Has anyone ever actually compared the performance between the Nokian Gazzaloddi, Duro Wildlife Leopard and Arrow Racing Wide Bite tires. I am talking only about the 24X3 size.
Up until now I have ridden on the Kenda Kenetics Stick-e 24X2.6 and the Duro 24X3. The Duro has more bounce and suspension. However I feet more of a difference when I ride my KH with the 47mm rim as aposed to the Onza with an Alex DX32 rim. I guess that the wider rim gives much more volume to the tire. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had at least two of these tire brands on the same rim.
I ride very technical trails with a lot of 1 to 3 foot drops and also a lot of sharp rocks and thorns. Therefore I always wanted to get a Gazz tire because everyone says that they are so good. I want to put an order in at UDC but they kind of pissed me off by raising the Gazz price to $74! It would piss me off even more to buy it and find out that it is no better than the Duro at $23! Are the Gazzis or Arrows actually any better than the Duros?
I’ve heard good things about the Gazz, but it’s still mad expensive. The Duro is a great tire and honestly, it shouldn’t make all that much of a difference in terms of perceived riding fun. Think about it in terms of price: 3 Duros=1 Gazz, can you say the Gazz is really 3 times better?
I’d recommend riding someone’s uni with a Gazz on it and see if you really notice a difference…otherwise i’d stick with a Duro.
[QUOTE=mornish]
I say that the gazz is 3 times better.
It’s grippier, wider, bouncier, and nicer.
Miles, What do you base this on? I have had 3 Duros and 1 Gazz. The Gazz is slightly better for jumping, but the Duro turns better. Hopefully Vivalargo will chime in on this as he and most the Santa Barbara guys have switched from Gazz to Duro. When my Gazz wears out(I will say it lasts a lot longer than the Duro, but not 3X)I will probably go back to the Duro. FYI, I have a KH24 '07 with the Gazz and a Surley 26" with the Duro.
As metioned in many other threads . . . the Duro has a little less volume than the Gaz, has a rounder profile so it turns better, and it only coasts 23 bucks, which makes it about the best deal of all Muni gear – cheaper even than gloves. The only real drawback with the Duro is that it wears out quickly if you do much street riding and don’t frequently rotate the tire or cranks.
The Arrow and Intense tires are almost never seen on a muni, at least here in California. I have an Arrow 24 x 3 inch tire but don’t know the model name (Wide Bite??). Seems like a good tire – don’t think there are any bad 24 x 3 inch tires. Whatever you’re used to will probably work best. None of the tires mentioned will hold you back.
As metioned in many other threads . . . the Duro has a little less volume than the Gaz, has a rounder profile so it turns better, and it only coasts 23 bucks, which makes it about the best deal of all Muni gear – cheaper even than gloves. The only real drawback with the Duro is that it wears out quickly if you do much street riding and don’t frequently rotate the tire or cranks.
The Arrow and Intense tires are almost never seen on a muni, at least here in California. I have an Arrow 24 x 3 inch tire but don’t know the model name (Wide Bite??). Seems like a good tire – don’t think there are any bad 24 x 3 inch tires. Whatever you’re used to will probably work best. None of the tires mentioned will hold you back.
I think this may have to do with what you’re used to riding. I went from a 26x2.6 Gazz to a 24x3 Duro, and really, really didn’t like the Duro. When I changed to a 24x3 Gazz, all felt right again. Granted, I rode the Duro for only a month, maybe, all the while working on getting a Gazz.
<threadjack>PDC, where else can one find a Gazz? My LBSs tried for weeks to hunt one down through their distributors, and I ended up having to go through UDC</threadjack>.
For myself, a 6’2" 205 lb rider, the extra width and air makes enough difference to justify the cost, and I like the square profile of the tire. Others may not see a performance justification. I haven’t tried any of the other tires you mention, although I’ve liked some Arrow products on my bike.
I used to only ever ride a gazz, and be convinced it was the bestest of the best, money well spent blah di blah, but thanks to travelling and borrowing people’s unicycles for muni rides, I’ve ridden various tyres on trails, including
24x3 duro
24x3 gazz
24x2.6 gazz
26x2.6 gazz
26x3.0 gazz
26x3.0 duro
There’s a little bit of difference in turning between the two, the duro is maybe a little bit more nimble, but it’s pretty marginal, it isn’t worth spending any extra money to get one or the other. Once you’ve ridden a few different tyres, it only takes five or ten minutes to get used to a tyre change.
On my muni, I have a 26x2.6 gazz, the only reason I have it is because last time I wore out a tyre, some online shop was doing deals on them for 15 GBP(like $30) including a nokian inner tube (worth about $10-15, I needed it anyway). If the halo/duro had been cheaper I’d have bought that instead.
I’ve ridden an Intense 24x3.0 DH tire for over 3 years now on trails ranging from redwood forests and root gardens, fist sized loose gravel gardens, summer double black ski trails, SB rock gardens, moab trails, and east coast quick slopes. The only deficiency I’ve found in it is that it doesn’t perform on skinnies as well as the Gazz. I’ve also ridden the Duro, Arrow, Gazz, Dyno Fireball (paper sidewalls, street tire) and a few thinner (2.6, 2.3, etc) tires. All on a DX-32. The only thing that I found distinguished the Gazz was its performance on skinnies. I prefer my Intense for traction, turnability, and profile. The arrow is a good compromise, however. Ultimately, the price of a gazz simply does not justify its mild performance boost.
