Vittoria Barzo XC Bike Tires for Mixed Terrain Conditions - Cross Country Trail Tubeless TNT MTB Tire

Product Information

Multi-compound: Tyres that use different rubber compounds; dual compounds are normally harder in the centre or underneath for fast rolling and long life, but soft on the shoulders for cornering grip. Schwalbe and Maxxis now do triple-compound tyres too The rounded crown also makes it easier to tip the tyre from side to side when manoeuvring the bike around. Tyres in this range offer good protection and grip for more aggressive riding. Narrower tyres offer less cushioning and have less ‘footprint’ to grip with. Also, rather than leading-edge ramps used on many competitor tyres, the tread uses directional ‘arrow’ shapes pointing forwards to increase rolling speed. With a relatively open tread pattern, it clears mud with aplomb (Image credit: Aaron Borrill) Performance

Think of it therefore as cross-country-type rubber in the middle and trail-type rubber on the edges. This is a test of the 29x2.25 TNT version of the Barzo with the 4C G+ 2.0 compound. The TNT version (Tube No Tube) comes with reinforced sidewalls which makes it easier to set these up tubeless. A slightly lighter TLR version with thinner sidewalls is available as well. There’s a massive range of tyre widths available, from 1.5in to 5in fat bike tyres. The majority of mountain bikers run tyres in the 2.2in to 2.5in range, and more recently up to 2.6in has become commonplace. For more about our grip test, and how the knobby tread pattern affects the test results, we have more information here.Carcass: The fabric body of the tyre made from overlapping nylon threads encased in rubber. A more supple carcass enables the tyre to deform around lumps for extra grip but is less stable at low pressures. A reinforced carcass is more protective and less wobbly at low pressures but heavier and less comfortable. Lighter carcasses are more likely to get punctures too It's critical to understand our static wet grip test works with a hard surface. This means the grip data is only directly useful for comparing tires on hard surfaces where the rubber compound creates the grip. Understanding the test results gets more difficult when grip is created by the knobs digging into the surface.

Square-profile tyres have more edging grip but are harder to lurch into corners. Rounder tyres roll more easily into corners and slide more predictably. Edge grip isn’t as aggressive, though. There’s only one size, but 29×2.4in is exactly the size you’d want for a tyre such as this. It blows up quite round compared to rival mountain bike tyres, so the fact you roll along on a thinner strip of the crown ensures the pointier tread doesn’t hamper rolling speed. Addix Ultra Soft is the enduro and downhill compound found in the Magic Mary and Dirty Dan. Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Vittoria Barzo TNT G+ 2.0 Test Results

TPI: The number of threads per inch in the carcass. Tyres with more threads are generally higher quality with a more subtle feel, but companies such as Tioga use a smaller quantity of fatter threads The Barzo now comes with the G+ 2.0 compound that Vittoria claims significantly improves wet grip over the previous G+ 1.0 version. Vittoria makes no claims of improved rolling resistance which means they might have sacrified the low rolling resistance of the G+ 1.0 compound to improve wet grip. Fear not though, this doesn’t mean turnover here is slow in any way. I also like how this tread pattern has lots of little multi-directional sharp edges that really rip into the earth to deliver tons of traction.