I just bought myself a brand new Dyno Fireball for my Qu-Ax muni and am having a problem with it.
When riding straight it pulls to one side or another so I find myself constantly correcting(twisting body/waving arms) which is tireing and not fun. Out of all the threads I found most of you guys like it and say it’s a great tire for a 24" street machine. I thought it could be a pressure issue but today I tried all different pressure setting and I’m getting the same results.
What could I be doing wrong?
Could it be that I’m so used to the grippy wildlife I just need to practice and the “tipping” will go away?
Does it take some getting used to and if so will I be able to ride as good as I could with the duro wildlife?
also the road was bare asfault but it was really cold outside could it have something to do with the cold rubber/cold road and lack of traction?
I really like the look and the smooth ride of the tire so I really want this to work but after barely being able to ride it today I’m considering putting back on the knobbie.
as a last resort are there any other 24x3.0 tires that you know are good
I just went through the same thing as I put a Kenda 2.1 knobby on my Torker LX–lots harder to ride. I tried high pressure and low pressure, had trouble with both. It seems the tire doesn’t want to come out of turns easily and I end up fighting it. Maybe it’s because I am riding it on a paved surface instead of on dirt, but, I put the original tire back on the uni for street riding. It seems to be a lot more stable no matter what the pressure. I had the same experience when I bought an off-the-shelf knobby for my 24" at a chain store–it didn’t ride well and increased the effort needed to stay on. Anybody know of a real winner knobby for 24"? I’d like to put on a tire with a bit more flotation but I don’t want to have to fight it.
I do not notice a similar issue when I change from the Kenda that came on my KH29er, to the Big Apple I use on the street. Must just be the design of the tire and how it interacts with the street.
It’s one of the really bizarre things that just seems to happen. I got this once or twice with a new muni I put together. I just kept riding it and soon it felt normal again. I think I started a thread about it back in 2002, if you can be bothered searching. It may be hard to find. The problem should resolve itself soon.
I have a 24" wide frame uni that came with the Dyno Fireball tire. Just last week I took it off and went to a knobby 24x3 duro wildlife leopard. I noticed an immediate improvenent in the way it handles both on and off road. The handling problem I believe has to do with the wide oval automotive style tread surface. Using the camber of the wheel to steer depends on the tire having a round cross section. Lowering the tire pressue will only give the tire an even more oval cross section, making it pull more.
I first found this out when I first was experimenting last year with the 20x4 1/4" Stingray wheel and tire on a uni. I found that they tend to steer down the camber of the road and the best way to ride is to keep the frame upright and steer by twisting the tire, scrub-steering, instead of trying to steer by leaning.
If you are going for looks, learning to ride the fireball will just take some adjustments in your riding style, If you are about doing serious off road riding you may want to switch back to the knobby.
oops I just went out to the garage and looked, I actually have the 24x3 Kenda Flame tire, but they are both made along the same design. so the information above should still be fairly accurate.
lleberg and andrew_carter say I’ll get used to it and it’ll go away
Carey and al_lieffring say that’s just how those tires ride
as for the defected tire pulling to one side it doesn’t pull to any particular side it just seems that it can’t ride without being tipped.
from the sounds of it it seems that I’ll be able to get used to the way it rides but it’ll never perform the way the duro wildlife does… even on street.
Thanks for the comments guys
Is there anyone out there that likes the fireball and wants to defend it’s reputation? there has to be someone…
The Fireball doesn’t need anyone to defend its reputation; it just looks so pimpy and rides so smoothly that its reputation is beyond question. It is a bit of a sod when riding on a cambered surface; it’s a very square tyre with fairly solid edges to it, so this is to be expected. But then you do a little hop and it makes that little noise that’s half squeak and half chirp and you don’t care that you can’t turn corners, because the tyre just sounds so ace.
There is a definite sweet spot between too much pressure, where the square profile makes things difficult, and too little pressure, where the thin sidewalls make the tyre squirmy, but when you find it you’ll love the tyre for generally being ace.
Update:
After going for a 3k ride on dry asfault to try and adjust to it I ended still tipping and fighting with it…
I agree the squeak, style, smooth ride, and look is all ace but I’m going to hang it on the wall for now as I do enough distance riding and can’t be fighting it the whole way. I’ll give it a try again once I become a more seasoned rider.
Three months later I decide to give it a try again… guess what? I like it now and don’t have a problem with it at all. I have complete control over it as I would the duro but now I have a smooth ride and a swank look.
I did find the cause of the problem though:
Now that the asphault and ground is warm along with the rubber on the tire not being froze there is enough friction that feels normal. When I was trying to ride in the winter the asphault and rubber were cold and there was no friction which made it very difficult to ride. My duro was fine cause of the off road tread caused enough traction even with the cold rubber and cold road… when riding the other day when it was cold and raining I could feel the tire acting just like it did in the winter which only confirmed my theory.
I’m glad I’m finally able to use and enjoy this tire.
I restled with this problem for ages and tried several tyres from aggresive knobbly to smooth, my usual route has lots of road camber aswell as off-road.
If you want a really good general purpose tyre for on and off road get a Holy Roller, Mikefule recomended it and I now have it on my 24" and 26" and if they made a 29" I would get one for my next project too.
It eliminates sideways creep on a camber, has enough tread for off-road, and looks cool. It’s only 2.4 but the weight saving gives better manouvrabiltiy if you ask me.
The Fireball and similar tyres are very fussy about tyre pressure. There is a very narrow range of tyre pressure where the tyre rides well. Too much pressure and the tyre has no hop and you might as well be riding a skinny tyre. Too low of pressure and the tyre is difficult to turn and difficult to control on cambered surfaces. You have a range of about 2 psi (+/- a bit) where the tyre is at its best.
You can’t ride that tyre with low bouncy tyre pressure like you can with a Gazz or similar DH tyre. The tyre just won’t behave at low pressure like that. So pump it up and get used to hopping with less bounce in the tyre.
Just keep riding, you’ll get used to it and wont lean anymore.
It may also be if your didn’t install the tire on right, you could have some of the bead of the tire not aligned right causing a slight alteration in your tire, causing you to lean or experience a bump in your riding.
I know it’s a old treath but I want to say a few words about this tire.
I have it on my uni 3 days now.
The first day when I road it, it felt wierd.
It rides wierd on slopes and in chambers.
But today it felt normal.
And the tire must be at the right presure: not to hard not to soft.
But all by all it’s a fine tire:
-cool look
-good grip
-cool sound when you land or jump
-turns great
-you learn beter to jump (because you have almost no bounce)
-cool look (o I said it twice :p)
And by the way, if Kris Holm trialed with it, it must be a good tire.
