Tires for mud

Noizetek

Hey folks, just a quick question, I have an event coming up on December 13th in Hope, Peak District, and I am anticipating that the conditions will be dire. I am also skint, so I cant buy any new tires, I am currently running a pair of maxxis advantage tires, which are good but lack traction at the rear in the mucky stuff...I do have a pair of Ignitor tires though and was considering keeping the advantage on the front and putting one of the ignitors on the back (one of the ignitor tires has really worn down tread so cant just chuck em both on) would this improve the situation any, or should I just stick with what I have on and just deal with it?

roger_merriman

the ignitors seem to get better reviews for clearing. but I haven't used either tyre so...

fishtailing from the rear, should be more controlable than the front washing out.

I'd put the best wet weather tire on the front personally.

Noizetek

The front end seems to react ok, its the rear end especially when going uphill in the mud which just spins out ridiculously.

missmarple

Perhaps its your pedalling technique and stance that is the problem and not your tyres?

Sit back on your bike, albeit low to not lift the front end up to increase traction, pedal in the highest gear possible so that the tyre is going as slow as possible in essence - it works for me and all our club members.

scale20

My local riding takes me through every different terrain you can think of, a lot of it is deep sticky mud and sheep shoit. I run Maxxis Ignitors front and rear 2.3 up front and 2.1 at the rear, they do the job a treat.

I used to swear by mountain kings for the mud till I tried these. I do find that you have to keep your backside on the saddle to keep the traction as Missmarple says above.

littlebear

I stuck some Schwable Black sharks on the other day.... Once I got used to thinner hard compound, spike tires that just keep on gripping, anything else seemed foolish during the bleak winter months.

Raymondavalon

I did an uber muddy 50KM (30M) event in June of this year. I did it with the factory fitted 2.3 Maxxis Ignitors and paid the price of pedaling hard and going nowhere fast with the added bonus of a front end that could have been on an ice rink!
When I got back to the finish I had a look around at what other riders were using and the most used tyre I saw was the Specialized Captain 2.1. I would confidently say 6/10 riders were using this tyre
To be honest I haven't used this tyre myself but I do have a set awaiting a good muddy ride when I get back from vacation in mid January. The statistics certainly say something..

captainfly

I've been using maxxis swampthings 2.35 which are excellent in the mud but do a good job on wet grass and rocks. As for the OP rear end spin out is a tricky one playing around with tyre pressure and technique to either float on or cut the mud. You either have to keep momentum or get off and push :roll:

Noizetek

Cheers for the advice guys, I like the advantages because they do shed mud really quick and roll fast and corner well, but really need to get the back end sorted, I messed around with my technique this morning in the mud and it seemed to be a little better but still not great. The swampthings are the tyres I have heard the most about with really good reviews...to be fair I dont know much about any other brand outside of Maxxis, I have heard the Kenda's are supposed to be good...also getting off and pushing is the thing I want to avoid as its a timed trailquest so need to keep wasted time off the bike to a minimum.

Squarepants

This was my Ignitor 2.3 yesterday in thick muddy clay



Felt like I was running a slick on the rear, 0% clearing. But thats not to say I'm not happy with them overall, I'd buy them again.

I've had no experience of using anything else but I know this stuff was almost impossible to ride through. I doubt many tyres would have coped much better?

spongtastic

My conti vapors used to look like that after riding across the local fields - it's either liquid mud or clay that sticks like shoot. The same thing happened to the specialized captains on my fsr.

I've been running specialized resolutions which clear really well, but it's got to the point where the mud's sitting on top of the clay and getting very slippy. Trying to ride is almost annoying, I think I left a series of 90 degree turns saturday morning where the front kept washing out.

Put some mud x on for sunday morning and had no trouble whatsoever, but they do drag on the road sections I have to ride

Northwind

Back in the old days we used to spray our tyres with silicon furniture polish I stole off my mum, then ride around on tarmac to rub it off the knobbles- the spray stayed in the recesses and stopped mud sticking. But I think this sort of practice is regarded as madness these days, health and safety gone mad eh

PS, anyone trying this, be advised that we were young and stupid. But with no mud on our tyres.

hughjayteens

I used Panaracer Trailraker 1.95s and have yet to clog them up. Grip is fantastic in the gloopy stuff but they are draggy on tarmac.

ads4

littlebear wrote:

I stuck some Schwable Black sharks on the other day.... Once I got used to thinner hard compound, spike tires that just keep on gripping, anything else seemed foolish during the bleak winter months.

Certainly gripped more than my Highrollers mate Might look at a pair of the Black Sharks, or stick my Verticals back on :?

T1berious

Been using Panaracer Trailraker's 2.1 for a while, great in the really mucky stuff and then I switch to Fire XC when the weather improves. Also trail dependent. might have to switch over to the Trailraker's if we go out to Wyre this weekend. Always turns into a bog at Wyre

bluehelmet

Years ago (10+) I got some Panaracer FireMud Pro 1.8s that I still use in the winter. They are absolutely fantastic in mud, not so great on all other surfaces (especially tarmac). Not useful to the OP I know, just my 2p's worth.