Poll: How many of you change your tyres for the conditions?

giblets

Just wondering how many of your change tyres depending on the conditions, I've got Kenda Nevegel 2.1's on my Trance, but have to admit to sticking with the same tyres throughout the year, though have to admit to struggling in thick clay soils, and can hear the tyres with their resistance?
I've seen so many threads on the forum about tyres and conditions, but amoungst my friends who mountain bike, don't think any of them change the tyres (none of us are particularly 'hard core', doing 2-3 trail visits/ year).

ricardo_smooth

'm a wing it and hope kinda guy lol

VWsurfbum

youve got pretty good all round tyres on, and changing tyres regulary is a pain and expensive, i know this as i do it
i do a little racing so having the right tyres on can make a massive amout of speed difference, but through the winter, mud tyres on and forget.

1mancity2

Never!

Use good all rounders.

njee20

Change for racing, then usually ride whatever's fitted, unless it's totally inappropriate.

dusk

I haven't previously but my new bike has Bontrager mud x's and they're so awesome in winter I don't want to wear them out in the summer so I will be switching

davewalsh

I run a Minion DHF 2.35 on the front all year round. On the back I run an Ardent 2.25 from March - October and an Advantage 2.1 November - Feb. All tyres are single ply folding 60A compound.

nicklouse

I may even change wheels or even bike.

cat_with_no_tail

For the riding we have here there is just no point apart from maybe 2-3 weeks in the middle of summer. The terrain is just so mixed, there are parts that just never dry out anymore and others that drain exceptionally well. A single ride will see you taking on pretty much every conceivable terrain type and condition. A good quality all-rounder is what's essential round here.

Too old for this

Don't bother changing just find a good all rounder and stick with it.

miss notax

Ditto most of the above - I stick with a minion on the front and a high roller on the back all year. They're a bad choice about twice a year for two reasons, on a VERY muddy ride or a baking hot dry one. 99% of the time in general UK shittiness they are great

Squarepants

2.5 maxxpro HR f+r for XC/AM duties (too big but hey ho)

2.5 supertacky HR dualply f & as above rear for DH. Yet to get a maxxpro dualply rear; the singleply has been known to pinch flat on 'to flat' drops, tabletops. Much prefer a maxxpro on the back as a slide the arse around a lot, trail builders must hate me.

Schwalbe Muddy Mary freeride f and Big betty freeride r for birthdays and christmas.. (too expensive to use any other time..)

Maxxpro HR lasts literally forever..

Anonymous

miss notax wrote:

Ditto most of the above - I stick with a minion on the front and a high roller on the back all year. They're a bad choice about twice a year for two reasons, on a VERY muddy ride or a baking hot dry one. 99% of the time in general UK shittiness they are great

This ^^^

Exactly the same tyres with me and stay on all year. Only change I might make is with the hard tail which may make more appearances on XC-ish rides in the summer over flat dry kind of stuff, so might stick something else on. Then again it's still fun to take it on mixture of terrain and generally the thing is not much hassle except on tarmac. I don't do tarmac.

Might rethink for the alps on the full sus, but then again the Minion/HR combo may still be okay, though I just have regular single ply folding tyres. Have wondered about the benefits of a Super Tacky also for some conditions and styles of riding, but not sure yet.

lawman

like many others, the terrain where i ride normally varies year round, so trying to match tyres to conditions is pointless, so like pretty much everyone i ride with when at home i use 2.25 nobby nics set up tubeless, although the others vary between 1.8, 2.1 and 2.25, ive always used the 2.25's and find that for 90% of conditions they are very good, although i find they get better with age, the hard compound wears out and the softer stuff underneath is very grippy, so the first few rides are abit sketchy as you find the limit again, but after that they are great, only time they've ever been seriously out of there depth is the local DH courses at uni in winter, but then its so frickin steep anything except a full on spike is useless this time of year

Northwind

I change to drier conditions tyres come the summer, because I can't see any point in dragging around (and wearing out) sticky rubber come summer... And for some things in winter, I'll switch to a full mud, frinstance next week's enduro race at innerleithen is probably going to be pretty damn wet and since it's difficult riding at best, I'll want to be on the right tyres.

snotty badger

I'm an one tyre fits all kinda guy!

I use Verticals and love them, but I know I should try something else...

I altered the pressure for night riding- I went higher, deciding I'd rather have a slightly sketchy ride than having to swap tubes in the dark/wet/horribleness for when I pinch punctured.

StefanP

Now i've got a dedicated road bike, I just leave my Panaracer Cinders on all the time, used to be able to sustain 18mph on the road with them, so they arent so bad rolling :P

uk_mr_brownstone

I change my tyres when it's properly muddy but that's mainly because of frame clearance on the rear, so while at it it's no bother to change both.

For the people running 2.35's all year round, don't you get clogged up with rear wheel clearance when its real muddy?

ste_t

I change my front tyre as and when I feel like buying something new.

My choice of rear has settled on Ardent 60a 2.35 during the dryer months and a Nevegal dtc 2.35 with the sidewall shield for the wetter/muddier months. Logic being, never had a single pinch flat with the Nevegal so no standing around in the freezing rain changing punctures.

