Newbie. Tyre Choice and Q's

Kris1990

Hi All,

Got myself a giant Trance to get back into MTB.

Been down a few trials near where i stay.

Found my tyres to be very slippery.

Was advised by another trail rider of tyres he uses and swears by. (Rubber Queens)

However im wondering if there all cracked up to what they are?

Worth the change?

Also

my current tyre is 27.5x2.2

Can i put on 2.4" tyres? and if i do, am i required to change the inner tube to suit the wider tyre?

brianbee

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19738556#p19738556]Kris1990[/url] wrote:

Hi All,

Got myself a giant Trance to get back into MTB.

Been down a few trials near where i stay.

Found my tyres to be very slippery.

Was advised by another trail rider of tyres he uses and swears by. (Rubber Queens)

However im wondering if there all cracked up to what they are?

Worth the change?

Also

my current tyre is 27.5x2.2

Can i put on 2.4" tyres? and if i do, am i required to change the inner tube to suit the wider tyre?

It rather depends what tyre you have now, as if the RQs will be an improvement, but dont expect too much, mud is slippy as is grass,wet stone , leaves, wood, tree tree roots , in fact most of the trail is going to be slippy this time of year and no tyre is going to change that.

If the 2.4 will physically fit, you can fit one and use the old tube, but even I, a well known skinflint would buy a new one to go with a new tyre. im very dubious in the benefit of supper wide tyres other than cosmetics. They certainly wont stick to wet leaves any better than a normal size and make going through mud a lot more difficult

cooldad

Depends more on the model/compound of tyre.

Black Chili or nothing for Conti.

wilberforce

Before you splash the cash, have you tried experimenting with tyre pressures as that can have a big effect on ride and grip?

shindig

This could be down to tyre pressure vs rider weight. I'm about 10stone 5poungs and tun my tyres at 25 PSI. I use maxis ardent a on my hardtail and schwalbe nobly nick on the full sus.

HenryTheHoover

I am guessing you might have got Nobby Nic's on?

I recently bought a Giant Anthem SX and the issue I had with the Nobby nic is they were the thinner walled lite skin performance Nobby nic. It may be your bike has the same?

Half the time what I thought was my wheel slipping was actually the tyre deforming sideways. Pumping them up harder helped this but then they slipped more due to being too hard.

I now have put a Specialized Purgatory on which is much better due to the thicker sidewall but there are other decent tyres available which I am sure others will recommend

R.e. sizing I find a 2.2" from one brand can be as big or bigger than a 2.3" from another. It's worth googling actual widths.

step83

RQ's are good, I had one on the rear of my hard tail, like cooldad said, black chilli or nothing. the others just do not grip well.
Worth noting though they come up big, the 2.2 is closer to a 2.4.
In practice mine worked better at a low pressure i was about 14st an had the pressure about 25psi tubeless usually ran it firmer in the mud maybe upto 30psi.

I know they had to change the name of the tyre, its now something like mountain king of something

The Rookie

Your tyres are probably cheaply supplied OE ones with a very plasticky tread, you need a softer compound to grip well, especially once it gets wet (like if you sneeze), Black Chilli RQ's are good, but there are lots of other good tyres as well more suited to your Trance.