Maxxis Assegai 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. 

Maxxis has been at the top of the MTB rubber game for decades now, and the Assegai is one of their newest and grippiest tires that was designed in collaboration with none other than World Champion DH racer Greg Minnaar. Our friend Jeff got one on his rig and loves the copious amounts of grip. Read on for more!

Overview

I’ve been a Maxxis fan for a while and have ridden the brand exclusively for the last 3 years. I ride in Southeast Idaho which is high desert and typically pretty dry. Trails are hard pack with loose dirt on top and depending on the trail lots of rocks and roots mixed throughout. I enjoy an aggressive front tire and prior to this tire have been partial to running a DHR II on my front. My current bike came with High Roller II tires front and rear and upon upgrading to a wider rim I needed to go with at WT tire so it was a good opportunity to move to something more aggressive (loved the fast rolling of the High Roller, but didn’t grip super well in corners with all the loose/dusty dirt on my local trails).

Initially I was planning to just go to the tried and true DHR II front and rear for my bike, however, after doing some research I was intrigued by the design of the Assegai and decided to give it a try. I like to run a heavier tire up front to protect sidewalls from sharp rocks so opted to go with the EXO+ sidewall (I wouldn’t call out graceful line choice as one of my riding strengths).

As expected, due to the thicker sidewalls, this tire took a little more effort to mount up on my rims, but no more so than other tires I have run in the past and a good tire lever was more than capable of making it a fairly easy task. I have been running tubeless setups for the last 10 years or so, but I typically run a little higher pressure than others I ride with (usually 28-30 psi). I have noticed that this tire likes a lower pressure. Some may be due to the WT design, but I have been able to run pressures as low as 12 psi without having issues without burping the tire on corners. That being said, 12 is a little loose for me so I have been most comfortable around 20-22 psi and the tire performs well.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the performance.

My initial ride on this tire was pretty lackluster. It was freshly mounted and aired up to 30 psi. I think I washed out of almost every corner that didn’t have a solid berm. I wasn’t sure if I was pushing too hard counting on the more aggressive tire to bail me out or if the tire just wasn’t going to be well suited for my trails. The next day I went for another ride and realized that one of my kids had let a lot of the air out of my tire. I was taking it easy so didn’t think about it other than it felt pretty squishy. This time the corners were no problem at all. When I got home I checked the pressure and it was only 12 psi. I was blown away. Since then I have played with the pressure a bit and stay around the 20 psi range and it feels like a completely different tire than it did on my first ride. I have only had dusty/dry conditions to try the tire out in to this point, however, I couldn’t be more pleased with the performance. I’m anticipating strong performance once the wet season hits, but I’ll wait on assumptions until I get a chance to actually test it out.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned before, I haven’t had a chance to test in wet conditions at this point, however, based on the typical trails I ride I have a new favorite tire to run up front on my trail bike. Here’s to hoping that this tire does as well as the DHR II at shedding mud in wet conditions. If that is the case, I don’t see myself running a different tire up front. Very pleased with this purchase!