House-brand tires are often deemed unworthy of *serious* mountain biking, but with the price of many popular options climbing well above $100 apiece, the catalog alternatives are looking a lot more tempting. Bontrager has built quite the broad lineup over the years, with offerings in just about every conceivable niche of the sport. Historically, their tires have been biased towards durability and rolling speed at times at the cost of all-out grip, but their engineering team is looking to make the rubber as good as can be.
G5 Details• 29 x 2.5" or 27.5 x 2.5"
• 42a rubber compound
• Dual-ply 60tpi w/ butyl insert
• Wire bead
• Actual weight: 1455g
• Price: $79.99 USD
•
trekbikes.com Enter the G5 Team Issue, Bontrager's most aggressive downhill tire. This beefcake has been in the lineup for a few years, but seems to get overlooked in the conversation about heavy-duty tires with versatile tread patterns. I wanted to see if that lack of hype was warranted, or if these were an overlooked gem.
With a fairly typical tread pattern, the G5s should suit a wide variety of riders, as there won't be much of a learning curve to get used to the cornering and braking characteristics.
Some members of the Trek Factory Racing DH team have made the switch over to Pirelli's new tires, but the majority of the Trek racers are still running G5s as their go-to World Cup tire. With a wire bead and heavily reinforced construction, they're pretty firmly aimed at the heaviest-hitting builds out there, suiting downhill and burly enduro bikes nicely.
PERFORMANCEWire bead tires usually aren't explicitly stated to be "tubeless ready," but don't let such definitions stop you. Anyone who's been trying to get away from using tubes for long enough will know that you can mount up a tire like the G5 with a floor pump and some sealant just the same. I had no issue getting these to pop into place on some
We Are One Convergence wheels, and only had to be slightly more diligent than normal about keeping the pressures up. They might lose 1 or 2 psi overnight, but nothing too drastic.
For the majority of the test, I ran 21 psi in the front, and 24 psi in the rear, without inserts. They've been rolling under my Yeti SB160, and have seen plenty of time on trails around Bellingham, Squamish, and Whistler. Conditions have been all over the place, with plenty of wet and a healthy dose of summer dust to keep things exciting.
ROLLING SPEEDRelative to some of the more aggressive tires I've ridden recently (Specialized Hillbilly, Conti Argotal, Maxxis Assegai), these G5s are quite speedy feeling on hardpack and soft soil. The center knobs are more tightly spaced than the aforementioned models, and the overall lug height isn't crazy tall - I'd say they're in keeping with something like a Maxxis DHR.
TRACTIONThe rubber on the Bontrager G5s feels quite soft in hand, deforming as you'd want it to, but the rebound speed is a bit faster than most of the other super-grippy tires on the market. That doesn't mean they don't stick to the trail, but you have to push through them a little harder to get things to smear on rocks and roots. In dry conditions, the rubber felt excellent, holding a line through roots and over slabs without much issue. In the wet, it's a different story, as the Team Issue tires still struggle to hook up on slippery roots quite as well as many of the other soft rubber options on the market. For this reason, I tend to think of them more as a dry-conditions tire, even though the lugs clear mud nicely.
The bite in soft dirt is excellent, thanks to the lug height and fairly un-siped lug design. The latter makes for a tire that doesn't ever feel squirmy, despite the fairly soft rubber. Another factor in that feeling of stability is the very tough casing that Bontrager used on these. With a two-ply 60tpi casing and butyl insert for durability, the tires can stand up on their own, and transmit quite a lot of feedback to the rider. I don't mind this aspect too much, but know that you have to hit things a little harder to get the tire to conform to the trail and grip in the turns.
Even at very low pressures, that relative lack of smearing power makes these a tire more well-suited to fast speeds and square hits, which is luckily what their primarily meant to do. On some of the trickier off-camber, slimy root laden trails here in Bellingham, the G5s came up a bit short, but they've held their own well in the bike park and when trails are dry.
CORNERING The consistent and well-braced edge lugs on the sides of the G5s give them a super reliable cornering feel, with sidewall support that really lets you lay into them. Like the DHF and other tires with a center-to-edge transition channel, there is a moment of looseness before that edge grip hits, but that feels a little more mellow on the G5s than some of those other alternatives. Thanks to a fairly round profile, you can lean the bike quite far without worrying too much about passing the edge.
DURABILITY With only one option on the menu, you're left with no choices to make if the G5s suit your fancy. Luckily, they'll hold up quite well should you spring for some, as I've found the rubber to withstand quite a bit of abuse without any rapid or unexpected degradation.
Despite running rather low pressures and feeling rim contact quite a few times, they've suffered zero pinch flats or tears - same goes for sharper rocky terrain, where the beefy casings have continued to last.
