Ekoi EK RR 29 Road Racing Tyres

The Ekoi EK RR 29 Road Racing Tyres are handmade, 350 TPI, tubeless-ready race tyres with a very clear brief: feel fast, look special, and deliver proper confidence when the road turns rough or greasy. They represent a spectacularly good first swing at race tyres from Ekoi.

First impressions and setup

The tyres immediately seemed of high quality. The moulding was neat, the labels were properly aligned, and the overall finish suggested a tyre made with care rather than hurried out of a factory line. Ekoi says the RR 29 is hand assembled from start to finish, and that artisan feel does come through.

The white sidewalls are also absolutely gorgeous. Sandwiched between black rubber and a carbon rim, they pop in a way most tan walls only dream about. They are genuinely eye-catching, especially in the sun.

The downside, of course, is that bright white and filthy UK roads are not natural allies. After a few mucky rides they drifted more towards beige than brilliant white, and although they still looked smart, keeping them pristine took more scrubbing than I would ideally like.

Mounting was refreshingly painless for a handmade race tyre. I first ran them with TPU tubes for ease of travel to Gran Canaria, then switched to tubeless when I got home. In both cases, they behaved well. They were tight enough to feel secure, but not so tight that I needed to invent new swear words – which is more than I can say for some Vittorias.

On my rims, I could get one tyre on by hand and used a single lever to make the second one easier. Seating tubeless was equally civilised, with both tyres popping into place quickly using a DIY booster.

Air retention was also very good. Over the test period they only needed a couple of PSI top-up every three weeks or so, which is impressive for such a supple construction and notably better than some older cotton sidewall tyres.

Ride feel and road performance

This is where the RR 29 really earns its keep. Ekoi’s 350 TPI cotton casing and natural latex construction give it that lovely ‘tubular feel’ marketing departments are always promising but so rarely deliver.

On the road, the tyre feels fast, smooth, and wonderfully communicative. You get a real sense of the road texture beneath you, but not in a harsh or fatiguing way. Instead, it translates into a very refined feel for surface changes and a better sense of what the tyre is doing as you approach the grip limit. Ekoi itself leans heavily on the 350 TPI casing, claiming reduced rolling resistance, exceptional micro vibration damping, and silky rolling. My own experience backed that up.

That communicative feel was especially noticeable in mixed conditions. In the dry, they felt quick and precise. In the wet, they gave enough feedback to inspire confidence rather than caution. (This matters if, like me, you have spent much of winter hiding indoors while the British weather threw tantrums outside.)

The soft, slightly diffuse contact feel also helped on rougher roads, where the tyres managed to feel plush without drifting into vagueness. There is a softness to how they load up, which helps them track road defects just off your main line and gives a more progressive sense of grip.

Width, weight and practicality

Ekoi has deliberately gone for 29mm rather than the industry’s usual 28 or 30, and on my 21mm internal rims they measured 30.90mm. That is worth knowing if you are planning to squeeze them into a tighter frame, especially an older rim brake bike. Ekoi says the tyre is intended for rims with internal widths from 17C to 25C, and that the 29mm section is chosen to optimise compatibility with rims up to 25C internal.

Weight is competitive too. Ekoi claims 279g, plus or minus 5 per cent and my own scales had them coming in 3g lighter than the claimed figure.

Measured against rivals, that puts them in serious company. The Challenge Criterium RS TLR is 255g for a 27mm, the Continental GP5000 S TR is listed at 280g in 28mm and Hutchinson’s newer Blackbird Race is a claimed 240g. So while the Ekoi is not the outright lightest of the lot, for a 29mm handmade cotton race tyre, it is still very competitive.

Durability and puncture resistance

Race tyres often ask you to accept a trade off between speed and durability. The RR 29 does not completely dodge that compromise, but it manages it well. Ekoi says the tyre uses a high performance racing compound and presents it as both fast and surefooted on wet roads. In my testing, puncture resistance was very good. I stayed puncture free throughout, despite broken roads, debris, and the sort of lane detritus that makes you question every life choice.

The tread area has a reassuring thickness, and at the end of testing wear was modest, with only minor cuts and nicks. That gives me confidence there is reasonable mileage here for a tyre pitched firmly at the fast end of the market. The caveat is that, like many supple race tyres, the sidewalls are not the armoured part of the equation. If you spend a lot of time on badly surfaced roads or clipping the odd bit of roadside debris, you are still going to want to treat them with some respect.

Value and rivals

This is premium territory. At £192 a pair, the Ekoi EK RR 29 are above the Challenge Criterium RS and Continental’s GP5000 S TR, which are both available for £85, as well as Hutchinson’s Blackbird Race, which is listed for £70. Prices obviously move around, but the hierarchy is clear: the Ekoi is priced as a boutique race tyre, not a value one.

What helps justify that is the ride quality. These feel much closer to the Challenge in spirit than the more everyday Conti. They are supple, handsome, and a little indulgent. If your priority is outright value, the GP5000 S TR remains the obvious benchmark. If you want something a bit more exotic, with genuinely lovely road feel and looks to match, the Ekoi makes a strong case.

Conclusion

The Ekoi EK RR 29 Road Racing Tyres are a superb first effort in a crowded and demanding category. They look stunning, they mount with surprisingly little drama, they hold air well, and on the road they offer the kind of supple, communicative feel that makes a bike seem more alive beneath you. They are expensive, they are a bit vain, and the white sidewalls will never stay truly white for long on British roads, but if you want a boutique race tyre that genuinely delivers on both feel and performance, these are excellent.

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