Intermediate (erring to light mud) tyre advice

othello

Friends, I am after some intermediate tyre advice.

My son has been using X-One all rounds for his intermediate tyre, and then switching to X-One Bites when it got really muddy. Last year, that worked fine, but with a wetter CX season this year, he is after a middle ground.

If its a bit wet but not suitable for full muds, the X-One are getting a bit overwhelmed. The solution is to run them at a lower pressure, and he has more than enough skill to handle the lack of grip (at times). But by going low, and they are set-up tubeless, he is in danger of burping. In fact he did in a race on Sunday.

He needs an intermediate that is somewhere in-between -- something that can handle a bit of mud, but not full mud.

I guess the solution is a Baby Limus. But is there anything else?

imposter2.0

Sounds like the issue is more likely with the pressure, rather than the tread pattern. X Ones are about as good as anything else for that purpose, tbh. The 'actual' solution you are looking for is probably tubs...

tgotb

Hemel? Only two things mattered on that course: climbing ability (which was nothing to do with tyres and all about power:weight) and how fast you could take the corners, which was all about having confidence in your tyres; your speed on that part of the course was directly dependent on the amount of grip you could get, your technique, and not a lot else. A lot of the V40s were running muds, and no-one I spoke to afterwards regretted that decision.

I was on Limus at 23/24psi (88kg), and could still feel the tyres sliding out on a couple of the left-handers at the far end of the course. I didn't go any lower because I didn't trust them not to start squirming at the speeds we were cornering. I tried a couple of recce laps on intermediates (same pressure), and while they were fairly predictable, you couldn't push them quite as hard.

A few years ago I raced FMB Slaloms (which are a sort of intermediate/mud cross) on that course in very similar conditions, and they were surprisingly pants; I think I switched to Supermuds mid-race.

At those pressures, I think a decent tubeless setup would have been pretty much as good; you couldn't go much lower pressure because of the speeds we were cornering at. The general chat on treads was that no-one could see a scenario on that sort of course where you'd want to give up grip for lower rolling resistance.

othello

@TGOTB it was Popham (Wessex), which wasn't muddy, just a bit greasy in places.

Thanks for the thoughts, which I appreciate.

It does sound like pressure is the factor here. My son is under 50kgs and can therefore go a lot lower on pressures, as he is less likely to pinch on tubes, or burp (usually). But he does 'rip' the corners, and it's an area where he compensates for his small stature. Maybe we have been going too low on tubeless.

We were on 21psi front and back, which has usually been OK (as I said never burped in 2 years on the X-Ones at similar pressures), but maybe we need to be nearer the 24psi range just to be sure.

Obviously tubs is the way to go long term...