Our Amigos at Vee Tire sent us a brand new pair of their newest fat-bike tires called the Mission Command. They’re a 26 x 4.0 120 tpi folding bead tire that is a modified tread design of Vee’s Mission fat-bike tire. I’ve never put in enough time on the Missions to comment on how they ride, but Sven has put plenty of time in and it’s not one of his favorites, because at lower pressures the Mission has measurable rolling resistance. Vee reworked the tire tread for their Mission Command (MC). There is a continuous arrow shaped tread in the center of the MC that generates low rolling resistance. I felt it for myself…..You can see a side by side comparison below.
(L-R) Mission – Mission Command
I mounted our test tires onto Otis and did a couple trail rides that also included some gravel and pavement. Having ridden quite a few of the Vee Tire fat-bike tires, I started out with a higher than normal 17 psi in the MC’s. Soon after I hit the dirt, I stopped and tooks 2 1/2 seconds of air out of the front and 2 seconds in the rear. That later measured to 13/13.5 psi front and rear. This tire checked out very well, but keep in mind that this is a very short amount of time to get a true evaluation of the Mission Command. We’re sending this pair of tires to our BBR Test Pilot, Michael McColgan for a six week trail test that will be a more ‘true to form’ review. I experienced low rolling resistance with no indication of self steer at the pressures that I was running. I’m sure M. McColgan will take the MC’s to lower psi’s and have much more to say about how these tires perform.
Vee Tire’s New Mission Command Fat Bike Tires on Otis
I weighed our two test tires and they came in at 1342 g and 1376 g. When mounted on Otis’s 90mm Umma rims the MC’s set up at 106mm wide. The bead to bead measurement is 231 mm. With more and more, various rim widths, hitting the market, the ‘bead to bead’ width of fat bike tires is going to become another way to compare how wide and tall, they will run. Our test tires came with a white stripe near the edge of the tread. I think the stripes look really good on Otis with the silver rims (YMMV).
The Mission Command is due to hit the market soon. For more information about Vee Tires visit www.veetireco.com
Any thoughts if this is a good Endomorph replacement for soft PNW sand?
Too early to tell – stay tuned for a more thorough examination.
Used to own a pair of Missions…worst tire for auto steer. Let us know how these compare. Would be interested if AS is non existent or minimal at best.
I’ve loved the idea of measuring bead-to-bead for some time now and am glad to see Fat-Bike.com using it. It would also be nice to measure the flattened width of tread at the same time, since Vee has been experimenting with different tread widths (most notably the H-Billie’s narrower tread).
Keep up the great work, guys!