Specialized Ground Control Family of Tires

Among the first of the tires designed by Wilderness Trail Bike for Specialized to market was the Ground Control. It comes in five modelswith, in some cases, very slight differences in the GC basic tread pattern. Down the center of the tread is a 15mm wide rectangular block which is horizontally placed and slightly offset from the center with a small square depression. To the sides of the rectangular block are thin vertically placed blocks with arrow structures at both ends. The sidewall blocks are small verticals with sidewall supports which provide an edge to the tire while turning.

The original GC is a 26 x 1.95 steel beaded, Skin sidewall tire known as the Ground Control. Made in Japan, its tread rubber tested to an ??/A hardness

Ground Control 26 x 1.95 $ Price in Catalog

One of the early entries into the Black sidewall market was the Ground Control. Specialized gave the Blackwall version its own moniker the "Black Max". The Black Max has a steel bead and is available through us in two of its three sizes, 26 x 1.95" and 24 x 1.95", a 20" diameter version is made which we don't inventory. The 26" diameter model is made in Japan and is one of the very few Black wall tires that has a real sidewall, with all of a real sidewall's benefits. The sidewall is made as a part of the tread stock and finished in place to the underlying casing fabric layers during the vulcanizing process. The separate Black sidewall is obvious because the underneath casing fabric is pigmented in the traditional Brown. The 26 x 1.95" Black Max had a tread rubber hardness of 62/A. The smaller 24 x 1.95" version of the Black Max is made in Taiwan. Though it has a Black sidewall, the sidewall is really exposed Black pigmented rubberized casing fabric. We found the 24" diameter Black Max had a tread hardness of 64/A.

BlackMax 26 x 1.95 $ Price in Catalog
BlackMax 24 x 1.95 $ Price in Catalog

The GC K4 is Japanese made with a Skin sidewall and a steel bead. The GC K4 has a Kevlar fabric belt to resist punctures through the tread, into the tube. The Kevlar belt is 1 1/2" wide and positioned between the casing fabric and the tread stock, prior to vulcanization, when all the tire components are firmly bonded together. The Kevlar belt is centered in the middle of the tread but because of its width leaves the side tread block area and the sidewall unprotected and exposed to punctures and cuts. The Ground Control K4 we tested had a tread rubber hardness of 65/A.

Ground Control Kevlar K4 $ Price in Catalog

The Ground Control/S is made in Japan and has Skin sidewall. It is one of the four Mountain tires made with the Umma Gumma Grey tire compound. The tire's bead is made of Kevlar which is slightly lighter than the steel one used on other models. This is one of the Kevlar beaded tires available only with the UG compound. When tested, the Ground Control/S rubber tread hardness was 61/A.

G Control/S 26 x 1.95-Kev/Skin/Grey $ Price in Catalog
G Control/S 26 x 1.95-Kev/Skin/Black $ Price in Catalog