Tyresome talk - All things tyres

seaviewphotos

Similar to our road friends, I think would be a good idea to have one dedicated post for all things tyres. I need to replace my own soon and I've no idea what I should purchase, I've a 27.5 inch hardtail and mostly just cycle on forest paths. Current tyres are Continental X-King.

Dave.

rizzodun

For forest paths Continental Mountain King is what I used.

For usual mixture of Irish Forests, Schwalbe Hans Dampf are a good all rounder that handle the wet weather pretty decent.
Most popular setup for a mix of mud, roots and wet/loose stuff I've seen is probably a Maxxis Minion DHF on front for grip and a Maxxis High Roller on the rear for less rolling resistance.

Depends on where you ride I guess.

Wanderer78

Bike came with hans dampf on the rear and magic Mary upfront. Hans dampf ripped eventually but was a nice tyre, still have magic Mary, great tyre. Currently running mountain king on the rear, isn't too bad

bogmanfan

Personally I always favour grip over speed. Currently have a Maxxis Minion DHF on the front and a Maxxis Aggressor on the back. I've had High Rollers in the past and found them great, as are the Magic Marys. Only tyre I've hated were the WTB Wolverines that came on my old bike. Zero grip in the wet.

Tenzor07

I'll never go back to Schwobblies or ContiRiptals again, WTBleak maybe at a push...

Maxxis are your only man for regular off road use:

xxyyzz

I don't have OCD so I don't mind mixing brands. For max grip I have a magic Mary up front and a minion dhr 2 on the back. Perfect combo for natural forest trails but they are like anchors on pedally stuff.

seaviewphotos

Super info lads, thanks a mill. Just watched my first youtube video on tyres, thinking of going with maxxis ardent on the front and the aggressor on the back. Next challenge is to find them at a good price.

Dave.

JJJJNR

My 29er XTC is running specialized butcher and slaughter front and rear, the 29er trail bike has the 2018 specialized Hillbilly front and Maxxis Minion High Roller at the back. Finding specialized really good.

rizzodun

seaviewphotos wrote: »

Super info lads, thanks a mill. Just watched my first youtube video on tyres, thinking of going with maxxis ardent on the front and the aggressor on the back. Next challenge is to find them at a good price.

Dave.

Grip always on the front, as least resistance as possible on the rear.

To me it sounds like you have that backwards....

seaviewphotos

rizzodun wrote: »

Grip always on the front, as least resistance as possible on the rear.

To me it sounds like you have that backwards....

Yep, got that totally backwards. :D

Icyseanfitz

magic mary out front and nobby nick on the rear. Thinking of getting some proper mud tyres for the winter mind, maybe some maxxis shorty's or something

Tenzor07

seaviewphotos wrote: »

maxxis ardent on the front and the aggressor on the back..

You have that right, it's what I have used, though coming into the winter I have a Minion DHF on the front now...

nak

2.6 Butchers front and rear for me on my trail bike. Running ~15psi on the 29er, loads of grip.

Top Dog

Just remember to pay attention to your frame dimensions too - might not be able to fit much bigger. I've 2.25" on mine at the moment, and I don't think I can go any bigger than a 2.35" which means much fatter tyres are out in my case anyway.

Gerry

On the 29er xc bike I have a fairly aggressive setup, Nobby nic on front and rocket Ron on back. I find this is a great combo, enough grip for most situations and reasonably fast rolling. I did try an onza canis on the rear which was rubbish. The bike came with specialized fasttrak, one was an sworks which had amazing grip in the Shlomp, considering it is a low profile race tyre.
On the enduro bike I have magic Mary on the front and a high roller on rear. It came with high roller on front also which I did not like, felt like the bike was on a knife edge.

Icyseanfitz

What's yer go to utter slop tyre setup out of interest?

prunudo

Anywhere doing good deals of tyres at the moment?

rizzodun

Alltricks.com usually have some good prices.

