It turned out to be too hot in the middle of the day for a ride, so with a craft knife in hand I decided it was time to starting working on converting my 36 Nightrider into a knobby tire.

Why? No reason especially! Almost all of my riding is off road and even though I’d been riding the tire since last October the new tire rubber dimples on the outside knobs were still intact suggesting they don’t get used much, and just adding weight to the tire.

The initial plan is to remove every second knob on the outside of both sides of the tire and see how it goes, then perhaps remove every second knob from the next row in, leaving the centre row intact for easy cruising on hardpack surfaces.

Within in an hour the first step was almost complete. Needs a little cleaning up with the Dremel, but definitely gives the 36 uni a cool XC look.

36 Nimbus Nightrider Knobby
36 Nimbus Nightrider Knobby WIP

The weight saving is good too! 75 grams for this first step, so potentially 200 grams is up for grabs with the other two rows of knobbies removed – that’s a big weight saving on the outside of the relatively heavy 36″ flywheel!

2 Responses

  1. Cutting nobbies is great for offroad on a coker. BUT it takes up allot of time. I did convert a Try All tire into a slick once, NEVER again :p

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