Maxxis Rambler Tire [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

The new Gravel bike genre of the industry has added a new demand of tires to the market. When building up a gravel bike, there is an art of finding a tire that balances traction and speed. Maxxis offers the Rambler, and our friend, Adam has been testing it out. Check out what they think!

Overview

As a mountain biker who prefers more “enduro” style riding, every once in a while I find myself thinking about doing a massive gravel/road mission, just to change up the pace. I never actually got into it until all of my local trails were closed because of the corona. Over the past months, I have become a “situational graveler,” if I can pioneer that term.

I chose the Maxxis rambler 700x40c tire for three main reasons. Compatibility, tread pattern, and the weight/compound of the tire.

Compatibility is an obvious reason to choose a tire. I wanted to mount these things up to my aggressive hardtail 29er with 30mm inner width rims, so I wasn’t exactly sure how thin of tires I could get on there without really messing up the profile of it, so I decided to go for the 40c. A few minutes of research helped me to learn about the compatibility of 700c tires with 29in wheels, and although it was a tight fit which required tire levers.

Another reason that I chose the rambler was it’s tread pattern. The low profile of the knobs seemed conducive to a tire that would grip well on dirt and gravel but not roll too slowly on pavement. As a situational graveler who is quite inexperienced in these things, it felt good on all surfaces. Since my usual tire is a 2.5 Assegai, it seemed to roll extremely well and was quite quiet on paved surfaces. I took this tire down every type of surface, from dusty, loose roads, to hardpacked singletrack, to pavement, and enjoyed the grip that I received at 60psi. I did however find the limit of the side knobs when I washed out pushing 25mph+ into a corkscrew turn on a canyon road, but I’ll chalk that up to my amateur road riding skills that come with being a self-proclaimed situational graveler.

I chose the exo casing because it is the heaviest casing that the rambler comes in, at 452 grams. As a bigger dude, (215 lb) I wanted the heaviest casing so as to protect the tire from everything that I was going to throw at it. There are also several other reasons for this; I knew I was going to be trying to ride down pretty rough tracks at times and I wanted to seat the tire tubeless.

Seating tubeless at first was quite easy. With only one layer of rim tape on my wheels the tires easily snapped on with a floor pump. I put in at least 100 miles into this tubeless setup before I had my first high pressure tire blowout, just riding along down a paved road. After another blowout not long after, I switched to tubes, which have worked perfectly. I don’t know why the tire blew out but I would suspect that it is due to my 30mm inner width rim, which the tire is definitely not meant to be mounted on.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I have loved my gravel experience with these tires. I will continue to use them until my local trails open up and I am able to get back out on my trail bike!