Maxxis: First off, welcome back to Maxxis! We’re stoked to once again have you on board.
Reece: Great to be back on the best tires! Can’t tell you how good it feels to have confidence in my rubber again…like that double entendre? Real talk though, very pleased and confident to be back with Maxxis.
M: Word on the street is 26” bikes are dead. How does this bike exist?
R: It exists because I put 26” wheels on it, haha. This is a stock Glory frame, but for strictly freeride purposes I run 26” wheels on it. It makes the bike a bit lighter, shorter, easier to spin/flip, and more nimble for my purposes.
M: Since the bike is designed around 27.5” wheels, did you have to make any modifications to the frame to make it compatible with 26” wheels?
R: No mods to the frame, fully stock. I do, however, run such a stiff shock with low sag that it hardly lowers the BB in comparison to 27.5” wheels with a softer shock once I’m on the bike. No more pedal strikes than usual.
M: How different is your freeride setup compared to what you would use for general bike park riding?
R: For obvious reasons, I always run 27.5” wheels on this bike while shredding trails at home. But out in the desert, it’s not as much of a game of traction as it is speed and strength. For this shoot, my set up is extremely stiff, with progressive shim stacks and slow rebound to counteract high pressures.
M: What tire pressure do you run?
R: Out here in Virgin, Utah, I run 35 PSI.
M: Why not go tubeless?
R: At home I ride tubeless on all my bikes, but for freeriding, I like the lateral stability of riding tubes, and there isn’t much advantage of tubeless for me at 35 PSI. I also like the feel of less of the tire contacting the ground when trying to get speed into big jumps, which tubes offer. When I’m at home riding loose, wet trails I run tubeless and typically 21 PSI. It’s a totally different set up on the same bike depending on what I’m riding.