Where else can you buy it now? Nokian (now Suomi) no longer has the Gazz 24x3 listed on the web site or in their specs page. Is it still in production? Does anyone besides UDC have them?
I haven’t been keeping up with the Gazz 24x3 availability. I’m a Gazza hoarder and have about 4 spares in storage. That will last me several more years. If I can’t get a Gazza 24x3 after that I’ll just switch to the Duro or whatever the KH is using at that time.
I use the Gazza 24x3 just because it is what I’m used to and it does well on my local trails. I could switch to the Duro but I was a whore and stocked up on Gazzas so I’m staying with it for now.
I heard that the Gazz 24x3 is out of production! Maybe that’s why the price has skyrocketed on what’s left in stock. I say go with the Duro; you can get 3 for the price of ONE gazz 24x3 and still have $5 left over!
First thanks for all the great input. I have been doing a lot of searching for the 24x3 Gazz but they are discontinued. You can find them in England but the shipping kills. $74 is just to much for a tire.
I have been quite happy with the Duro 24x3. It is just curiosity that has me wanting to try the Gazz or maybe Arrow, IRC or Intense.
I don’t have that much wear on my Duros even after a lot of abusive riding.
(I do at least two 7 mile rides in tough singles and about 4 half hour long skills building rides on a local basketball court each week.) I do see that the left sides of the knobs are getting rounder because I prefer turning to the left. I rode one Duro on my Onza 24 with an Alex DX32 for about 4 months and it held up great with no major wear. I have now been riding another duro on my KH24 2007 for over 2 months also without much wear. I have not had the reason to rotate either of them as of yet. Just not enough wear. I will rotate them as soon as I see serious wear. Also I was wondering if the direction is really important. I tend to round the left side of the knobs more as stated above so if I reverse the direction of the tire when rotating it will this really effect performance?
I will just stay with the Duros. I even saw Kris using them in some footage.
I know that a Duro will hold up for at least year in some very tough conditions.
First thanks for all the great input. I have been doing a lot of searching for the 24x3 Gazz but they are discontinued. You can find them in England but the shipping kills. $74 is just to much for a tire.
I have been quite happy with the Duro 24x3. It is just curiosity that has me wanting to try the Gazz or maybe Arrow, IRC or Intense.
I don’t have that much wear on my Duros even after a lot of abusive riding.
(I do at least two 7 mile rides in tough singles and about 4 half hour long skills building rides on a local basketball court each week.) I do see that the left sides of the knobs are getting rounder because I prefer turning to the left. I rode one Duro on my Onza 24 with an Alex DX32 for about 4 months and it held up great with no major wear. I have now been riding another duro on my KH24 2007 for over 2 months also without much wear. I have not had the reason to rotate either of them as of yet. Just not enough wear. I will rotate them as soon as I see serious wear. Also I was wondering if the direction is really important. I tend to round the left side of the knobs more as stated above so if I reverse the direction of the tire when rotating it will this really effect performance?
I will just stay with the Duros. I even saw Kris using them in some footage.
I know that a Duro will hold up for at least year in some very tough conditions.
I forgot to mention in my above post that probably 95% of unicyclist buy thier gear from UDC or Bedford and if they carried the Arrow, IRC or Intense they would probably also be popular tires.
While tyres like the gaz are often run ‘backwards’ the Duro behaves very oddly, alot of the directional control goes and it doesn’t feel atall good. By all means try it, it won’t cost you anything except your time but it’s not an option I would consider.
Skinny objects that you ride on. It can be a log or a ladder bridge or any other long skinny object along the trail. The skinny can be at ground level or elevated above the ground several feet or more. Sometimes a skinny will be there so you can ride over a bog or other impassible area. Other times a skinny will be there for no other reason than it is fun to try and ride.
I just got a reply from Kris Holm concerning my tire questions!
I am posting it below:
Regarding tires. The Duro seems virtually identical to the Arrow.
I think the shape of the Duro (“medium” volume 3" tire, rounded
profile) makes it the best all-round tire because it is lighter weight than the Gazz and the round profile is better for cornering.
However, the higher volume Gazz is the better tire for technical downhill and big drops, particularly in rocky terrain, because the
higher volume sucks up the shock better. The flatter profile is good
in mud and is also good for skinny railings because you can ride
closer to the edge of the tire tread and still stay on. I’ve
personally never noticed any difference running my tire forward or
backwards to the way it is supposed to be. In a way I think it makes
more sense to run it backwards if your riding area is dominated by difficult descents.
I want to thank Kris for the informative reply. What he says makes a lot of sense and agrees with what most people said in the thread.
I have now been riding with my Duro tire reversed on one of my Unicycles and I don’t feel a difference.
If the tire is on one way (same as a mtb front tire) you can get better control down hills, as Kris said, and rolls a bit better, and the other (same as a mtb rear tire) better traction climbing up hills.
Trying to ride up a steepish trail I spun out, do to poor traction. If it were better I might not have, but I think my biggest problem is poor technique.
