This is about the mysterious circular, see-through piece of plastic between the spokes and the cassette. Bikes of all kinds and price ranges ship out with these things. Strangely enough, bicycles you see out on the streets and trails almost never have that component mounted. Weird, right? So, what is the plastic disc on the back wheel of a bike?
During the winter months, many mountain bikers stop riding and switch to indoor cycling or cross-training activities in order to stay fit and active. Some popular options for winter training include spin biking, strength training at a gym, and cross-country skiing or snow biking for alternative outdoor activities.
Tire manufacturers like Maxxis are producing some high-tech rubber for any situation. But that also means a wide variety to choose from and navigating labels like MaxxTerra, EXO, 3C, or 120 TPI along the way. This guide gets to the point on what you need to know.
Tire manufacturers like Schwalbe are always improving their mountain bike tire designs. Which is always great for us riders. With a caveat. Because constantly advancing technologies and changing product names are hard to keep up with.
It’s sometimes hard to keep up-to-date as a consumer so Schwalbe narrowed the current lineup of tire casing options down to five. Each with its own confusing made-up name. But it’s actually easy to pick the one you need once you know what each of Schwalbe “Super” line of tire casings is best used for.
Maxxis’ casing options are designed for a range of riding applications with varying characteristics for grip, stiffness, protection and damping. So, depending on the type of riding you do, one casing is more favorable than another. Luckily, the most common ones are 60 and 120 TPI, with DH and DD only available for tough gravity tires.
