Tyre wear

dabber

Being a relative mtb newbie I waswondering how best to guage tyre wear and when to replace.

I'm running WTB Vigilante High Grip Comp 2.3" front and WTB Trail Boss Comp 2.25" rear on a Bossnut. I've done about 800 miles on them. Mixture of road (I ride to all my local trails - Swinley, Tunnel Hill, Porridgepot, Minley, Frith, Ash Ranges), obviously some fire roads, single track, muddy, rooty.
They look OK to me but being knobblies I'm not sure how worn down the knobbly bits should be before I think about changing them.
I'm happy enough with how well they're performing but noticed a bit more side slip recently.
Any thoughts?

reaperactual

If your happy with the less grip for now and feel safe riding on them leave it a little longer during dry weather and be careful. If you don't feel safe on them buy new ones a.s.a.p.

When you get to low knobbles on tread you may pick up punctures more frequently (If you are using inner tubes) and once I get a couple in a short space of time I shop around for a good deal and change as soon as I find suitable replacements.

dabber

So far, so good regarding punctures. The trails I'm riding are pretty dry at the moment and the general grip stilll seems pretty good (given my mtb novice skills) so I'll see how it goes for the moment.

steve_sordy

If the centre tread is a bit low but the edge knobs are still good, then you have the perfect tyres for the Summer! If you like the tyres and can't think of anything better then replace them before the wet season starts.

On my Whyte T130, and similar trail bikes before that, I eventually discovered that the Continental Trail King 2.2" wide were extremely good. They had loads of grip and amazingly also lasted ages when not riding rock or tarmac all the time. I got 3000 miles out of one set and my grandson was still using them when I sold his bike and they still had good tread on them. It is important that you get the Conti TKs with the black chilli compound (BCC). They do not do BCC with a wire bead. Conti are very proud of their BCC tyres, so if it does not say BCC in the advert, then it isn't.

2.2" may sound narrow. I used to ride with Maxxis Ignitor 2.35 and also Maxxis High Roller 2.4". The Conti TK is a big tyre and it compared very well with both of those. The tyre also comes in 2.4" width but it is a monster of a tyre! I was so happy with the tyres that eventually I bought three sets. I also had the precursor, the Rubber Queen (not a good name to sell in the USA apparently!)

dabber

Thanks Steve. All good points. I'll check the centre tread versus edge knobs in the morning.

dabber

Checked the centre versus edge knobblies as you suggested Steve.
On the front both the centre and edge look fairly similair (and maybe a bit low) in wear so I suspect I may want to think about changing that soon. On the back the edge ones look a lot better than the centres.

steve_sordy

Sounds like you have been using the rear brake too much. I didn't realise that I did it until I developed an annoying but very loud brake squeal on the rear brake that refused to be solved (long story). Because I hate noise from the brakes, I pretty much stopped using the rear brake unless the alternative was crashing into something. The result was that I used the front brake a lot more. By the time that rear brake episode was over, I was cured!

Before you go replacing the tyres, especially as we are in the dry weather season, ask yourself if you are unhappy with your grip? If not then take your time and either buy some now cheaply for later, or just don't buy any until you need to do so.