I couldn’t find a thread here for MBoards NOVA Tires. If it already exists and I just suck at searching, mods, please delete.
Anyone else ridden them? How do you like them?
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I’ve got Nova 7’s on my 18S Zelda board. The grip is fantastic. I don’t have a ton of miles on them, but I did notice an efficiency drop compared to my 200mm Kenda’s I usually run. (35wh/mi vs 27-28wh/mi). Worth it though for the grip and extra thick tread. Very balanced too.
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Extremely well balanced (no wheel weights required even at 40mph+), lots of rubber and loads of grip. I have around 200mi on them over the past two months and they’re performing great. I still haven’t found the limit of grip on these tires.
Only times I’ve slid on them were racing in vegas which was very dusty and slippery and back home going over a patch of packed dirt in the middle of a sharp turn. The tires were very predictable when they lost traction and I was able to save all the slides after the first one I had in vegas.
I know @JeffyJ also ran them on polished concrete and looked like he was flying around the track.
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How is compliance, if used on street? What psi to run on street?
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you could have rode these on the proto today. 
I wanted to make this writeup the first reply, but turned out the post needed admin approval and I was at track when it was approved. Thanks mods for properly re-categorizing it 
Here's my experience with my first set of NOVAs on my Tynee . I just corded them last week.
TLDR; I think they’re the best on the market right now
Got a set of 6" Nova’s at ESK8con, and put them on my Tynee. On a slick surface like at esk8con, they were WAY grippier then the BKBs that I had on there before.
Kinda stupid, but they gave me the grip to do a U-turn in a single parking space
https://forum.esk8.news/t/the-single-parking-space-challenge/83012?u=tuckjohn
Durability
I wanted to use my set to do wear testing on them for the mboards guys. The rubber compound is super soft (hence the grip), so I was worried about longevity when I first felt the tires at pre-esk8con. I was very presently surprised how long they lasted.
My mileage is definitely the worst case scenario- I weigh 200+ lbs, and I don’t think I rode in a straight line for more then 100 ft for the entire time I had them. All of these miles are hard carving and track racing. A casual rider could probably get 1500miles+ on their set of NOVAs.
100 Miles
160 Miles
Coned from track day racing
Also, I raced my Tynee at Electrify Expo Phoenix because Nothing Fancy. fried itself before the expo. I think the 90F weather and lots of track racing (30+ minutes throughout the weekend) really accelerated the tire wear. Coming off the track they were too hot to touch. you could cook an egg on them.
I also rotated them front-back when I was out there.
~210 Miles
Coned super aggressively from racing in Phoenix
At this point, this was the kind of stuff I was getting up to
240 Miles
Corded two tires in the same night. Front right and rear left.
Also, The tubes took an absolutely TRASHING in the 240 miles that I rode them. Incredibly, every one of them still hold air just fine.
I rode them for another easy 10 miles (just groceries and work commuting) before swapping out for my old set of BKBs. First time I went to turn, I nearly faceplanted from the increased slip angle/lower traction of the BKBs(explained later).
I also bought a set for Nothing Fancy. The 10 miles I’ve ridden on them have been fantastic (videos in the build thread)
I balanced them last night and they needed 2-3 wheel weights each. However, I did slime the tubes, which is probably what make them out of balance
Durability Comparison to BKBs
On my Tynee, I’ve been through 3 sets of BKB tires over the past year or so. I consistently would bald a set of BKBs in ~250 miles, and cord them in ~300 miles.
Given that I thrashed this set of NOVAs harder then I had with previous sets of BKBs… I say they’re roughly equivalent in tire life? Especially considering the absolute torture test that was Electrify Expo Phoenix.
The Nova tires definitely wear much, much faster then the BKBs, but makes up for this increased wear rate by having a lot more rubber before cording.
One interesting thing I noticed was their grip was better when they were newer, unlike every other tire I’ve ridden. BKBs especially, have the best grip right before they go bald.
Here’s a graph to kinda explain what I mean.
(Both tires get gripper in the first 10~50 miles of riding, as they’re broken in)
Feel Comparison to BKBs
It’s hard to describe… BKBs feel more “slidy”, I think? Both tires feel very controllable and controllable in a slide. While BKBs do have a lot of grip, but they start “sliding” before you reach it.
I tried to draw another highly technical and totally (not) accurate graph to explain it.
“turning angle” being the angle of your deck/tracks and how much you’re pressuring the tire
“side force” being how much turning force you’re getting back
BKB feel like they start to slide more and more, until you realize they’re sliding as much as they’re gripping.
The NOVAs feel more linear, and don’t start “letting go” until near the peak. (Also notice that the
The peak grip of NOVAs are higher) This leads to more of an “On rails” feeling, like Stooge BRPs
idk, properly comparing them would require two boards next to eachother and there might be a placebo factor here. Also note that all of this is from the perspective of a track rider who rarely touches dirt 
TLDR: I returned two sets of BKBs that I had bought to ride with(Sorry BKB!). I’ll be buying a set of 6inch NOVAs when they get back in stock to replace the set of BKBs that’re currently on my Tynee. ESK8 Innovation! 
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Nice write up!
I love my novas so far, got a set of 7’s at esk8con (thanks James) and put em on my newbee impalers, which is quite a nice stretch. They look amazing and perform really well. Recently, I got a nail through one but up until then they were great.
A bit harder feeling than stretched skp, but it seems like they’ll have more run time.
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I ran them last night and got fastest lap for the night and only 0.2sec off track record on a dirtier track than normal. I really like them indoors and feel like they are the best tyre I’ve run on polished concrete. When they break from loss of traction they don’t take off either so that’s a massive positive.
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I no longer feel qualified to talk about tires. Ever again.
I’ve got 3.5 sessions on my novas. They still have lots of tread.
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I’d love to see this tire offered in an 8" size. 9" would be cool too!
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i’ve never seen a set of tires destroyed that quickly lol
I definitely done to cords in 3 track sessions. usually they are at least bald by then.
for sunmates it only took one to get to cords.
So does anyone have any other experience with longevity?
I’ve got about 600 miles on my current tires, and they’re starting to get trashed and become a flat factory. I just put in an order for some of the Nova’s but am concerned that they’re getting corded so fast…
if you’re daily riding these tires, don’t worry about tire life, as @tuckjohn said, you’ll have plenty of life on it. those tires are corded because of all the racing he was doing on them. I have over 200mi on them and they still look almost even with a little racing on em.
i think i’m more surprised because of how much rubber these tires have compared to others i’ve seen
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I hear that they’re in production 
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i just looked at my backups on Megan and it looks like i actually have over 500mi on them so that’s cool
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I’ve gone though an entire set in a single day at track before.
Given, they were metroboard tires and it was a hot day
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and wider for 7in is planned possibly wider for 8in depending on how well they sell. also they said they’ll probably do hard sidewalls for running them tubeless from the next batch forward so i hope they do that. they still have to design a tubeless rim tho
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Are these the 6" or 7" option? Is there a difference in contact patch between the two? The 6" would put me at around 70 km/h which would be perfect. And like 0.95G acceleration on 2wd if I can actually put it down 
Also, just out of curiosity, have you tried them outdoors on a grippy surface? How many sideways Gs can they pull once they get warm / hot?
clarifying. I’ve done other tires / most? to cords in 3 session. i’ve done some in 1 session.
i’m saying these seem good because they still got tread because it’s been 3.5 sessions of abuse.
more signs…
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