Whats happened to tyres?

craigw99

I know im turning into an old fart but whats with 'modern tyres' the mountain king tyres that came as standard on my new bike have less tread depth than my worn ritchey z max, i've just got a maxxis wet scream - on ad blurb - for race/professionally maintained courses etc - Its got smaller spikes than my half worn Panaracer Spike!, mud hasnt changed in the past 15years so why have the tyres wimped out? im not looking for good rolling resistance on hardpack i want something that hooks up in the stuff i ride in most of the year - im sure the scream will do the business it's just i was a little underwhelmed by the look of it

bails87

Compounds and tread design have improved, so you get more grip with less roling resistance? Maybe....

Long_Time_Lurker

20 years ago, you had a choice of knobbly or not.
Nowadays you have knobblies for different types of mud, different styles of riding etc etc.

Progress is good, but it makes it a lot more difficult to make an informed decision. It can sometimes turn into trial and error when buying tyres now.

Anonymous

craigw99 wrote:

im not looking for good rolling resistance on hardpack i want something that hooks up in the stuff i ride in most of the year

Probably the majority of the buyers will ride those bikes on hardpack and dry summer conditions, so that's what they sell them with.

Still, never used them but the Wet Screams look nobbly enough to me. Far more than the High Roller and that is a perfectly grippy enough tyre for most conditions anyway. Don't think I'd want to use Wet Screams unless it was a specific event that was very muddy (but not clay, nothing works in wet clay). Would be terrible for general use I think.

YeehaaMcgee

The wet screams are frankly horrible on all but the very very very wettest, sloppiest mud.

craigw99

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

The wet screams are frankly horrible on all but the very very very wettest, sloppiest mud.

way to cheer me up on a monday :-)

YeehaaMcgee

craigw99 wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

The wet screams are frankly horrible on all but the very very very wettest, sloppiest mud.

way to cheer me up on a monday :-)

Well, guess I'm not a sycophantic Yes-man, after all then.

Northwind

All mountain kings are disappointing, OEM-spec mountain kings are gash. Other tyres are available.

As for Wetscreams, the knobs are already long enough to make them horrible on anything firmer than jam. If they were any longer, it'd just be more to cut off.

YeehaaMcgee

I'm still loving the mountain kings, in black chilli compound round here. The only place they've let me down is in Llandegla in the wet.

On natural terrain, rather than kitty-litter motorway trails, they are frankly unmatched - although I appreciate that may be due to the nature of the dirt/soil/whatever in Snowdonia.

ilovedirt

Maxxis Minions. Been using them year round on the downhill bike, albeit with different compounds, and they make a good front tyre for sloppy conditions on the XC bike.

YeehaaMcgee

ilovedirt wrote:

Maxxis Minions. Been using them year round on the downhill bike, albeit with different compounds, and they make a good front tyre for sloppy conditions on the XC bike.

Such is the fickle nature of terrain - I didn't get on well at all with Minions!

ilovedirt

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

ilovedirt wrote:

Maxxis Minions. Been using them year round on the downhill bike, albeit with different compounds, and they make a good front tyre for sloppy conditions on the XC bike.

Such is the fickle nature of terrain - I didn't get on well at all with Minions!

How come? I love them on the downhill bike. That said, the dual ply supertacky downhill ones are pretty different to the maxxpro single ply, and neither are great if you want to motor up hills like some keen lycra-wearing bean.

YeehaaMcgee

Because of different terrain. One tyre won't suit everywhere. Shocking, eh.

diy

I just switched to my summer set up at the weekend (Spesh Fast Trak LK control). Its quite late in the year for the switch over and still the trails were muddy. I'd forgotten how good these tyres are in moderate mud. I was expecting to have to slow up quite a bit on the decent, but they were fine. They are also fairly cheap at around £20-23. For some reason Spesh have stopped making them.

A lot of "grip" issues can be solved by learning to ride a squirming bike. the fast traks slip a bit on steep climbs and they wont grip the side of a trench to pull you up, but they roll a hell of a lot better than my kenda blue grooves or nevegals.

bluechair84

I remember thinking Highrollers and Minions were the cat's claws and loads of people thought so too. I think they get name dropped more than they deserve now as there are much better tyres out there, they're not king of the pile anymore. I'd take Rubber Queens every time. Of course, it's all personal opinion...

Anonymous

Have to admit I run Minions and HR because it was a bit of a trendy thing to do, or just because loads recommended it so tried it. I really like them though for what I ride. The Minions slice through loose stuff at the front and keep the line rather than weave about in the loose, and the HR rolls well enough for me on the dry, power through the kind of crud we have round my way and grip well on the local roots.

Down at QE the other day, it was a lot more slippy stuff. The Minions were still fine even over the wet roots (as long as the pressure isn't too high), but the HR were slipping a fair bit on the roots when climbing. Still I just try to compensate in my riding, get the momentum and power right.

I know there are better things for particular terrain, but I find the combo good all year round, certainly locally and works fine for rocks in Wales, wet and dry.

DCR00

Northwind wrote:

OEM-spec mountain kings are gash. quote]

Agreed

I tried a 2.4 on the front for about 4 rides and it was sh*te. Washed out 3 times in one ride. Sure the Black Chilli versions are better.

