Stretching the Cush Core insert over the rim is your first real indicator. The foam is smooth and nearly plastic like. Very firm yet extremely light for how dense it is. Installing it was a chore on the first wheel because I went about it like you would if there wasn't an insert strangling its way into the rim bed. Once I took their instructions seriously the installation was easy as ever. You REALLY need to Push the bead down into the middle of the rim. Squeeze the whole tire and pull the insert up and push the bead down under the insert and into the center of the rim with your fingers and then a tire lever for the last inches. Once you work out the technique its painless, but without its not pretty. The sidewalls feel stabilized a lot more, and I cant imagine burping the tire with this thing really squeezing itself in there between the tire beads. It takes up a fair amount of volume in the tire, so it does essentially make the tire more 'progressive'. In normal terms I would translate that as the tire rolls through small bumps and chatter like it has nice low pressure, but corners and behaves like it has higher pressure. Tracks the ground through flat/off-camber chattery corners strewn with roots and rocks very well and very predictably.
Which is better? Both. Just depends on what you are trying to achieve.
May 3, 2017, 7:47 a.m. - Metacomet
Stretching the Cush Core insert over the rim is your first real indicator. The foam is smooth and nearly plastic like. Very firm yet extremely light for how dense it is. Installing it was a chore on the first wheel because I went about it like you would if there wasn't an insert strangling its way into the rim bed. Once I took their instructions seriously the installation was easy as ever. You REALLY need to Push the bead down into the middle of the rim. Squeeze the whole tire and pull the insert up and push the bead down under the insert and into the center of the rim with your fingers and then a tire lever for the last inches. Once you work out the technique its painless, but without its not pretty. The sidewalls feel stabilized a lot more, and I cant imagine burping the tire with this thing really squeezing itself in there between the tire beads. It takes up a fair amount of volume in the tire, so it does essentially make the tire more 'progressive'. In normal terms I would translate that as the tire rolls through small bumps and chatter like it has nice low pressure, but corners and behaves like it has higher pressure. Tracks the ground through flat/off-camber chattery corners strewn with roots and rocks very well and very predictably. Which is better? Both. Just depends on what you are trying to achieve.