JJJJNR

The specialized tyres are great value, think they retail at 60 each, even less on bike24/

xxyyzz

I found the specialized tyres great but they punctured very easily. The sidewalls tend to be very thin. I don't know how many butchers I punctured at BPI

Wanderer78

xxyyzz wrote:

I found the specialized tyres great but they punctured very easily. The sidewalls tend to be very thin. I don't know how many butchers I punctured at BPI

Bike park is a **** for punctures

rizzodun

xxyyzz wrote: »

I found the specialized tyres great but they punctured very easily. The sidewalls tend to be very thin. I don't know how many butchers I punctured at BPI

Running tubeless?

I've never seemed to have a problem at The Gap or BPI with punctures.

Wanderer78

rizzodun wrote:

Running tubeless?

What needs to be done to change over to tubeless, my rims and tyres are tubeless ready?

Tenzor07

Wanderer78 wrote: »

What needs to be done to change over to tubeless, my rims and tyres are tubeless ready?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI9DM34LHAo

xxyyzz

rizzodun wrote: »

Running tubeless?

I've never seemed to have a problem at The Gap or BPI with punctures.

Yep tubeless

nak

xxyyzz wrote: »

I found the specialized tyres great but they punctured very easily. The sidewalls tend to be very thin. I don't know how many butchers I punctured at BPI

3 years for me and not a single puncture. Have heard people who race downhill found the grid casing a bit weak. New Butcher with black diamond casing is tougher.

steamsey

MTB tyres I'll never buy again are any Specialized or Continental tyre. They never lasted and ripped to shreds. I went through every Specialized and Conti MTB tyre there is when I was riding the XC bike and they caused no end of misery. I swore off them years ago.

Had a High Roller recently which buckled after a minor crash, but obviously Maxxis are well regarded so I'm not writing them off.

I've finally settled on Schwalbe Hans Dampf rear and Magic Mary front. WTB Vigilante is also a nice front. I think the ones I have now have the Addix compound. 18 months in and no issues with these tyres (I'm going to regret saying that)

Anyone MTBing who hasn't gone tubeless - go tubeless! It's worth doing for the lack of punctures. Don't bother doing it if your rims and/or tyres are not tubeless - I tried it years ago on non tubeless rims and it seemed to work but the tyre would roll off on any turns. If you've the right gear - it works wonders and is so easy to do yourself.

Macy0161

Is going tubeless worth attempting on the 650b Mavic xm319 rims that came with my Boardman FS? I didn't have the funds to attempt it when I got it, and went with slime tubes, but coming into the winter I am tempted to give it a go. Google seems to be suggesting mixed results, so any recommendations for tyres to try it with?

steamsey

Macy0161 wrote: »

Is going tubeless worth attempting on the 650b Mavic xm319 rims that came with my Boardman FS? I didn't have the funds to attempt it when I got it, and went witjh slim tubes, but coming into the winter I am tempted to give it a go. Google seems to be suggesting mixed results, so any recommendations for tyres to try it with?

I'm not sure those are tubeless rims. They seem to be about €30 new, so very entry level. The lack of info online about them tells a story. Honest answer is I wouldn't bother. I've been there and tried to get it to work with rims that were not tubeless ready and it nearly put me off mountain biking until I got proper tubeless rims and haven't looked back since. With that said - it's pretty cheap to try it and you never know - it might work, but probably not.

For comparison - the DT Swiss XM 481 would be decent rims - €108 each. Stans ZTR Flow EX rims about €70 each but I just wrecked one of these and won't get them again. Thought they were stronger than they are. Seems like you want a nice inside width on your rims these days - 30mm or so - those XM319s are 19mm inside width it seems.

Plenty of good tyre recommendations here - everyone has different experiences with same tyres but I think you can't go wrong with the new Addix compound Schwalbe tyres - something like a Nobby Nic for normal trail riding, Magic Mary for muddier stuff....

Macy0161

Seems to be 50-50 as to whether it works. I'll have a nose around wheelsets - I'm not sure I really do enough to justify a new wheelset to be honest though!

rizzodun

I’ve converted two wheel sets to tubeless, it’s not that difficult in my opinion.

Getting the right tyres does help, Maxxis tend to have a tighter bead.

steamsey

rizzodun wrote: »

I’ve converted two wheel sets to tubeless, it’s not that difficult in my opinion.

