Mud

Ozzeh

Folks,

I went for a ride through some local byways last night and was less than impressed with how my tyres dealt with the mud when going got sticky. They clogged up almost immediately and it became very hard work just to keep them rolling. At one point, I was having to stop every hundred yards or so just to clear out the crap around the brakes and fork brace thingy as the wheels were completely locked up.

Now I live in the fens north of Cambridge and I know we have specially sticky mud around here but I'm wondering if a change of tyre would help me out? I currently run the tyres that came on my bike when I bought it in 2003 (Specialized Roll-X or something like that). Would a specific mud tyre clean out quicker than what I have? If so, which brand would be a good choice for really really sticky mud?

TIA!

llamafarmer

Sometimes mud just gets so sticky that I don't think any tyre can clear it, especially when the going is slow and the wheels aren't spinning at any kind of speed to fling the mud off.

.blitz

I used some Maxxis Medusas during the depths of last winter and they were proper good in all kinds of mud - watery, gloop, sticky, clay etc they just don't give up. They are skinny little low volume things but they have big, soft-compound widely-spaced knobs and the carcass inbetween is smooth and slick so that it sheds mud really quickly.

For mud-specific tyres, they weren't too bad on hardpack but as soon as the trails started drying out I couldn't wait to take them off. The tread pattern causes the tyre to squirm and roll and they feel draggy on buff singletrack.

For muddy conditions they were pretty much unbeatable but be sure you need them.

robertpb

Check the tyre pressure, too much doesn't give enough flex to shed the mud.

Tyres with well spaced nobby tread tend to shed mud best.

Northwind

Also, if you're having trouble with the clearance around the rest of the bike, narrower tyres might help too (many mud tyres come in narrow sizes) But, if it's that bad that the mud is totally blocking the bike up, it's not really the tyres causing the problem, you've got mud stuck to frames, mud stuck to mud- the tyres don't sound like they're helping but some mud is just terribly sticky.