Oh no, tyres. For wet clay and slimness

slindborg

Argggghhh another tyre thread

So I lurve my norco charger 9.2, I don't lurve the geax aka 2.2's it has. They are made of acrylic, don't inspire much when leaning a tiny bit and come the wet clay round here they clog up and turn into fat tyres

I would like a decent tyre that will grip the clay/mud and be ok at somewhere like thetford as I might try and take part in the winter series at fun level. Also they want to be skinny, as the 2.2's have shag all clearence due to slinky stays.

Thoughts have been maxxis beavers and possibly the bonty mud.... Are they my only real answers in 29x2.0ish ?
Or if I went for a better mud range tyre would I be able to keep at 2.2 as the crud would shed from the tyre before getting to the stays and fork (I did have the whole bike lock up on one ride!)
I'm not overly fussed about needing more effort on Tarmac or dry so long as the wear isn't crazy.

The Rookie

Beavers for winter, for summer something like a Panaracer Fire XC pro, they do clog a little in clay but still seem to grip fine, the 2.1 comes up pretty narrow as well.

slindborg

We hasn't seen the panaracers, the fire xc pro looks rather knobbly too.... Might give them a whirl if any 29" ones can be found

peter413

I've found Contintal Baron's work pretty well in the wet clay on my local hills (anything short of a full mud spike usually has no hope in the wet) and they work really well on just about any other surface as well, not even overly bad on tarmac considering. I even found them better than Swapthing's.

Don't skimp on them though, get the Black Chili compound. They last far better, I honestly believe the carcass will disintegrate before the tread shows much wear. Unfortunately the smallest they come in is a 2.3 so maybe not an option for you.

Maybe a Schwalbe Dirty Dan or Maxxis Medusa? Honestly for clay I've found an actual mud spike is best and it's worth the effort swapping tyres for other surfaces. The Baron is the only "normal" tyre I've been happy with for wet clay and even that's still more on the DH/AM side of things. Maybe my local hills just have a special sort of clay though, it's very orange.

If clearance is an issue in the frame, consider getting a bigger tyre for the front, if I was in your situation I would get a 2.0 Dirty Dan for the rear and a 2.35 folding (still pretty heavy though) Vertstar Dirty Dan for the front. Won't roll well but will be more than worth it if most of your ride is on the wet clay, works really well in the Snow as well.

plasma_man

slindborg wrote:

We hasn't seen the panaracers, the fire xc pro looks rather knobbly too.... Might give them a whirl if any 29" ones can be found

From the USA only I think, would get them if it wasn't so much hassle.

http://store.interlocracing.com/irdfi29xcpro.html