Getting the right tyres does help, Maxxis tend to have a tighter bead.

It's not difficult at all. Once you have the right bits. it's one of the easiest upgrades you can do at home. It's just that if your rims (and tyres of course) are not tubeless compatible, there's a fair chance tubeless won't work reliably and you'll be pulling your hair out in no time.

I remember going tubeless with some really **** Mavic rims years ago. Tyre rolled off the rim on a berm one night at Ticknock. Apart from the crash, I then had the pleasure of trying to put a tube in with everything covered in Stans fluid and pine needles. Minging work and just not worth it. Went back to tubes with that wheelset. Next bike had more modern rims that were tubeless ready and never had an issue with them.

Essentially to go tubeless you need rim tape, Stan's presta valve, Stan's fluid. That's it. Cost is probably €40 for two wheels. Once you know how to do it - probably takes 15 mins per wheel - something like that.

rizzodun

I should’ve clarified, I’ve converted two non tubeless wheelsets to tubeless.

Gorilla tape, and valves from a tube, plenty of sealant, and an air compressor.

Alek

I've converted 2 non-tubeless wheelsets (19mm int. width) and non-tubeless sets of tyres (2.4'' and 35mm) with the ghetto/split tub method.

I find it as good as dedicated tubeless setups I run today, when it comes to reliability - the tube goes around the bead and offers additional sealing.

One of them is still being ridden by the new bike owner and all he needed in a year is to top up the sealant through the valve once.

Note I'm far from being an aggressive rider these days, so don't really throw myself in corners like there's no tomorrow. But I never had an issue in my cyclocross racing days, well, one single burp in the whole career, in a small crash

steamsey

Well there you go OP - two users who have converted non tubeless to tubeless successfully using the ghetto method - sounds like it's worth a go

xxyyzz

nak wrote: »

3 years for me and not a single puncture. Have heard people who race downhill found the grid casing a bit weak. New Butcher with black diamond casing is tougher.

Yeah it was the grid compound I was using.

Macy0161

steamsey wrote: »

Well there you go OP - two users who have converted non tubeless to tubeless successfully using the ghetto method - sounds like it's worth a go

Yeah, watched a couple of videos on it last night, might be the weekend project alright.

emeraldmtb

My Enduro bike currently has a Maxxis Shorty on the front and a Maxxis Aggressor on the back. I tend to run that all year round. I have run a Hans Dampf/Nobby Nic combo before but found them a little less supportive in the slop, although the HD would probably have less wear on it than my Shorty does after the dry months this year.

On the tubeless note, I converted my first set of rims 4 years ago, and never had an issue with any, although I do think all the rims I've used were listed as tubeless ready/friendly/etc.
I've found going around the rim with the tape multiple times creates a nice well for the tyre to sit into. And use plenty of sealant to coat the inside of the tyre, especially the first time. Maxxis tyres have always gone on without issue for me, Schwalbe tyres have been harder to get seated and take more work/muscle.

steamsey

Yeah I mean the ghetto conversion defo works, and people are saying it works on a non tubeless intended rim so that's good to know. I tried it years ago - it was non ghetto so to speak (so all official Stans stuff) on a non tubeless Mavic rim and it was a disaster in my case. I nearly sold the bike until I went back to tubed and then eventually got a bike with proper rims.

I just think that if I'm going out on the bike, and especially racing, I want to know the tyre is as close to 100% as it can be and not going to burp off. I'd do ghetto method, but only on a tubeless intended rim.

Never had an issue seating Schwalbes - Hans Dampfs, Magic Marys, Nobby Nics... the key is a really bloody good tyre iron

Gerry

I've done ghetto tubeless twice, once on dt Swiss rims which seemed to work really well, and more recently on my giant pxc2 rims . That has been a bit tougher, I've not been let down on a spin or in a race but sometimes after being left for a while they've lost seal and had to be retaped probably three times between the two wheels.. That bike will be treated to some new rims anyway. The difference on the enduro bike which has proper tubeless rims (wtb i25) was shocking, took serious effort to remove the tyre from the rim when changing.
Re setting up I found most filling stations no longer have suitable compressor so I bought an airshot - it just works