Kenda Honey Badger Pro 650B

If you’re not familiar with its origins, the name ‘Honey Badger Pro’ might seem a bit like a late night drunken word jumble. As it happens, however, the Honey Badger (yes, it’s a real animal) is considered, kilo for kilo, to be the fiercest and most fearless creature on the planet. It’s worth watching footage of these staffy-sized critters taking on lions, and winning, to get a true appreciation of just how far above their weight these little guys can punch. In that context the folks at Kenda were making grand claims for their latest tread, which is billed as the perfect all-purpose tyre ready to take on whatever crosses or rolls under its path.

The Honey Badger Pro uses Kenda’s dual compound rubber; harder in the centre to improve durability and increase rolling speed, and softer on the edge blocks for improved cornering traction. There’s a noticeable difference in the pinch and squeeze test, and both centre and edge sections feel grippier in the hand than you might expect.

You’ll also find Kenda’s new Sealant Compatible Tyre (SCT) technology, designed to be run tubeless with liquid sealant. They’ve certainly got this part absolutely nailed. Not only did we manage to effortlessly inflate them on a number of rims with nothing more than a floor pump, but on a fully sealed rim they held air for over two weeks without any sealant; whatever goo you put in them gets saved for sealing punctures rather than seeping out through porous sidewalls or poorly seated beads. That said, one of our test samples had a fault along the tyre’s centreline; there was a 5x3mm nubbin sticking where it looked like the rubber had been added to the mould. This could be a one-off fault and it didn’t affect performance, but in this competitive industry we’ve come to expect a higher standard of construction.

Whilst the Honey Badger Pro is only available in a 2.2 inch width, all three common wheel sizes are catered for and the $65 sticker price makes them more realistically priced than some of the offerings from big name European brands. The triangular, ramped and rather short centre blocks are designed to roll quickly, whilst the much taller and more heavily supported edge knobs are intended to provide stable and predictable cornering bite. Our 27.5 test tyres both hit the scales at 793g, which is well within the stated range of 771 +/-39g. In true Kenda form, they’re also generously proportioned; measuring 55mm across the casing and 61mm across the tread at 30psi on a 21mm (internal) rim. It’s refreshing to see a tyre manufacturer making weight and size claims which have some relevance to real world measurements; now to see if the performance lives up to the hype as well.

Speedy Critter

The Honey Badger (HB) is a seriously fast trail tyre; the low and angled centre tread combined with the supple 120tpi casing provide very little rolling resistance—if you’re coming off a full knobby tyre, you’ll probably feel like clicking it up a gear. It also needs to be said that there’s a price to pay for this speed, and that’s durability. When brand new, the low centre tread on the HB resembles your favourite half worn out tyre; and because it’s half worn out to start with, you can realistically only expect to get half the usual lifespan until it ultimately becomes a slick. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, merely a statement of ‘you play, you pay’; free speed is never really free, and the reduced lifespan effectively adds to the price of the Honey Badger.

Climbing and braking traction are both largely determined by the trail surface. On any sort of consolidated surface be it rock slabs, hardpacked dirt, dense loam or half-dry mud, the low profile tread allows a lot of rubber to contact the ground and the DTC compound provides surprisingly tenacious grip, much like its namesake. It’s a very different story if the ground is loose or muddy, with the stubby tread unable to penetrate deeply enough to provide any real bite. This isn’t so obvious on flatter trails, but as soon as you’re working against gravity (in either direction) don’t expect too much from it and you won’t be disappointed. Heavy braking in particular will have the HB skating along the surface before a longer toothed tread—if you ride a lot of steep and brake-reliant descents it’s best reserved for the back wheel.

Cornering grip is a different story altogether, with the Honey Badger able to rail a turn a good deal faster than you’d imagine. We didn’t find a surface it wouldn’t latch onto, whether hard, wet, soft, or loose. The semi-rounded profile helps to provide predictable traction when you transition from centre to edge, and once cornering grip is exceeded there’s a progressiveness to the slide that makes it easy to control. Although the blocks on our test tyres are now feathered, they haven’t torn or lost any outer teeth, and we suspect the side knobs will be going strong when its incisors are a distant memory. We have slashed the sidewall on an HB equipped test bike but on the whole they’ve proved to be a reliable tyre.

Overall we think the Honey Badger is an excellent addition to the Kenda stable. It’s climbing and braking traction may be terrain dependent, but in all other areas it’s a great tyre for the back of a hard-ridden all-mountain bike or for both wheels on a fast but capable XC trail bike. Keep it out of the loose and steep stuff and the Honey Badger really doesn’t care what you throw at it—it’ll have a red hot go at any challenge you put in its path.

Sheppard Cycles 1300 883 305 / www.kendatire.com