Products

Kenda has jumped into the budding 650B or 27.5" market by showcasing its most popular tyre, the John Tomac Nevegal, at this year's Taipei Cycle show. Kenda displayed the 2.35 version and promises that a 2.10 size will follow.

When asked why they chose to pursue this new size, Jim Wannamaker, Kenda's marketing director and events coordinator, said, “From a design standpoint, this new wheel size makes sense. It allows a bigger wheel to be used on a longer travel bike, plus smaller riders can get away from some of the negatives like toe overlap and stand over clearance issues found with bigger wheels.”

“We've also been asked by many product managers with various companies to offer our most popular tyre in this new size format,” added Matt McClendon, Kenda's OEM sales manager. “We're in the tyre business 100%. We don't do grips, saddles, rims or cockpit components, so it's important for us to plug into these new tyre-related trends. Kenda provides tyres of all sizes for cyclists of all kinds, so adding this new size helps us round-out our product offerings for the consumers as well as the bike manufacturers.”

“Going forward, we want this to be an open dialogue between Kenda, product managers, engineers and even the small frame builders concerning this new project. We encourage any and all industry folk to contact us so we can provide them with the specs of our tyres to help them design their products. As with all Kenda tyres, we're making the 2.10 and 2.35 true to size and every bit comparable in performance to our 26-inch versions.”

When asked about production, Wannamaker stated, “We're in the initial testing phase with the 2.35 size and the mould for the 2.10 is being cut as we speak. If all goes well, consumers should expect to see these models by mid summer.”