack clay with pine needles and roots

Jonesboro Fault Trail Sanford / C- not recommended crashed twice both times on fast sweeping turns with loose gravel

Comments:

This tire is narrow the sidewalls are stiff and the tread has very shallow knobs with wide spacing - that is why it has such low rolling resistance which makes it fast on specific hard surfaces – Granite & brick hard clay trails.

Add a little sand and you start drifting in your turns.  Where this tire doesn’t work is cornering on gravel there is so much round rubber between the shallow knobs that little pieces of rock act like ball bearings and will roll the tire right out from under you – I got plenty of scrapes and bruises to show from using this tire on loose trail surfaces. After my crashes I was very reluctant to push the limits with this tire unless the surface was clean and hard.

I had no issues with straight line braking and you just don’t grab a hand full of front brakes in a turn especially with these tires.

Conclusions:

If you race on granite or dry hard pack clay trails this tire screams.  If you ride on loose stuff you will need a tire with more tread on it.

I have some sixer UST rims in my garage and the rim channel is much deeper than my Stan’s ZTR 355 29er rims so I suspect these tires will mount with less hassle on a UST specific rim.

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