Well, I didn’t get to ride on Friday, so my first ride was a big un’, two plus hours of rugged ups and downs at the local spot, which gave me plenty o’ time to come to “grips” with Larry.
I guess this thread outta be on the review forum, but who reads that stuff
So, first thing, Larry is a beast! Though the weight is less than a Duro, it’s still a whole lot of tire. The tire itself is very well made, mounting easily, quick to seat, and spins very true for a tire that size.
I started off on a paved road, pressure about 12 psi. Larry tire was really wanting to ride down the sidehill, same thing happended when I got onto the singe track, so I dropped the pressure to about 10psi. Keeping in mind that this tire has a huge volume, dropping air pressure to far on the trail would mean hundreds of pumps with my little hand pump in order to gain pressure back; this is not a tire you wanna do a trail flat repair
The pressure drop did wonders, which suggests that Larry is very sensitive to pressure. I didn’t run it any lower, though it certainly could be run lower, maybe 8-9psi, but I wanna have a big pump for doing that experiment.
So Larry is a lotta tire, did I already say that? Size wise it reminds me of a Gazz 3", but taller and less tready, so think Gazz but all casing and you got Larry. So, being so tall it rides more like a 29er in terms of pedal turn over. I’m running 165’s and it was far more work to push this uni down the trail than on my KH29 FR. I actually got to thinking that maybe some 170-175’s would be a nice combination.
Climbs? Well, it’s a lot of uni, so even though the big tire rolls over everything, it is still a big tire. Flats and downs are much more reasonable, flows nicely through tough sections, literally makes technical stuff smooth. At one point I was looking down a rooty-rocky gully and thought that it was gonna be a walker, but the Larry just rolled on through. The Larry is so good at smoothing things out that I had to start thinking differently when confronted with obstacles, for instance when I was faced with a narrow perpendicular gully that would normally require a hop, the Larry just rollered across it, amazing!
The Larry reminds me of a 36er in the way it’s hard to start, likely the amount of tread and big diameter, then in the way it handles, it’s more like a slow/heavy 29er. It is very certainly a muni tire, best suited for tech, steep, flats. As an XC tire for long rides, the Larry will wear you out, which is fine with me since my daily rider is the 29er. But when I wanna go do some downhill or ride tech, esp if and I gotta hike anyway, this is by far the best downhiller I have ridden. This tire takes some skill to handle and at times was a bear to keep under wraps, so not a tire for new riders. I don’t know that everyone would like Larry, in some ways it is harder to ride than a Duro Leopard 3" (my prev tire), but if you want the maximum suspension and the ability to roll over anything, Larry is your guy!
Just a few more details: The sidewall was very supportive, though it flexed, it did not fold, even at 10psi and an off angled slow. Though it doesn’t feel as firm as a DH tire, folding issues like I get with the RR 2.4 were not a problem even when bopping down rocky stuff and making off angle drops. Also, though you’d think the tire would be bouncy, it was actually a very damp ride, didn’t bounce going fast down the trail and didn’t rebound off objects.
Direct Bicycle Parts has the Larry in a 27tpi for $70. I ordered the 120tpi and the 27 tpi and couldn’t tell the difference, so $70 is nice deal for sure
Here are some pics:
Surly 26 with Larry next to a KH 24 with an Intense DH 3"
Surly 26 with Larry next to a KH 29FR with a Racing Ralph 2.4
Some more Larry shots