The reigning cross-country world champion Jolanda Neff says that they are best tires she’s ever ridden. Presently two XCO World Cup professional teams are running Mitas tires, and despite the top-class status, the Czech brand still manages to offer outstanding value for money. It’s clearly a win-win scenario!
The Mitas brand is a member of the Trelleborg group, one of Europe’s leading tire consortium. They produce tires for many different applications, including large construction equipment, cars, motorcycles, bicycles or other special market segments. The Mitas brand focuses primarily on two-wheel vehicles, and covers a variety of sub-segments, such as kids bikes, sports vehicles and even wheelchairs. Plenty of tradition, experience and know-how have been accumulated since the start of tire production in the 1920’s. And since the Mitas products are not sourced from suppliers as with competing brands, but manufactured in factories owned by the brand from start to finish (located in several European countries such as Czech Republic, Slovenia, Serbia and in the United States), top quality is guaranteed. The former Rubena brand was reborn as Mitas in the spring 2015, and their fine bicycle tires are now available in shops nationwide.
2017 saw the launch of Mitas on world class pro competitions as the Czech brand began co-sponsoring the international Kross Racing Team. Two of biggest stars of MTB cross country racing, Maja Wloszczowska and Jolanda Neff began to ride Mitas tires and both ended up having a phenomenal season last year, crowned by the Swiss rider taking the XCO World Championship title. This immense success likely to have contributed to the decision of two further world-class teams, the Primaflor-Mondraker and a professional Polish team to race on Mitas products in 2018. So this year the Olympic bronze medalist Carlos Coloma, the ex-road UCI World Tour star Ondrej Cink and former World Cup winner Daniel McConnell all depend on the excellent traction and advanced compounds of the Mitas tires, and taking an active role in the development of the 2019 range.
Mitas 2019 – Jolanda Neff’s training bike with one of the new tire model
The model most commonly used by racers is the Scylla Top Design, which also assisted Maja Wloszczowska in winning in Val di Sole this year. It offers a universal application tread pattern that most MTB riders will mount in spring, and not take off until the end of the season. There is no need to replace it with a special tread design, since it performs well on virtually all types of terrain and weather conditions. The novelty for 2019 is an extra-wide 2.45″ (62 mm) version of the 29er size, aimed at reducing tire pressure while increasing comfort and grip. The weight of the tire is up by only 110 grams compared to the most popular 2.25″ size.
The Mitas Scylla with the reinforced Textra structure
The Zefyros Top Design Innovated is the fastest XC tire model available, it is available for 650B and 29″ wheel sizes in 2.25″ width, with both Textra and Weltex side wall structure. This tread pattern is best suited for ragged woodland, and it is recommended for riding technically less demanding, fast trails.
Mitas 2019 – Zefyros TDi
Kratos Top Design may be the best choice for technically challenging trails since the larger block tread sticks better to stones and roots. The ever-popular pattern does not change for 2019, it‘ll be available in 2.25″ width for both major MTB wheel sizes.
Mitas Kratos 2019
Last but not least, it is worth taking a look at the Hyperion Top Design tire, with helped Jolanda Neff win the world cup race in Albstad. Since the tire is well-sited to muddy conditions, she had a convincing advantage over her rivals. A top-class racer like Jolanda could take advantage of the grip provided by the special tread and the sticky rubber compound, thereby gaining a lot of time over her opponents on the descends.
Mitas Hyperion Top Design Tubeless Supra
Speaking of technology, two different tire casing constructions are used at the highest-level of the range. Naturally both can be set up as tubeless. The Textra design is a dense layer of polymeric fibers making up the side walls providing excellent protection against cuts. Due to the outstanding elasticity and minimal weight of this technology, the rolling resistance is not increased, the ride character remains similar, and the weight gain is also negligible. The Textra tires are made from a CRX compound, and the tread utilizes a uniform compound.
