Tyre advise - slate doesn't like me!

Babbage

Hi there all,

I live in Leicester, and was up at Switherland woods giving it its first real run around at the weekend. There's quite a bit of slate up there. As my tyre found out when it was literally ripped in half.

I'm new to mountain biking - seems to be a rather large world of tyres out there and I'm already confused at what to replace with.

I need to get a replacement but I am wondering if the tyres that come with the bike are the best choice for replacements...

Voodoo bizango - Maxxis Ardent 29x2.25 tyre w/ Wire Bead

I tend to use a bike for anything and everything - road/pavement/bmx track/muddy fields/woodland/slate laden switherland woods/will be hitting Cannock chase soon

Does anyone have any recommendations please? Or just get some more of what I had!

Thanks

The Rookie

If you are cutting through the sidewalls you either need a heavier duty tyre with tougher/thicker sidewalls or to ride in such a way that it reduces the risk, the Ardents don't have a particularly vulnerable sidewall (not like my lightweight Schwalbe Ron/Ralphs for sure!)

Most decent tyres work well at Cannock as most the surface is compacted pebbles, so it's mostly down to a decent compound to get grip (Schwalbe EVO, Conti Black Chilli etc).

Babbage

Went through the sidewall and main face of tyre

Babbage

I understand you can get Kevlar reinforced tyres too - I don't know that helps much!

Chunkers1980

You can get dual ply and chamber tyres - they will help! But like everything in bikes it's all a trade off to weight.

The Rookie

Babbage wrote:

I understand you can get Kevlar reinforced tyres too - I don't know that helps much!

Kevlar bead is common, doesn't help strength at all.

Chunkers1980

You can get a Kevlar belt though - i.e. under tread.

The Rookie

You can, but that isn't common and doesn't (of itself) help the sidewall, maybe my post wasn't clear, I was trying to say don't think a Kevlar bead means its stronger, not that you couldn't get Kevlar reinforcing....

WhipIt

Did you ride that big, heavily slated bombhole at the top next to the quarry fence? If so I'd just avoid that and not worry about your tyres, the slate is a bit savage. I've ridden it a couple of times without tyre trouble but did get a massive piece of slate chucked up into my carbon downtube which made a hell of a bang. I've avoided it since!

The rest of the place is great and not too slatey. I ride there frequently on Rocket Rons (quite thin) and have had only one puncture.

I have, however, changed to rocket ron snakeskins recently due to welsh slate! Ardents should be really tough though?

Babbage

No it wasn't that bit (fun as that is, there's a nice figure of 8 you can do going down towards the quarry fence, U-turn to the left 3/4 of the way up, through the woods up to the fence then all the way down and back up to the start)

This was the area just to the side and down a bit from there - on the right where you can get some real big air coming out of it

I decided to try some maxxis ardent Kevlar exo's - only the entire country seems out of stock of them right now!

Dirtydog11

Schwalbe do Snakeskin and Double Defense, Continental do their Protection series and Maxxis do EXO protection ie;Ardent EXO, all are designed to help reduce the risk of sidewall penetration from sharp rocks.