One upside to the slightly less-sticky rubber on these is their slower wear, with my rear tire only showing some degradation after many days skidding down Squamish slabs and even more days in the Whistler Bike Park, where MaxxGrip tires go to die. Obviously none of the compounds out there are going to last forever, but these G5s offer a solid balance between compliance and tread life, making for a solid value.
Pros
+ Very supportive casing
+ Predictable, tried and true tread pattern
+ Excellent durability
Cons
- Lacks grip in the wet
- Harsher feel than other DH-casing tires
Pinkbike's Take ![bigquotes](https://es.pinkbike.org/246/sprt/i/bigquotes-left.svg) | The Bontrager G5 might not be on your shortlist of heavy-hitting rubber, but if you're looking for a burly and supportive tire that lasts, it might be worth giving them a try. The wet grip doesn't match competitor's stickiest options, but they hook up very well in dirt, and can be run at very low pressures without an insert. If the weight and stiffness don't scare you off, they might be worth a try. — Dario DiGiulio |
'No sweety, we have maxxis dhf at home'
Winter: Hillbilly T9 / Butcher T7
Spesh are making great tyres at decent prices.
Honestly, I really rate Spesh tyres.
The ground controls are fantastic for trail riding and the hillbilly is probably good for the slop.
I think that's going to be my next front tyre.
Specialised really do need to up their marketing as reviews are few and far between
This is true. Shit.
Spesh tyres are such a good price in the UK, and the RRP actually dropped a year or 2 ago.
We mostly ride tech granite trails in Canadian Shield in Manitoba and Ontario. If you still want to chance the Hillbilly here make sure you come well armoured.
To be fair, not many tires work well on wet mossy granite, wet mossy rocks, or wet tree roots.
I don't expect a mud tyre to do very well on anything but mud, let alone hardback otlr above.
Oh ya right, life and limb is worth more than $60
www.pinkbike.com/news/specialized-hillbilly-grid-tire-review.html
Yeah, I don't ride on wet granite much, so not sure what kind of tires work best for your conditions. Dry granite is super grippy. Lol.
Ya, dry granite is like riding Velcro tires!
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/10937455/rider/22065
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/10938370/rider/22065
This review should have used a sharpie over an Assagai for the front, bet he had a DH2 out back.
Vali's sharpie skills need sharpening up.
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/10953568/rider/45875
Euro stores have been my only source for over 5 years.
Bontrager tyres can go and jump. Not nice doubles, but off cliffs.
Bontrager use smaller tyre casings with taller tread nobbles and claim that the measurement is tread width instead of casing width.
Bontrager have no idea how to properly size a tyre. 2.4 Tyres should measure 2.4 inches wide or align to the ETRTO/ISO measurement of 61mm such as "622-61".
Maxxis is another offender. Their new Forekaster 2.4 is closer to a 2.28, The Ardent 2.4 is actually 2.4 Yet the Rekon Race 2.4 is closer to 2.55 in real size.
My mate rode them and said he felt it was squirmy but I like t. What’s everyone else run?
22psi front dh casing no cushcore
27psi rear dh casing with cushcore
I tried dropping an lb or two but then it starts to feel squirmy in corners and on jump lips and I start dinging the rim. The roughness of the trail is only part of the equation. The speed also matters. I was just riding a spot where the trails were brutally rough and rocky but they weren’t steep enough to pickup much speed so you could get away with low pressure. My local trails aren’t that rocky but the speeds are high so when you do smash a rock or berm the tire is way more stressed.
24/26psi, used to be 22/24 but as I got a bit better at cornering I could feel them squirm too much
I weight about 95kg and tend to use 2bar rear/1.7 front. However, if I ride anything pump track/BP related, I would always go up, as on a good compression it starts getting squirmy.
Also... once you get better at pumping the berms, you can't really run to low pressures, as it gets berped easily.
Just use what's best for you. And thinner casings usually require more pressure, as you don't get the same support from the thicker casings.
The long answer is it really depends on what the conditions and tire casings I am using are like (I weight 160lb/72kg and ride mostly bike park on DH casing tires).
My go-to is like 22/25 psi, for slippery wet roots and rocks on a mega-burly casing (like Schwalbe Super DH) I'll go as low as 18/22 psi, for hero dirt on a thinner (relatively) casing like Maxxis DH/DD I'll go up to 25/30psi and when I race DH I tend to end up somewhere near 24/27psi
Trek you are a constant stream of disappointment. Not even your team riders want your crappy tires.
Poppin bottles in the ice, like a blizzard
When we drink we do it right, gettin' slizard
Sippin sizzurp in my ride, like Three 6
Now I'm feelin' so fly like a G6
Like a G6, like a G6
Now I'm feelin' so fly like a G6
Like a G6, like a G6
Now I'm feelin' so fly like a G6
Are you suggesting Yolanda might have podiumed if she had only run this 1450 gram tire DH tire in XCO?