The Weltex construction follows a similar principle as the Textra design, but it is specifically developed and recommended for the carbon rims. The bead of the rim is fully coated with high density polymer, eliminating any abrasive effect on the carbon fiber structure. The Weltex tires use the so-called “Gray Line” two-component compound, where the side knobs are made of a softer material for better traction.
The Mitas Textra tires proved their merit at the Cape Epic multi-stage MTB marathon
Apart from the above-mentioned professional MTB teams, Mitas is also the sponsor of major cycling competitions like the Nove Mésto na Morave UCI World Cup event, and the most-popular MTB stage race, the Cape Epic. Competitive Hungarian cyclist may also be familiar with the 4 Islands MTB stage race event in Croatia sponsored also by Mitas.
Mitas Ocelot Dynamic Line and Challenge Line
For those not requiring the benefits of the tubeless system, but find the extra weight of the steel beads overly heavy, the Mitas Ocelot Challenge Line might be the best option. We tested both the reasonably priced Aramid bead design as well as its similarly wired Dynamic Line version here at Bikemag. New for 2019 is the 27.5” × 2,35″ and the 29” × 2,35″ versions of the Ocelot Challenge Line which will soon be in the shops. Ocelot E-Protec was also introduced to the lineup bringing flat protection to a whole new level. Under the tread we find a 1.5 mm thick protection layer, and the side wall is also reinforced with an extra rubber layer from the edge to edge.
Mitas 2019 – Romana Labounkovám the UCI 4X world champion
All of the tires developed for cyclocross racing were tested on our site, the Mitas X-Road, the Mitas X-Field and the Mitas X-Swamp all got good reviews. The lightweight tubeless tires conform to the UCI rules stating that CX competitions now have a maximum width limit of 33 mm. On the other hand, with the advent of gravel bikes, there is an increasing demand for wider 700c tires. This was the primary reason for Mitas introducing a 40mm version of the X-Road: according to the catalog info, it is officially “38c”, but on a wider gravel rim it’ll probably measure a full 40mm while only weighing 455g on the scales.
Mitas 2019 – the X-Road will come in both 33 and 38mm
The Mitas 2019 range offers an almost infinite choice for city and trekking bikes, including brand new models such as the e-bike compatible Electron, the Cityhopper in no less than four color options or the studded Gripper Ice designed for extreme icy and snowy winter conditions.
Mitas Gripper Ice
For the road-oriented tire range, the newly introduced Weltex+ technology needs mentioning. These models debuted last year and offer a layer of high-density polymer fibers — similar to those used successful MTB tires — from bead to bead, thus improving flat resistance while reducing the abrasive effect of the carbon rim on the tire’s sidewall. The Arrow model – specifically designed for racing – is available in 25 and 28 mm width, while the race-oriented Phoenix is only available in a 23mm version. The Syrinx (in both 23 and 25mm) is designed to a training tire, available in wire-bead and folding Aramid variants. For the time being, none of Mitas road tires are offered as tubeless compatible, and we look forward to seeing when the Czech brand feels ready to make the leap into tubeless arena.
Mitas Arrow 2019
In addition to its tire selection, there is a wide choice of different sized Mitas bicycle inner tubes, equipped with either a special valve or pre-filled with a gel-based flat inhibitor. Our regular readers are probably familiar with the GAADI inner tubes, which can be replaced without removing the wheel. They offer a great advantage when doing roadside repairs, especially for hub geared urban bikes with fenders and rack or e-bikes with electric assistance. But since Mitas was one of the first tire manufacturers to do away with inner tubes, naturally several tubeless kits are also available for assembling a complete tube-free system.
Mitas GAADI range of interior
As this article demonstrates, Mitas respond quickly to the latest bike trends, with wider sized tires, the Czech brand is likely to win more and more customers. Their technology and know-how has been proven in many World Cup races, which is a clear sign that Mitas is on par with the German giants of the industry, while the cost of its top-class tires remain a pleasant surprise for the consumer.
The Choice of World Champions
Further information visit the Mitas Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/MitasHungary/
