CST Camber Test – Lightness and Durability for XC

Text: Lyubomir Botusharov; photos: Lyubomir Botusharov and Mariana Maksimova

It’s time to share impressions of the fourth tire from CST that I tested in 2022. It’s called Camber and is a typical XC model with low-profile tread and low weight – only 627 grams. Generally, I rarely ride with such tires, and combined with an AM/enduro bike, I don’t even remember doing it before. But there’s a first time for everything, right?

Jokes aside, these clarifications are important. Since I don’t have an XC bike, the only option was to mount the tire on my personal AM/enduro bike. I put it on the rear wheel, and up front I installed the Patrol 2.4 model, which was the closest in purpose and tread type among the tires I had. For better or worse, I couldn’t try the Camber as a front tire because I simply had nothing to pair it with on the rear. I promised myself I would try to ride this combination as intended, so I went to the seaside in Greece. There were suitable hills for XC riding, and the terrain included only asphalt and dirt roads. Another matter is that I quickly found myself on some rough and rocky paths, so it’s debatable whether I really spared the tires much.

Here are some quick technical details about the Camber:
Size: 29x2.25 / 57-622
Weight: 627 grams
Price: 59.90 BGN
The casing consists of three layers of fabric with a 120 tpi weave density and EPS puncture protection. The bead is foldable, and the tread is supposedly dual compound, as far as I could find information. The tire is suitable for tubeless use.

I’ll start with the installation, during which I had to inflate it twice using my home pump with an integrated compressor. In other words, if you have a regular pump, it might not be easy, but with the compressor, there were no serious problems. Overall, the tire walls are soft and thin, so the foldable beads easily go on and off the rim, which is typical for most lightweight XC tires.

You can read the full text and Lyubomir Botusharov’s impressions from the Camber test in the article published on mtb-bg.com.