Im a Minion convert now. Still rate Schwalbe tyres, but Minions are just awe inspiring (IMO). That said i havent used them in the Summer months yet. Was considering trying Ardents, but i figure if it aint broke, then dont fix it.

ilovedirt

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Because of different terrain. One tyre won't suit everywhere. Shocking, eh.

Granted, but I've found them to be a pretty good all round tyre.

bluechair84

High rollers and minions are st'll good tyres, especially for the money. They're a lot cheaper than Conti's!
Anyone seen or used the new Tioga Psychos? Marketing says they've got 'gecko inspired grip which moulds to the terrain offering both low rolling resistance and high grip depending on the direction the force is going in, driving or pulling' or something like that. Sounds great on paper, shame they're not made by anyone else as everything I've broken or hated was made by tioga...

ilovedirt

deadkenny wrote:

I know there are better things for particular terrain, but I find the combo good all year round, certainly locally and works fine for rocks in Wales, wet and dry.

My super tacky minions have worked wonders on wet rocks, roots, mud, loamy trails etc, absolutely love them. Just change the tyre pressure a little to suit. Just switched to maxxpro for the summer months and been running them for a few weeks at a slightly higher pressure, again faultless! Got a bit skittish up at moelfre this weekend, hardpack with some loose shaley stuff, but let a few PSI out and they were grand, barely broke loose all day. They've basically taken pretty much everything north wales can throw at them!

sloppycowpat

bluechair84 wrote:

High rollers and minions are st'll good tyres, especially for the money. They're a lot cheaper than Conti's!
Anyone seen or used the new Tioga Psychos? Marketing says they've got 'gecko inspired grip which moulds to the terrain offering both low rolling resistance and high grip depending on the direction the force is going in, driving or pulling' or something like that. Sounds great on paper, shame they're not made by anyone else as everything I've broken or hated was made by tioga...

they don't look like they would last very long based on the pics i've seen, last pair of tioga tyres i had where rubbish the sidewalls basically melted

that being said im still using some continental gravities because in had 3 sets and they wont wear out :roll: but my favorite tyres atm are probably maxis advantage 2.2 they seem to work really well with stands tubless kits

ilovedirt

I've got some advantages as well, they're a good all-round XC tyre, they roll well and grip well on hardpack. Pretty useless if you want to do anything more than that though.

leaflite

I currently run a maxxpro high roller/exception advantage combo. I agree that there are probably better tyres out there, but they have worked well all year round on everything I have ridden. I cant afford dropping £40 an end every few weeks in pursuit of the "ultimate tyre", so im just going to stick with what I know works.

Northwind

You'll never go too far wrong with a Minion tbh. Not really to my taste, I don't like how they slide, and they're not fast or light... But they'll do any job you ask of em pretty much.

lawman

Must admit I thought for a long time that nobby nics were the best all-round tyre around, light, grippy, fast rolling. But since I've moved to uni I've found them lacking alot of the time, particularly under braking and hard corners. they have zero braking grip and I'm going to put a hans dampf on the front to see if I can address the grip issue, and turn the nic round to see if it improves braking.

YeehaaMcgee

lawman wrote:

Must admit I thought for a long time that nobby nics were the best all-round tyre around, light, grippy, fast rolling. But since I've moved to uni I've found them lacking alot of the time, particularly under braking and hard corners. they have zero braking grip and I'm going to put a hans dampf on the front to see if I can address the grip issue, and turn the nic round to see if it improves braking.

Like I said, different places, different dirt, different tyres.

lawman

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

lawman wrote:

Must admit I thought for a long time that nobby nics were the best all-round tyre around, light, grippy, fast rolling. But since I've moved to uni I've found them lacking alot of the time, particularly under braking and hard corners. they have zero braking grip and I'm going to put a hans dampf on the front to see if I can address the grip issue, and turn the nic round to see if it improves braking.

Like I said, different places, different dirt, different tyres.

Yep, back home and on local trails they rock, through in some welsh mud and steeper trails and they suck!

ilovedirt

Did you go to BUCS this year lawman? What uni were you riding for? I'm sure I saw someone on an ibis mojo (I remember thinking that it definitely looked too nice to be a student bike )

lawman

Nope didn't go this year, can't remember why was a good weekend apparently, if you saw any guys in dennis the menace style jerseys they were from aberMTB from Aberystwyth uni, we had a good turn out, which is more than I can say for XC this year!

we have some seriously bling bikes here or some reason, although my mates NIner RDO susser sin't really his, lucky prick gets sponsored by niner and stans! (he is pretty damn rapid though, so I don't blame them for backing him!)

ilovedirt

Ahhh! We had a good chat with the aber lads, I'm at bangor, I believe a mates race between us is due to be organised! (I'm captain next year so I'll get on that). Spoke to a couple of lads, one of them was on a 24/7 dark angel, called tom? I think? And another guy, can't remember what he was on, called dan or something... There was much banter exchanged TBH we made a bit of a name for ourselves this year. If you read last month's dirt, that's us in the yellow t-shirts in the local section for wales! haha.

lawman

Yeah that's us! Will definitely have to get the mates races sorted, we're thinking of having ether an XC eliminater style race at nant y arian or if we get some decent timing kit and some volunteers, maybe a bit of a small "gravduro". The DH race we had organised just turned into a jam for us locals in the end Yeah saw the article, we're getting new jerseys next year, will look pretty good, or should do!