Another tyre thread... DH/AM?

lawman

Apologies for yet another tyre thread!

I'm going to start riding my local DH trails more on my 456, and as it's often a mudbath and very steep, my xc tyres just don't cut it. So i need some tyres that can handle steep, damp DH tracks but won't be useless in the dry.

Preferably folding and sub 1KG as I ride to the trails and they might be used for xc as well if I can't be bothered changing tyres. Was looking at Muddy Marys but not sure, anything similar out there, so 2.35ish, folding and preferably relatively cheap, so a pair for £50 would be great. don't really want to spend much more as I need another set of xc tyres as well.

rockmonkeysc

Muddy Mary's are a tight fit in the steel 456 frame but if the carbon frame has better clearance they would be ideal. Don't be fooled by the name though, the Muddy Mary is definitely not a mud tyre.
I would go for the Specialized Hillbilly, similar to Swamp Things which are my favourite wet weather DH tyre but not available anymore. Minions are also ok but don't clear sticky mud very well.
If your pushing hard on DH trails you will need dual ply tyres, especially on the rear of a hardtail but dual ply's are far too heavy for xc.

lawman

there's plenty of clearance I reckon with a 2.25 nobby nic in theres enormous room around the tyre. The trails are convenient for me if I'm short on time for an xc ride and not rocky at all, just loamy and damn steep, so punctures shouldn't be an issue.

rockmonkeysc

Muddy Mary's should be great. Just don't get the cheap hard compound ones, they're nasty.

lawman

Vertstars are £23 on bike discount, so tempted to get a pair, or possibly one for the front with a hans dampf for the back?

peter413

How about the Continetal Baron's? A pair is just over £60 from bike-discount so a little over your budget but they are great tyres. Some people say they are delicate but I have a thing for putting holes in tyres and so far haven't managed to yet. They handle everything so well, I haven't found anything where I was wishing I didn't have them on and I've ridden a lot of varying conditions and tracks from the steep, muddy, rooty, rocky and rutted natural tracks at Innerleithen, the DH stuff at Innerleithen that can get mighty slick when it's wet with the roots and big ruts to the normal trail centre stuff at Glentress, they handle it all great. They're maybe not as quick as some other tyres but I think it's worth it for the predictability and ability to handle such a variety of trail conditions and they still aren't too bad. They handle great in the day as well, somehow managed to find some dry gravel on the DH at Innerleithen and they were great, super predictable.

Plus they seem to last really well, I've got more than 10 rides on the rear and it still looks just like new. Honestly if I was told I could only run one set of tyres on each bike it would be 2.3 Baron's on the AM bike and 2.5 Der Baron's on the DH bike. I hardly ever even bother taking the front Baron off no matter what I'm doing nowadays. Even when it's super wet I don't find myself reaching for mud spikes on the AM bike anymore, something I would always be doing when I was running Minion's and Ardent's.

This is for the Black Chili model BTW, I have no experience of the non Black Chili.

lawman

My uni club are sponsored by Conti so will have a look at those. Despite this, Maxxis and Schwalbe seem to be the go to choice, but have never really spent time on minions or any maxxis tyre, but I am big Schwalbe fan, so was leaning towards the marys, but was unsure if they would be too big or too slow rolling.