Our popular Kratos and Scylla 29″er tires were recently reviewed on twentynineinches.com and mtbr.com. The excellent 29er focused website twentynineinches.com posted their fourth and final review of both the Kratos and Scylla tires. The reviewers at twentynineinches put the tires through rigorous testing in various conditions and their reviews were very thorough and insightful. The mountain bike site mtbr.com posted their first impressions of the tires and shared some specifications and details on the tires from our site.
Here’s an excerpt from the twentynineinches review conclusions:
“Rubena has made a strong impression with the introduction of their tires in North America. These are well made, high performance tires with well thought out features that many riders will appreciate. However; I did note a few things I would like to see Rubena work on, like their weight and volume for these models.
The Scylla and Kratos both fell well short of their stated sizes while weighing more than some of their high end competitors tires. Still, you have to give Rubena credit where it is due, and I will say that I was extremely surprised to be able to mount these tires on Stan’s and UST spec rims with no real issues to speak of. The tubeless performance and ease of set up for these two models that Rubena sent over is definitely something to take note of.
The Scylla was definitely more of a one trick pony here as it preferred dry, buff trails and didn’t really shine anywhere else. I think it makes a good candidate for rear tire duty paired with a bit more aggressive front tire, (like the Kratos), if you are into all-around mountain biking. Traction on everything but loose, scrabbly rocks, gravel, or mud was fine. The other notable thing about the Scylla was its rounded profile which gave it a faster turn in when mounted as a front tire. Finally, I give this model high marks for durability in severe conditions, so it is perhaps a marathon/endurance tire choice for faster trails.
The Kratos was the tire that really impressed me out of these two models. While it didn’t quite measure as wide as specified by Rubena, it rode much larger than that. The smooth, damped feel of this tire was very nice, while traction was never an issue. Cornering, climbing, or descending, the Kratos showed me no reason to doubt its grip. While not necessarily the fastest rolling tire, it was not bad in this regard. Finally, the Kratos also has similar tubeless performance characteristics to the Scylla, so it should work for a wide range of wheels out there as a great front or rear tire.”