Originally Posted by JSteiner

So, i went for a hill climb with some Norcal mountain biking friends of mine up a fire road. It was pretty steep in a couple sections. So steep, in fact, that I had to get off the bike and walk it because my tire was spinning out. And I hate walking the bike. So I decided to look into some new tires. I found these bad boys on Jenson USA for $16 each, so thought I'd give them a shot. They're 29x1.95" Kenda Klaw XT's. I had a front rack, but when fully inflated the front tire rubbed on it. It clears the fork with a few mm to spare. The rear rubs the frame when fully inflated, but when deflated it only rubs where it's slightly out of true (going to spend the time to true it up this weekend). I should note that I have very narrow rims (Velocity Deep V's at the moment), which affect the tire's final width. It's not the ideal setup to leave on the bike for good, but I got these tires for occasional off-road riding and for the winter commute, when they'll be on very low pressure anyway.

So I haven't taken them on proper trails yet, but the little testing I did do was quite fun. It was a very plush ride, even compared with the 700x38c tires I usually have on there. Obviously its not as efficient, but if you're worried about efficiency and going fast, you're missing the point.