Not a lot of people are familiar with the Samura brand. I wasn’t either, until Mihai asked me what tires am I using for offroad biking (worried before going to Sinaia[1][2]). I answered “The ones that came with my bike”. He said “Tell me their brand”. I checked the tire “It’s Sami… erm.. Sa-something.. Samura? Let me google it.”

And I found them on amazon.co.uk (it’s where I got the photo from). Priced at only 9 pounds (but you can find them on ebay at 6 pounds) and weighting only 1 kg, they’re the cheapest and heaviest tires I’ve ever come across.

That may be only circumstantial evidence that they’re crap. Let’s see how the producer describes them: ” it would be a perfect replacement for worn or damaged mountain bike tyres”. Hmm.. that’s not very reassuring…

Let’s see what the users have to say: “they are looking good ( well at east they haven’t fallen off )”. And that’s the only review I could find. Again… not very reassuring.

Well, on to a field test. After going up and down a mountain, I can say that they have a very good grip (except on steep terrain.. and sometimes on flat… or when the bike is moving), they feel really tough and durable (pretty much like a 1kg chunk of rubber) and, indeed, they didn’t fall off. I would definitely recommend them for replacing worn or damaged tires.