29er tyres for damp weather

BikeSwan

I haven't had much experience with different tire brands but I have used a fair few tires from Schwalbe. I've used the Racing Ralph, Nobby Nic, and Rocket Ron.

Nobby Nic:
- Very grippy in damp conditions, but heavy and slow compared to others.

Racing Ralph:
- Not very grippy, but grippy enough to get round a wet race course without too much trouble. They are light though, and have very low rolling resistance.

Rocket Ron:
- Good grip in all conditions. Very fast, but not that durable. These are by far my favorite tire. Great combination of light weight, grippy nature, and low rolling resistance.

Hope that helps!

ilovedirt

I've recently started using Hans Dampfs on my 26er, though they make a 29" version. Great tyre for wet conditions, a bit draggy, but they really inspire confidence, really grippy on all surfaces, even roots and rock, rarely let go and clear really well. They also have the snakeskin sidewalls which means they deform really well over stuff without pinching. Great tyres, highly recommended.
I've not tried them in dry conditions yet, as the weather here in north wales is very rarely dry! But I've been riding them down the local techy downhill trails etc and they do really well as a sort of all mountain/trail tyre. Not sure how they'll be on hardpack, probably pretty good, just draggy. I'll find that out this saturday.

pilch

My 29er trail bike has Dampf on the front & ardent on the back, this combo works well in just about all conditions that I have tried it in: slimy, muddy Uk trail centres, rocky technical descents in Morocco and dusty/sandy South Africa.

Hugely impressed with the Hans Dampf for front end grip, it really hangs on and the Ardent tracks well with little rolling resistance... not the lightest of tyres but a great combination for nailing stuff fast with confidence.

Clank

pilch wrote:

My 29er trail bike has Dampf on the front & ardent on the back, this combo works well in just about all conditions that I have tried it in: slimy, muddy Uk trail centres, rocky technical descents in Morocco and dusty/sandy South Africa.

Hugely impressed with the Hans Dampf for front end grip, it really hangs on and the Ardent tracks well with little rolling resistance... not the lightest of tyres but a great combination for nailing stuff fast with confidence.

I've been pondering this very problem myself (the bike came with Rockets and they don't really work for me). From what Mr P has said, looks like I now have an interesting tyre combo to try out!

kenan

In the summer I ran Conti Mountain King 2's on the front and the Conti X-King on the back. When the weather turned the X-Kings were pants.

Got up a set of Maxxis Ignitors from ebay cheap and they have worked very well in the horrid weather we have had. I ride natural trails with lots of mud or a local trail centre where they have worked well. They roll well and I haven't run out of grip on my 100mm 29ER HT.

RandG

I got Hans Damps today and used them tonight, heavy tyres, but work really well on anything other than the road, but man are they slow on the road

ilovedirt

RandG wrote:

I got Hans Damps today and used them tonight, heavy tyres, but work really well on anything other than the road, but man are they slow on the road

Heavy?! Not heavy at all for what is essentially a dual ply tyre, weighs the same as a single ply wire bead.
But yeah, they're not so much fun on the road. But then riding on road isn't fun anyway.