Thetford winter series

SPROCKET30

Hi sorry for the upcoming question as i know its hardly unique :roll: I did a search and could not find too much relavent to me so here it goes.

I plan to enter the upcoming winter series though I will have to miss the first race. Also hopefully the summer series will take off aswell.

I have a Trek 8500 (2007) which I am more than pleased with currently running on a pair of michelin XC All terrain tyres while they are more than enough for my regular riding they are abit heavy and slow for racing. Please note I am not exactly a elite class rider . So I plan to swap these out for something abit more suitable for racing I have some fire muds just incase it is really muddy and some oldish 1.75 panaracer speed blasters my only concern is they may not be the most comfortable tyre on a hardtail.

I would like some tyres that can handle the winter series and the summer series (if it happens) I have looked at the Panaracer Razer 2.1 and the continental speed king supersonic 2.1 the speed kings are £25 each atm on crc.

My second question I've read a few times that Continentals come up undersized if I get the speed king should I stick with a 2.1 or try the 2.3.

thanks for any thoughts you may have.

BeardedDave

If you're after a tyre specifically for Thetford, year round riding then I'd go with a Panaracer Fire XC 2.1. I ride Thetford most weekends and use these pretty much all year round. They're perhaps not quite as grippy as I would like in the really wet stuff and perhaps not quite fast enough on the really dry stuff but you can't have it all.

JasonRwmb

I did a couple of last winter's winter series, plus Dusk 2 Dawn solo this year (which was a bit wet ) Always on a singlespeed hardtail and I have used Michelin XCR Muds, 2.25 Nobby Nics, and 2.1 Maxxis Crossmarks. All in a tubeless flavour. If I was racing there this year (family commitments mean I have to give it a miss) then I would probably go for the Crossmarks. The mud at Thetford is never sticky and there are normally quite a few fireroad sections where a fast rolling tyre is a big advantage. The Crossmarks are a bit slippy in the wet, but I didn't find it a major problem at D2D.

And one tip for the race: try to get a good start as Thetford always suffers from queues at the first section of single track or bombhole.

SPROCKET30

Yeah my Speedblasters "coped" just about with abit of mud so grip is not my primary issue just the narrow 1.75 size on a Hardtail I feel that may beat me up abit even on the 2 hour event. I have come from a FS bike.

I know what you mean about the start i did the winter series a few years ago. I have also looked at the racing ralph's as they seem to be the tyre of the moment but the price is alittle off putting.