Kids bike tyres can be pretty awful with poor tread patterns, hard rubber compounds and hefty weights. There are very few 507 etro tyres that you might consider putting on a kids mountain bike for serious off roading.
The popular choice is schwalbe’s rocket ron in 24×2.1 flavour weighing in at ~445g. depending on the OE tyre & tube you could save anything from 1-2lb by mounting these tyres tubeless. The easiest way is to use DT swiss valves and gorilla tape with stans sealant. The downside to this weight saving is thin side walls, lack of grip and tread that gets damaged easily
Tread damage on rocket ron
As Lewis develops his skill the tyres were starting to show weakness and I decided to fit rubber more suited to the trails he is now ridding. Maxxis make a 24 inch version of their highly respected high roller but these wouldn’t fit lewis’s bike and they weigh close to 1100g. Another alternative is the 24×2.35 Kenda kinetics which comes OE fitment on the 24 inch Transition Ripcord but I’m not sure they would have fitted the RST fork.
I eventually choose the relatively new 24×2.0 Hutchinson toro hardskin but as they are not being imported into the UK I had to source a pair from France (£20 each incl postage). They come in 200g heavier than the RR but are wire beaded and have a stronger sidewall. The toro is significantly more aggressive but still has good rolling resistance.
Hutchinson toro left – Rocket ron right
It was a slight effort to set the front tyre tubeless as there was a kink in the bead from being squashed in the packaging but a couple of days with a tube, lashings of fairy and my ghetto compressor got it inflated.
Feed back from Lewis is positive with more grip from the toro easily present over the RR. Unless your Kid is cycling on fairly smooth hardpack I wouldn’t bother going with the rons. Lewis doesn’t have the weight to push the tread into the ground and the low tyre pressure required for more grip either burps the tyre or would burst the tube.
MTB mumblings 