A mate of mine is about to give the Vredestein Spotted Cat 29x2.0 tubeless a roll...similar sort of pattern to the AKA
Follow up on the Vredestien's. In the flesh these tyres are sharp and narrow, they almost feel 'hooked'. In many ways like a spiky Furious Fred.
However, sadly for my mate, they don't fit his Bontrager UST rims that came stock on his GF Paragon. Getting them on required the effort of levers, muscles and much tension (along with the paitence of a saint). A couple of levers met their maker. Once they got on they were so tightly held into the centre gully that when air was applied to seal the bead...the tyre folded the rim tape and broke the seal. Taking the problem to the club mechanic and having him start from scratch produced nothing more than highly entertaining swearing from said mechanic.
When he handed them to me saying they'd probably be fine on a fully tubeless ready rim like on my CB Cobalt's...I figured why not. So I took them home and tried them on a set of empty wheels I happened to have which Cannondale see fit to put on their Trail SL 29er's - Formula hubs with Maddux rims. Cheap/nasty. The Vrdesteins went on with the simple application of my thumbs and fingers...:laugh: Said mate is far from impressed.
At some stage in the future (perhaps when I've killed the collection of AKA, Crossmarks and Small Block Eights that I already have?) I might actually try these tyres out on a set of wheels that I'll actually use...the only thing that concerns me is that the AKA's were a tight fit on the Cobalts but at least they sealed up with a mere fart of air.
But in the end I'll wager that Vrdestein tyres may not be for rims that are already known to be tight fits for tubeless ready tyres from Europe...like Bontragers and Stans.