Rubena Scylla and Kratos Tires Review

We first rode the Scylla front and rear on a Santa Cruz Highball 29er. We mounted them tubeless and they sealed up with no problems. I aired it up to my normal 22 psi but I had to keep rechecking the air pressure as pressing the sidewall felt softer than normal. It turns out that sidewall material is so compliant that it feels like it has less pressure. Now, it's not cloth thin like some tires but the rubber itself conforms nicely.

Strengths
  • Supple casing results in comfortable ride
  • Protected sidewall
  • Weight is light for what it is
  • Dual compound exhibits good grip and rolling abilities
  • Very flexible configurations with Scylla and Kratos combinations
  • Scylla is a great XC race tire
  • Kratos grips very well
  • Refreshing to see a fresh approach to tire design
Weaknesses
  • Not as much volume as size claims
  • Two-tone appearance is not for everyone
  • Not a lot of retailers yet
The Scylla is a very fast race tire and it should be. Measured against it are fast, low knob 29er tires like the:
  • Kenda SB8
  • Specialized Renegade
  • Maxxis Crossmark
  • Panaracer Driver Pro
  • Continental Race King
These are tires that would be rated 2 stars if judged by grip alone. Rather, speed and winning climbing and endurance races is their #1 priority. If they keep you upright on corners and steep descents, that is often good enough. Bermed, loamy spring and fall conditions are good for these tires as well when not racing. And as conditions get looser, these can get relegated to rear tire usage only, as most of the speed benefit is on the rear while the traction benefit is up front.

I've used all the tires stated above and I'm very familiar with this category of 'speed' tires. Low pressure is critical and 29ers with long contact patches are good as well.

The Scylla is a great tire. It is fast and it keeps you upright. The low knobs in the middle coupled with the harder compound, enables this tire to scoot up climbs with enthusiasm. The tire has a nice rounded profile too, so leaning the tire left to right is consistent. Lastly, it's got decent cornering knobs, so you can actually lean this tire into a corner more than its peers mentioned above. It's got some pretty good cornering grip and it never let us down on the high speed turns.

As the trails got looser, climbing and braking traction started to suffer a bit. Also, the front started communicating signs that it was starting to slip on dusty corners. The Rubena Kratos came to the rescue.

We put the Kratos on the front only and started hitting the corners hard again. The Kratos is wonderfully predictable and it handles corners with ease. Braking is impressive too, as it performed well even in dusty covered trails. We set some Strava personal records not only up but going downhill as well, as we mounted this on our trusty Specialized Carbon Epic

Over the course of 20 rides, we hardly noticed wear on the tires so we expect these to last long. We are pleasantly surprised to see this tire from this new (to the US) company. It's good to see a new player in the market deliver a fresh approach to tires.

Overall: 5 chili peppers

Value: 4.5 chili peppers




First Impressions by Francis Cebedo:

A box of tires showed up at the office and we opened it with curiosity and skepticism. Tire testing after all has its downsides as the penalties of a bad cornering tire means the rider may crash. We've never heard of this brand and we've never used any bike products from the Czech Republic, Rubena's country of origin.

But the tires passed the 'smell' test as I sniffed the rubber, pinched the tread and examined the sidewalls. It seemed like a really well constructed tire. A little research on the interweb and we found a lot of chatter about this tire on that mtbr website https://forums.mtbr.com/29er-components/rubena-scylla-tires-748224.html. It sounded like a lot of people were sharing good experiences with this tire since they established a US Distributor in 2012.

Also, the great GuitarTed of Twentynineinches.com reviewed it at length and had very good things to say about it. In a nutshell, Ted likes the speed of the tire, specially as the trails have dried for the summer. He says the cornering is impressive, the sidewalls have a very supple quality and the tires feel bigger than they are as they absorb trail shock quite well. Read all about it here: https://twentynineinches.com/2012/05/23/rubena-scylla-kratos-29er-tires-mid-term/

Well, we have four rides on the tires and here's our first impressions:
  • The rubber quality and construction seems excellent as the tires spin round and true.
  • The tire is smaller than its 2.25 width claims.
  • 656 gram weight is heavier than claimed but that is actually pretty darn light for a tubeless 29er tire with decent knobs and good sidewall.
  • It rolls fast and it corners very well. This tire seems to strike an amazing balance of speed and cornering ability.
  • It sealed up tubeless with no problem at all. We put sealant in but there seemed to be no leaks whatsover for the sealant to seal.
  • The sidewalls seem really supple and we had to recheck our air pressures several times. 25 psi on this tire felt like 20 when you press the sidewall. This translated to a smooth feel on the trail that was noticeable.
It's great to be surprised every once in a while. This is a new brand for us and new country to explore products from. We're excited to test this some more and the 26er tires the sent over.

francis

Description

With knobs a little less aggressive than the Kratos, the Scylla is perfect for hardpack singletrack but it retains the nicely sized side knobs for optimal hook up while cornering. This is one of Rubena's lightest and fastest tires. This tire should be on every race bike and every bike looking to hit the high plains. It may be the perfect XC tire. 540g for the 29" Racing Pro and 595g the 29" Tubeless.
ETRTOSizeTPIBeadTechnologyColorPrice
57 - 62229 x 2.25"127FoldingStandardBlack$59.99
57 - 62229 x 2.25"127FoldingSDXGrey/Black$63.99
57 - 62229 x 2.25"127FoldingLCBlack$67.99
57 - 62229 x 2.25"127FoldingSDX +TS+ LCGrey/Black$69.99
Technologies

Rubena tires are constructed with state-of-the-art tire technology to extend tire life, improve safety, and increase performance. The video below explains their technologies.



SE-Dual Extreme Light Compound (SDX): Combination of two compounds - soft adhesive compound (SSC - Grey Line) on sides with well-proven CRX compound both in tread center and base. Combination of these two compounds makes this a great racing tire with low drag for fast riding and excellent grip and control in curves and traverse.

Tubeless Supra (TS): Rubena Tubeless Supra technology provides three standard ways of usage together with a special assembly set (see 1 for 3 diagram). Tubeless Supra usage provides higher riding comfort, low drag, high inflating range, and low weight of the set (tire + tube + rim tape) and elimination of tube puncture.

Liquid Compound (LC): Special blue liquid latex based sealant creates tubeless system.