Anonymous

uk_mr_brownstone wrote:

For the people running 2.35's all year round, don't you get clogged up with rear wheel clearance when its real muddy?

No.

But then I ride bikes that have loads of clearance. 2.35 is pretty much standard for me.

Raymondavalon

My PanaRacer Rampage 2.35's are a good all year round tyre, but then again I'm a wuss and probably never push hard enough to take them beyond the limits of the conditions.
They're not too bad in mud either, the [former] Am bike had ample clearance on the rear end for those tyres

The new long travel HT recommends a maximum width of 2.35 so I'll stick with the Rampage 2.35s once again as they do the job come rain or shine

ilovedirt

I tend to use the same tyres year round, though I do have some mud spikes that i put on for downhill if it's particularly wet, and i sometimes put a supertacky minion on up front for XC if it's also particularly wet.

dhutch

I voted 'change presures only' which is a over simplfication as I do tend to change from winters (something like a kenda nevigal) to summers (say a spesh fastrack) in about march and september.

I would change more, but its time consuming of time i dont have. Its not like its really practical to rock up somewhere an go 'humm, looks fairly damp out, i'll just swap my tyres while you get the carpark ticket!'


Daniel

.blitz

rarely change tyres but I try to select the most appropriate bike for the conditions

sometimes I like to mix it up and take the summer treads out in the winter just for a laugh

Northwind

dhutch wrote:

Its not like its really practical to rock up somewhere an go 'humm, looks fairly damp out, i'll just swap my tyres while you get the carpark ticket!'

I've done just that- arrived in innerleithen carpark, saw that every rider there looked like they'd been dipped in chocolate (mmmmmmm) so swapped tyre before I went anywhere. Only takes a couple of minutes after all. Wouldn't want to do it all the time mind.

Redhog14

I change tyres like Jordan does men...

have tried the following combos..

Winter 10- Front Bont Mud X 2.2 Rear Spesh high roller 2.0 - not good
Winter snow 10/11- Front Bont Mud X 2.2 rear Panracer 1.8 - awesome - ran this some of the summer too mainly for comedy value but the kick back from the small tyre became too much!
Summer 11 - Front Hutchinson Python 2.2 rear Spesh high roller - use this on Manx E2E and it was good.
Winter 11/12 - Bont Mud x 2.2 front and rear - much better
Ran the Bont Mud X on a couple of trail center days and found it really poor the front seemed to juggle about in corners.

For where I am in Central Scotland I had a demo on Maxxis Aspens which were Sheeeittte all the hills round here (Ochils) have lots of water underneath so at some point, usually just at the bottom of a hill when you are starting to brake you just start aquaplaning, which is nice!

XTC2009

I am always playing around with tyres! I just seem to have this strange urge to try everything, which my mate finds hilarious and to which he recently said - 'Look, mate, if you get the urge to spend money on new tyres that you don't need, call me and I'll talk sense into you!' - but at the moment I think the best tyre I've used for everything off-road is the Panaracer Cinder 2.25. If I could only have two sets of tyres I'd run those off-road all year round and slicks for the road mileage. But I also have some Specialized Fast Traks and I went to a couple of events in 2010 where I couldn't decide and ended up changing them at the last minute! :roll:

guy72277

Total 29er tyre tart. Think I have all conditions covered....

Wtb Vulpine - semi slick - back dry conditions
Schwalbe Rocket Ron - light grip - front dry/back wet conditions
Schwalbe Nobby Nic - medium grip - front wet conditions
Wtb Dissent - heavy grip - front - downhill/muddy conditions
Bontrager MudX - back - muddy conditions
Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro - Front/back in snow and ice

bluechair84

I didn't, then I wish I did, now I would.
I've always believed I could just get by on my Highrollers. I turned up to my first local DH event which was an absolute quagmire and I did shockingly bad because... you know... wrong tyres and all that... probably pressures and rubbing brakes too... Anyway, I now have a Swampthing for the front just incase it's particularly wet as it doesn't take long to swap and I'd rather it didn't mess up my riding intentions. But then, I doubt it's at all necessary for the majorty of riders.

Northwind

I think to be fair, most folks don't really ask that much of their tyres. I mean, modern rubber is amazing, you can buy cheapo tyres that most people would dismiss as "rubbish" that would have been better than any tyre in the world when I started riding. So we're getting the benefit of that, all the time. It's only really when you're pushing a limit that it's more useful to think about different tyres- conditions, or grip, or your own endurance, or skill, and so on.

For everything else, there's worn-out Highrollers

nicklouse

bluechair84 wrote:

I didn't, then I wish I did, now I would.
I've always believed I could just get by on my Highrollers. I turned up to my first local DH event which was an absolute quagmire and I did shockingly bad because... you know... wrong tyres and all that... probably pressures and rubbing brakes too... Anyway, I now have a Swampthing for the front just incase it's particularly wet as it doesn't take long to swap and I'd rather it didn't mess up my riding intentions. But then, I doubt it's at all necessary for the majorty of riders.

get another one for the rear.

then you may have some fun. I start wondering what you were thinking about before.

Just going out for a ride you can get by with any tyre but if you are wanting to do as you are then the least you can do is get some suitable tyres for the conditions.