Which ruddy muddy tyre?!

Lmrt1
Lmrt1 Posts: 26
edited August 2011 in MTB buying advice
I know it's the wrong time of the year but I'm looking for a rear muddy terrain tyre for my Grand Canyon. Anyone have recommendations that they've ridden and like?
Cheers.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    How muddy, exactly? And what kind of conditions underfoot? I mean, is is mud on top of a solid rock layer, or properly sinking-in-boggy?

    Maxxis Swapmthings are fantastic in the mud and wet, but riding with one will feel like you've got the brakes on.
    If it's only a bit of wet trail, then chnces are you'd probably be best served by a normal trail tyre, but with more of a paddle-like tread, something like a Maxxis High Roller, for example.
  • Lmrt1
    Lmrt1 Posts: 26
    Thanks for the reply so far.
    A bit of a mixture really I suppose, from sticky forest floors to side-of-field tractor trails full of mud.
    I have a Schwalbe Racing Ralph on there at the moment which is great for this time of year, even with it slippery on top of hardpack, but I know that it won't manage too well with anything too much deeper.
    I guess what I'm really after is a general purpose winter tyre that's more inclined to the mud than anything else.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    For general purpose stuff, then I'd stick with High roller, you know. Swampthings and similar are fantastic mud tyres, but are so slow that they are useless at anything else.

    Basically, keep an eye out for any tyre that has this kind of bar/paddle tread...
    4613.jpg
    And consider going to a softer compound that you'd use in summer, so that it grips wet rocks and the like.
  • Lmrt1
    Lmrt1 Posts: 26
    Have you used the High Rollers? They look like they would clear well. :)
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    Yes, used them for a few years. Great tyre, a little slow-rolling in summer though, but a good all-rounder, and definitely a capable winter tyre.
    At the moment I've just started running the new Mountain King 2 tyre, and so far they have bene exceptional in all conditions. Too early to properly recommend them though, especially considering their cost :shock:
  • Lmrt1
    Lmrt1 Posts: 26
    I've noticed the Mountain King 2's before. But was put off by the £40 or so price tag it has to be said. Still, if I swap them for winter use and keep my others for summer (which was the plan) then they'd last a couple of years I'm sure so don't cost a lot really when you look at it that way. I'd be interested to know how you find them in the sloppy stuff!
    Cheers.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    I'll let you know next spring :lol:

    Joking aside though, last weekend we crossed a boggy marsh, and they coped pretty damned well. Whilst they did indeed slip in deep bog, they still made forward progress, so say for each two wheel revolutions, you'd travel forwards one, kind of thing.
    They would appear to be the best all round tyre I've ever used.

    But, HighRollers are far cheaper, and are very good performers.
  • kja
    kja Posts: 259
    For really extreme muddy conditions Specialized Storms are brilliant. Used them all last winter, nothing phased them at all. And they're cheap.
  • Lmrt1
    Lmrt1 Posts: 26
    Are they the same as the Storm Control? A variation on a theme I'm guessing.
  • nickel
    nickel Posts: 476
    Another vote for the high roller here, I've been running the skinny 2.1 XC version since November front and back and they've been great, I'm sure the wider versions are even better!
  • benpinnick
    benpinnick Posts: 4,148
    Bontrager mud-x. Great in the gloop, amazingly good when its not so wet.
    A Flock of Birds
    + some other bikes.
  • Lmrt1
    Lmrt1 Posts: 26
    Thanks for that. The bontrager looks similar to the Spec. Storm - they both look like they'd clear really well given the space between knobs.
  • kja
    kja Posts: 259
    Lmrt1 wrote:
    Are they the same as the Storm Control? A variation on a theme I'm guessing.

    Yes, Specailized have different types of the same tyre, which is very confusing. So the Storm is available in Control, S-Works or DH variants. I have the Storm Control. Spesh say 'this tyre offers traction for sections that most riders wouldn't even consider hiking over'. I promise you I don't work for Spesh, but that statement is bang on. An awesome winter tyre; cheap, light with tread that seems to clear no matter how sticky the mud is.
  • SEAMUS COLGAN
    SEAMUS COLGAN Posts: 17
    I would recommend the continental baron very gripy in wet condition's. link of the tires !!!


    http://cdn.mos.bikeradar.com/images/bik ... 399-75.jpg
  • bluechair84
    bluechair84 Posts: 4,352
    just got back from a very wet Alps, I ran 2.5 highrollers and struggled with them to be honest, but I'd still recommend them as above. Very good all round tyre.
    In proper baby's-nappy-after-a-feed conditions like out there, Wet Screams were the tyre of choice.
    MTB Blog: Fouriers thick/thin and 42t crawler: First Look

    Ellsworth Moment
    Intense Socom
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    Wet screams are useless UK mud xc tyres though. They're just too spiky. They were designed specifically for a wet les gets.
  • bluechair84
    bluechair84 Posts: 4,352
    Aah, probably why everyone was running them
    MTB Blog: Fouriers thick/thin and 42t crawler: First Look

    Ellsworth Moment
    Intense Socom
  • Thewaylander
    Thewaylander Posts: 8,593
    I like the swamp things,

    Didn't find them so bad to peddle either in the odd time n the dry i used them, But then i usually run a DH tyre up front so hard to say lol.

    Wet screams are good in total bog but most people i know cut them down to use :s
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    We had more rain in one week in Les Gets than I've seen in the entirety of my life :lol:
    It was so hot, however, that the ground was baked dry by 6am every morning, apart from one day.

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