The WTB UK boys (Gary Forrest and Rob Williams) have been doing well this year with a heap of top results at the UK Gravity Enduro, Enduro World Series and big events like the Trans Savoie. Gee Milner hooked up with them a few weeks back to create this heavy edit on Gary’s home trails in the borders. Looks like fun trails!
Conveniently we’ve just received a Vitus test bike that’s shod with WTB Trail Boss (rear) and Vigilante (front) 650b rubber. So far, so good on those.
The Vigilante 2.3″ stands out as a particularly good tyre and has inspired loads of confidence on wet, loose, mucky winter trails. It has a really nicely aggressive tread with widely spaced, square nobbles that are angled towards the outside edges for cornering. It seems to bite nicely in to wet, loose, mucky trails meaning lots of fun as the weather turns to stink. We’re looking forward to having this one up front at next weekend’s Red Kite Enduro which promises to be a muddy one! We’re tempted to source another Vigilante and see how the bike rides with one on the rear for steeper, gnarlier, winter trails.
The Trail Boss 2.25″ is an interesting tyre. It’s designed with chunky, widely spaced tread but with smaller nobbles than you might see elsewhere on a High Roller or the WTB Vigilante. That means you’ve got a fast pedalling and non-draggy design that bites in under cornering and breaking and still works well in all but steep, loose, wet conditions. For trail centre riding (we took it to Cwm Carn last night) it has been excellent so far… A month ago when the weather was dry and sunny we would have been pretty excited to run a pair of these tyres. For now though, it’s doing a good job out-back!
