The Ride
As I said at the outset, a lot of my time on the Chunk was in abnormally wet conditions, and while the trails weren’t an all out mud fest, they were definitely more ‘slick as snot’ as opposed to blown out and dusty. And in those conditions, a few things stood out: (1) the Chunk is a great climber, (2) it’s great on the brakes, and (3) I was left wishing for a little more in the corners.
The lack of ramped knobs on the Chunk mean that it isn’t the fastest rolling tire — it’s not abysmal, but it definitely falls squarely into the category of bigger, slower tires. However, that lack of ramps means that the Chunk digs in really well on steep climbs. And in the sloppy conditions I was riding it, the wide spacing on the knobs helped the tire clear mud quite well, so even on slow grinds it preserved grip and didn’t pack up.
And those same blocky, spaced-out knobs made for excellent braking traction. A healthy amount of siping on the center knobs further improve traction, and there aren’t any goofy angled knobs that would make the tire do unnatural things while hard on the brakes.
But when it comes time to lay the tire into a corner, I think there’s some room for improvement. It’s a big, blocky tire, so I wouldn’t say it does badly, but there are other big, blocky tires that do quite a bit better. When leaning into a corner, the tire is pretty predictable and doesn’t do anything unexpected. But it also never really locks in, and it doesn’t generate nearly as much cornering traction as it seems like it could and/or should.
I think there’s two reasons for this. First (and probably most importantly), the volume and the height of the tire give it a more rounded profile, which means the side knobs sit relatively low, compared to the center knobs. This means that you have to lean the tire waaaay over to really engage the side knobs, and in a lot of corners, that’s just not really possible.
This issue is at least somewhat remediable by running the tire on a wider rim. I was using the Chunk on a 26 mm internal width rim, but I think the Chunk would work better on something 30 mm wide or more. That’d help square off the tire’s profile, and make those side knobs more usable.
The second, somewhat lesser issue is that the center knobs are in line with the side knobs. My theory is that this means that the center knobs are getting in the way of the dirt that the side knobs should be digging into, which in turn means the side knobs can’t engage quite as hard, and thus can’t corner quite as hard. This is not an issue that is unique to the Chunk; I had a similar comment on the WTB Convict, and that tire exhibited similar cornering attributes.
As I mentioned previously, the rubber compound on the Chunk is pretty middle of the road, and that’s exactly how I’d describe the grip. It doesn’t have the stickiness of a super-soft compound, but it also doesn’t feel nearly as sluggish, and I haven’t torn any knobs yet.
Here is a picture of the 2.3” Chunk (left) and a 2.3” Maxxis DHF (right), and they’re both mounted on similar width rims:
A couple things are noteworthy here: (1) the Chunk is wider, even though the stated width is the same. (2) The DHF has larger knobs that are ramped on one side, and most notably, the side knobs are more substantial. (3) The center knobs on the DHF are staggered against the side knobs, whereas on the Chunk they’re all in line. (4) The Chunk’s knobs are more spaced out. And (5) the Chunk has lateral siping, whereas the DHF has sipes along the direction of travel.
The DHF is one of the “standard” knobby tires, so it’s a good point of comparison. And the above five points pretty well sum up the differences between the Chunk and the DHF. The Chunk does a little better at climbing and braking; its center knobs are siped in the right direction for that sort of traction, and the lack of ramped knobs help the knobs really dig in. And the Chunk clears mud a bit better, mostly by virtue of having a bit more space between the knobs. But in corners, the DHF wins out, since it is less rounded, its side knobs are more substantial, and its center knobs are staggered against the side knobs.
Durability
So far, the Chunk has held up fine, although I haven’t had it on any particularly rocky or punishing trails. The knobs are wearing about as I would expect of a middle-of-the-road rubber compound, and I haven’t torn or sliced the casing. I do suspect that in areas with lots of sharp rocks, the Light 120 tpi casing may be a bit of a liability, but that’s why Terrene offers the Tough version.
Bottom Line
The Chunk is a big, knobby tire, with an emphasis on big. It’s a high-volume tire for its stated size, and for those who don’t tend to have issues with slices and punctures, the Light casing version of the Chunk keeps the weight down.
The Chunk’s straight line traction is fantastic, but it could be a bit better in corners. That said, I think a wider (30+ mm) rim would go a long ways toward improving cornering performance, so it’s worth a shot if you’ve jumped on the wide-rim bandwagon.