Tyred and sore - lethal Maxxis?

theweeshep

Morning.

I am aware by posting this I may make a t!t of myself...

Earlier this year I replaced my tyres with some maxxis high rollers. From the first time I took them out I noticed the seemed to have no grip on rocks and had a tendency to slip out.

On the road I have been thrown off 5 times in the recent wet weather. The last time I was just turning direction (slowly) on a footbridge and the front just gave way - before that the bike just slipped out at 20-odd mph when I cycled over tram lines in a dead straight line. Ouch...

Now, everyone raves about these tyres but I have never had any confidence in them, in any conditions. I'm fed up falling off for no reason - can I have fitted them on the wrong way round? I know they're directional, but there's no rotation marker on the tyre so I put them on with the sloping edge of the tread pointing in the direction of travel as I thought this would be right for rolling resistance.

I don't fancy trying them the other way around if it'll make matters even worse....

Cheers

MacAndCheese

Never had any problems in the dry, very good in fact. They don't suit the kind of chalky mud we get down here in the wet though and become very unpredictable and slip out as you describe. They were fine in the wet at Cannock though which has more gravelly mud.

ride_whenever

What pressure are you running?

Skonk

Looking at the tyre from the top of the wheel, the slope should point forwards; So at the bottom the flat edge is what digs in when you apply the brakes.

theweeshep

Hi all. Thanks for the quick replies

I am running 35-40psi off road on up to 60psi on road. I've tried them low on road and it doesn't help much

Looks like I have them on the right way though. I can't understand why they are so skittish. Oh well, think I'll get some slicks for the tarmac.

Cheers

theweeshep

Actually, looking at the bike again, when sat on it looking at the front wheel the slope is running from the front of the tyre, towards the rear of the bike.

This would mean the sloping edge of the tread is hitting the ground first - so this would be incorrect and the raised flat edge should?

theweeshep

Not sure if this helps: it's the Exception series and the logo is currently on the rhs of the bike as you sit on it

Cheers

ride_whenever

Thinking about it, you want the square face pointing forwards on the front and rear-wards on the rear so you have braking and driving traction respectively.

60 sounds a bit high, what were you running before without issue?

bungalistic

Which ones are you running? The ones that most people recommend are the dh highrollers, not the xc ones. And if you are running the dh ones then they do have directional arrows on them.

Can't say i've ever had a problem with them in any condition, usually run around 30-35 psi in them and run a 40 on the front and a 60 on the back. Most places i ride are hard pack, gravel style stuff tho, possibly they are more suited to that, they do tend to slip on wet slate but most tyres would surely.

gs3

Any knobbly tyre, if inflated fairly high (60-80psi) will slide out on wet tarmac, tramlines etc as the contact point is very small at the end of the knobbles - that's why true road tyres are usually slick to increase the tyres contact area.

Off-road is a different matter altogether as the tyre is designed to deform at the lower pressures and grab any raised bumps, stones etc and the knobbles dig into the softer surface to gain traction.

Just take it easy when on hard, smooth-ish surfaces with knobbly tyres.

.

robertpb

My new bike came with HR's, within weeks I changed them for Minions, much better grip if a little draggy.

My favourite tyre for most riding is Nobby Nics, but when the mud gets to condition we are now in it's a Mud X on the back and Trailracker on the front.

For off road tyre pressure try the formula, 29 psi for a 75kg rider then add 1% for every kg.

Myself I use between 21-25 psi, with a riding weight of 64kg.

richg1979

running highrollers at 60psi on road will be a terribly slippy draggy ride.

im 15 stone and run 30psi rear and 25psi front but may want to increase if you running any sharp rocky terrain to avoid pinch flats.

and minions roll far better than highrollers esp fronts.

rowlers

I had exactly the same issues with High Rollers (2.162a exception), great in the dry and softish stuf, but wet rocks, slate roots wet hardpack, found they were lethal. Swapped to Mountain Kings which are in a different league.
Great grip on everything except mud, but as they aren't a mud tyre I can't expect that!

Skonk

Scary that you're falling so much even on the road with them.

My SX Trail has Spesh Chunders which are very simalar in design to high rollers and I've been riding it to and from the woods recently and it's stayed planted.

Chunder are hard (if not impossible) to get hold of now so I was planning on going for high rollers when these ware out, not sure if I will now.

Father Faff

Well this is all a bit strange. When I swapped my High Rollers XC 2.1s for Mountain King Protection 2.2s I found almost the opposite! I found the Mountain Kings slippy on wet roots and rocks (tyre pressures high 30s) and I'm sure I had less moments on such surfaces with the High Rollers!

richg1979

highrollers are a seriously grippy tyre, if your having traction probs with them id try walking because your not going to get much better for grip.

Father Faff

That's certainly my impression and I'm going back to High Rollers for winter. Mind you there are so many possibilities of tyre pressures, different widths, compounds, etc maybe this is confusing some people?

robertpb

Father Faff wrote:

That's certainly my impression and I'm going back to High Rollers for winter. Mind you there are so many possibilities of tyre pressures, different widths, compounds, etc maybe this is confusing some people?

Add, the weight of biped on the bike.

77ric

i run HRs front and back a 2.35 on the front and an exception HR 2.1 on the back, and have never had any issues with grip with the exception of seriously muddy terrain, running at 32ish PSI front and about 38 on the back. not sure what the compound of the front is as it came on the bike i think its a 62a.

theweeshep

from what your saying could it be you've not got enough weight over the front of the bike?

i was out at the weekend in the heavy rain partly on tarmac and the rain was running downhill like a stream and i had a blast down it about 25mph and a turn at that speed at the bottom and i never felt like i was losing traction on the front or rear?


oh and logos on the drive side

captainfly

I've found that compound is king for on road grip, with thr current conditions I am running single ply 2.35 swampthings supertacky 42a upfront and 60a at the back, They seem fine but for the drag on wet tarmac (well no worse than dry tarmac but the squirm is predictible)), rocks and roots aren't an issue either AND I stay upright in the the mud. Point is if you have very little contact area then it has to be as sticky as possible.

Shatner

theweeshep wrote:

can I have fitted them on the wrong way round?

Sure. You can run them in either direction, some people reverse the rear for more bite/better braking but you'll lose a bit of speed, although if your on about tarmac its not gona make much diff either way - thats not what high rollers are designed for. Some folk even cut the tread down for more speed (e.g Canberra this year). Rather them than me though!

Northwind

How big are these highrollers? The narrow sizes are pretty damn skinny...

theweeshep

They're 2.1's and definitely on the right way (found the arrows!)

To be honest, they are much more a problem on the road than off. Which stands to reason, but sucks as I commute to work on them.

They are really skiddy. Never had this problem with the conti explorers...

theweeshep

p.s - thanks for all the advice so far. Especially to walk instead. Had me bent over double that did.


;-)

jairaj

theweeshep I think your problem is that the high rollers are suited to aggressive style riders that lean the bike over a lot in corners. There is a noticeable "gap" in grip from riding straight and leaned over in a corner. But once you learn to really lay the bike over in a corner the side knobs dig in a provide loads of grip. A few press reviews have also stated this. This kind of riding is probably not suited to road riding and the side knobs will probably squirm rather than grip. Its a good tyre I like it but maybe not suited to you?