Review: Surly Extraterrestrial 26x2.5

[Trevtassie]

Because I'm lazy, here is a review of the Extraterrestrial I posted on COB.
Just did 1000km of loaded touring on assorted sand, clay, road and pea gravel surfaces on the Extraterrestrials.
They are excellent... pumped up they roll better than my old Marathon Mondials on road. Let them down to 14PSI and they eat up sand and pea gravel(the Mundabiddi Track where I rode is famous for it's pea gravel, they actually use the stuff to make arrestor beds for runaway trucks) Run them at around 18PSI and they are great on clay and normal gravel. They seem especially good at running along the sloped edges of ruts, they surprised me how well they gripped even gravelly surfaces, I think it is the rounder profile compared to most tires.
One thing I should mention is that the tires should be fitted in opposite directions at either end. The front tire needs to be facing the "wrong way" according to the directional arrow on the sidewall. The idea is that V shaped treads need to cut down through loose surfaces to the harder substrate under braking. This means the point of the V on the ground should be pointing in the direction of travel. Facing the other way the tread will tend to pull loose material under the middle of the tire when braking. There is some technical reasoning in giving tires directional arrows in terms of casing fabric, but in my experience I've never had a casing fail, I'd prefer better handling.
I'm 90+ kg and the loaded bike was around 30+kg and even at 14psi I never bottomed out despite hitting some large rocks reasonably hard. I was running tubes, but apparently they will work tubeless, they fit really tight on my DT Swiss F630 rims, so tight I need a tire lever to unseat the bead.
Downsides: They are heavy... The casing is also has very little stretch in it. When adjusting pressures you need a gauge because they are so senstive, one short sssst takes you from 35PSI to 16 really quickly,which is surprising given their huge volume. Isuspect this comes from the very strong casing having no stretch.

[Konatourer]

Thanks for the review. I have just fitted a set of 29 x 2.5's. I am using a Schwalbe electronic tyre gauge to check pressures.

[Trevtassie]

Uh oh, seems I was premature giving them a thumbs up. There are some serious quality control issues with the ET. One of the 4 tyres we were using is nearly bald after 2500km. Turns out Innova, who make the tyres for Surly really don't have good QC when it comes to making sure there is enough tread grade rubber in the mould. Essentially what happens is you get soggy tread blocks covered with a skin of hard rubber (like a crusty dog poo!) As soon as the crust wears through the tread block wears away fast as. I've got a really good picture of the tread blocks with the clearly visible hard rim around the outside.
So you could end up like me, with one tyre nearly cactus after only 2500km. And I got lucky, after this happened I did some research, and people have got as little as 1000km out of them. Still trying to get it replaced under warranty, I didn't buy in Australia, because I wasn't willing to pay $50 more per tyer for that privilege, not for 4 tyres, so hopefully the US retailer will be satisfied with the pictures and not make me mail the tyre back.

[rifraf]

Just did 1000km of loaded touring on assorted sand, clay, road and pea gravel surfaces on the Extraterrestrials.
(the Mundabiddi Track) .........

How did you enjoy the trip?
What direction did you take? Nth to Sth or Sth to Nth?

There is a plan for Virgin to offer direct flights starting this month (I think the 16 or 17th) which will make travel to both areas much easier and attractive rather than spending hours waiting for a connecting flight via Melbourne or Sydney.

[Trevtassie]

Just did 1000km of loaded touring on assorted sand, clay, road and pea gravel surfaces on the Extraterrestrials.
(the Mundabiddi Track) .........

How did you enjoy the trip?
What direction did you take? Nth to Sth or Sth to Nth?

There is a plan for Virgin to offer direct flights starting this month (I think the 16 or 17th) which will make travel to both areas much easier and attractive rather than spending hours waiting for a connecting flight via Melbourne or Sydney.

Munda Biddi was a bit samey samey. But then I'm originally from WA, so the bush wasn't super interesting to me. Riding varied wildy between the sublime- single track around Pemberton, to chugging through the scrub along a gravel road west of Denmark. A lot of the north is through laterite country, not much use for anything, so still forested. We went Sth to Nth, because we could get a lift to Albany.

[Mugglechops]

Uh oh, seems I was premature giving them a thumbs up. There are some serious quality control issues with the ET. One of the 4 tyres we were using is nearly bald after 2500km. Turns out Innova, who make the tyres for Surly really don't have good QC when it comes to making sure there is enough tread grade rubber in the mould. Essentially what happens is you get soggy tread blocks covered with a skin of hard rubber (like a crusty dog poo!) As soon as the crust wears through the tread block wears away fast as. I've got a really good picture of the tread blocks with the clearly visible hard rim around the outside.
So you could end up like me, with one tyre nearly cactus after only 2500km. And I got lucky, after this happened I did some research, and people have got as little as 1000km out of them. Still trying to get it replaced under warranty, I didn't buy in Australia, because I wasn't willing to pay $50 more per tyer for that privilege, not for 4 tyres, so hopefully the US retailer will be satisfied with the pictures and not make me mail the tyre back.

Damn that's no good. I was after one in 29x2.5 last year but ended up getting a Conti Mountain King in 29x2.4 off a mate for $5. It's still going strong almost 12 mths later of doing around 100kms a week most weeks.

I had a similar issue with a 29x3 Surly Knard that the bead split on after 2000kms I never tried for warranty. The other Knard I bought at the same time would have close to 6000kms on it now and probably good for maybe 2000 more.

[rifraf]

Munda Biddi was a bit samey samey. But then I'm originally from WA, so the bush wasn't super interesting to me. Riding varied wildy between the sublime- single track around Pemberton, to chugging through the scrub along a gravel road west of Denmark. A lot of the north is through laterite country, not much use for anything, so still forested. We went Sth to Nth, because we could get a lift to Albany.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

I'm now going to have to look up "laterite" in google.

The touring forum has been a bit forlorn of input of late so I'd encourage you to consider a write up of your trip.

I went to CGOAB in order to see if your review contained more content but like here was left hungry for more.

Great to be informed of Surly's questionable quality control with regards their tires, though I still have a range of Schwalbes that need wearing out before any more punishment of the check book can be considered.

[Trevtassie]

Munda Biddi was a bit samey samey. But then I'm originally from WA, so the bush wasn't super interesting to me. Riding varied wildy between the sublime- single track around Pemberton, to chugging through the scrub along a gravel road west of Denmark. A lot of the north is through laterite country, not much use for anything, so still forested. We went Sth to Nth, because we could get a lift to Albany.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

I'm now going to have to look up "laterite" in google.

The touring forum has been a bit forlorn of input of late so I'd encourage you to consider a write up of your trip.

I went to CGOAB in order to see if your review contained more content but like here was left hungry for more.

Great to be informed of Surly's questionable quality control with regards their tires, though I still have a range of Schwalbes that need wearing out before any more punishment of the check book can be considered.

There's a good pic of the tread blocks on CGOAB at least, it's really pretty obvious the difference between the two types of rubber. At the rate it was wearing, I reckon it only had another 300km or so before it would have been down to the casing.
It's such a pity the ET can't be relied on to go the distance because when they aren't wearing out they are excellent, so much nicer to ride on than Mondials, both on and off road. I suspect they'd never last the same distance as a Mondial, I'd be thinking 5-6000km of loaded touring, but the ride makes up for that. I've still got some half worn Mondials hanging in the shed, but I'm hooked on high volume tyres now.