Kenda Slant Six Cyclo-Cross Clincher Tyre

Designed for intermediate to hard packed conditions the Slant Six cyclo-cross tyre with its plethora of little blocks looks like Kenda's Small Block Eight on steroids.

The Small Block Eight is a great cyclo-cross clincher tyre for when you want to go leg blurringly fast off-road but it's a little fragile and there only has to be the suggestion of moisture in the air for it to get arm flailingly slippery. A more robust and grippier version is a welcome thing.

Pitched between the tread patterns of the fast Small Block 8 and the knobbly Nevegal Kenda have a lot of faith in their Slant Six tread pattern. It's available as 26in, 27.5in/650B and 29in mountainbike tyres and this 700 x 32 cyclo-cross version. It also comes as a 700x35mm tyre for you non-UCI compliant rufty tufty riders.

As part of Kenda's 'John Tomac Signature Series' the Slant Six is designed with input from Mr Tomac who was and is pretty handy on a mountainbike to the level of being an icon. He also did a stint in the Motorola team where he competed in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, so you should be in safe rubber.

As you might imagine those massed ranks of rectangular, beveled tapered siped knobs make the Slant Six a little bit draggy on tarmac. They're small and quite closely spaced so the drag is not disheartening, certainly not enough to blame any sluggishness on the tyre rather than your legs. Thanks to the layout of the treads it's a predictable tyre on road should you venture far on tarmac by mistake. It can be leaned into corners quite happily without fear of suddenly falling off the grip cliff.

The Slant Six features Kanda's DTC tread compound, this means that the centre knobs have a harder 60 durometer rubber that prolongs tread life while those on the sides are a softer, stickier 50 durometer compound that gives better grip in the corners. Tread life is about on par with other cyclo-cross tyres.

The closely packed tread also create quite an effective barrier to pesky thorns as it's tricky to find a large tread gap to get to the carcass. If any pointy things do get in there they'll have to get past the Iron Cloak Belt anti-puncture strip. Riding the Slant Six was a remarkably flat-free affair when compared with the usual frequency of cyclo-cross tube casualties.

The abundance of knobs and the anti-puncture strip certainly add weight to the Slant Six making it appreciably heavier than a lot of 'cross clinchers, but you do get a certain amount of tough reliability in return.

Point it off road when it's dry and the Slant Six is a whole heap of nippy fun. All those little lumps of tread equate to enormous amounts of grip if the ground is dry and dusty, and with plentiful ranks of chiseled side knobs the bike can be leant over with giggly confidence.

If you like to muck about rather than just race on your cyclo-cross bike and wrestle it around like a mountainbike then you'll enjoy the Slant Six. For a cyclo-cross tyre it performs pretty well outside of the cyclo-cross preferred habitat of playing fields and grassy banks. It's happy to venture over hill and dale and the Slant Six takes all of that in its stride with chirpy eagerness. It's a hardy tyre and the tightly spaced knobs provide a level of cushy comfort for a 32mm tyre.

It's pretty much a tyre for dry conditions only though. As soon as things get damp these Kendas begin to get gummed up with mud. Those closely spaced treads don't place it in the pantheon of tyres to use in the wet and sticky months.

If you're looking for something to race on and aren't bothered by the weight in those first few dry weekends of the cyclo-cross season or if you use your cyclo-cross bike through the dry season then these are worth a look see.

Verdict

Grippy, fast, fun, slightly lardy dry conditions cyclo-cross tyre that's not too slow on tarmac.