Vee Snowshoe XL: First Ride Review

OK, the few reviews I've found on these tires generally said the same things...the tires are big (duh), the have a bad self-steer problem, the textured surface packs with mud in wet conditions, and they're slow rolling.

At this point you're probably wondering why the heck I would buy them with reviews like that!
My fat bike came with Vee's H-Billie tires that I was impressed with. I wanted something bigger with more grip, and these fit the bill so I thought I'd give them a shot.

After my first ride on them I'm here to set the record straight.

First off, they are big. Mounted on my 90mm rims they measure in around 4.5 inches with a diameter of 30 inches. Out on the trail this translates to monster truck levels of rollability. You'll find yourself seeking out things to roll over with these bad boys!

For my first ride I decided to head over to White Oak Park. It's got some fast and flowy trails with only a few technical sections and no rocks to speak of. For this ride I went with 8.5 psi in the front tire, and 9.0 psi in the rear which is about 1.0 psi higher front and back than I was riding with the Vee H-Billies this summer on singletrack. At those pressures they roll pretty darn good on hard surfaces (hardpacked dirt singletrack trails that were mostly leaf covered). On pavement they are not fast rollers, and they rumble a good bit (enough that it was preferable to ride the grass on the edge of the road instead of the road), but why the heck would you wanna ride these beasts on pavement anyway?

Self-steer? At these pressures I only noticed a slight tendency for self-steer on pavement. Out on the trails they behaved normally. They also have gobs of traction. Standing up pedaling uphill on wet leaves on top of moist ground the tires never slipped once no matter how hard I laid on the gas.

I didn't hit much wet stuff to see if the textured surfaces hold on to dirt, but I do think that textured surface was helping with the velcro like traction I experienced on this ride.

Next ride I'll probably drop the pressure down a bit to see how they react. I'm 200 lbs and at 9 psi the ride wasn't bouncy, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either.

I plan to continue with updates through the winter so there's some real world reviews of how these tires are performing in snow and ice conditions.