WTB Horizon Tires

Big, squishy, good looking. Like an undercooked brownie. But faster. Well, actually, I eat brownies pretty fast, so it’s debatable which is faster, these tires, or brownie consumption.

The WTB Horizon tires are best set up tubeless. If you have to put tubes in them, watch out for pokey bits in the trail, cause the tread has no puncture barrier. That makes for a lighter and silkier ride, but it means they can get flats easier. With tubeless, no worries, the sealant will seal the hole and you won’t even know you ran over a pokey bit.

In fact, with tubeless, you can run such low pressures that pokey bits often sort of glance off the tire. Think about a water balloon that’s super filled with water vs one that’s only halfway filled. When you lob the half filled balloon at Randy’s noggin, it might just glance off that obnoxious smirk of his. The super filled up one, though, might burst in your hands, cause it’s under more tension. Then Randy will get the drop on you with his Super Soaker and your hypercolor T shirt will turn neon green, and everyone will know you’ve been hit. Conversely, they might suspect that you are just really really sweaty. And that’s probably worse.

Banal minutiae:

Fast tires for dirt roads and easy paths in the woods. Quick on pavement too.

Tubeless compatible. Thicker sidewalls and thread than a Rene Herse Tire, so although they ride great and fast and all that, they can take more abuse from rocks and such. Tough enough for touring, if you run them tubeless.

650b x 47mm. That’s about 1.85 inches. We like these on wider rims, like Cliffhangers or Blunt 35’s, but really, you can run them on something narrow like a Pacenti Brevet rim, and be fine.

Black tread, ooo-eeey gooey chocolate brownie brown sidewalls.

Start at 40 psi and keep dropping the pressure until you either start bottoming the tire out on your rim or it feels too squishy under hard cornering. Depending on your weight and riding style, that’ll be between 35 and 20 psi (if you are running tubeless!).