On recommendation from a friend I replaced my very bald Schwalbe fat albert’s on my cove stiffee with some continental country mud (£7 from decathlon). He raved about them saying you don’t need expensive tyres just something narrow with wide spaced blocks to cut through and shed the mud. After a couple of rides I thought they were pretty rubbish but mainly due to riding on mud covered in wet leaves so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Last night I gave them a proper test on proper mud and hated every minute of the ride. I don’t think I have ever had less fun and less confidence on a bike. I ended up cutting short and leaving my mates to carry on. At the slightest hint of mud the bike wouldn’t stay in a straight line and would do its best to rotate 180deg. My bald Schwalbe’s had no grip when climbing (the main reason I changed them) and little grip when descending but at least I could predict what they would do and could control slides and drifts which I find fun. Don’t even get me started on when the trails had and roots. I ended up getting off and walking down trails I know and normally really enjoy even when very muddy.
I experimented with the pressure which hasn’t made any difference but anything lower that 35 and they squirm too much and you can feel rocks hitting the rim even at moderate speed resulting in a front puncture last night when descending path with a few small rocks sticking out.

They will be coming off tonight and I’ll be putting the bald ones back on for now until I can find an alternative, maybe muddy Mary’s.

I know they only cost £7 each and I didn’t expect them to be brilliant but how can a mud tyre be worse in mud than a non mud tyre with probably less than 1mm of tread?

Compound. Especially on roots.

some folk can ride on anything round and black.

some folk cant ride even on the best tires.

and most folk fall somewhere in between.

some folk can ride on anything round and black.some folk cant ride even on the best tires.and most folk fall somewhere in between.

This should be a sticky for every tyre thread .

Normally I would agree but I have been riding long enough and tried enough tyres to know what to expect but these were just awful.

I did read that mud tyre compounds are not normally very good on roots but I never thought I would have to get off and walk down a trail I have done many times before.

Speaking to mate about when he had his country mud it turns out they probably never saw proper mud. He used them for the surfaced trails on his long way home from work. Could of told me this before I bought them

anything from conti that isn’t black chili compound will be bad – no argument

mud tyres are also not good on roots either

some are much better than others though. I find my Beavers quite reasonable tbh. Bonty Mud-X werent bad so i assume the newer XR Mud would also be.

Trailrakers – great for claggy sticky mud, but on roots would try to maim me whenever i used them.

It’s not just down to the rider, some tyres are just absolutely rotten.

I tried those tyres that the OP is on about and they are shocking. As in unable to get climbing traction on a moderately inclined damp land rover track rotten.

Most other “decent” mountain bike tyres (even the £15 contis) have some amount of grip, even if they’re not the best.

Your experience mirrors mine with Michelin’s Country Mud’s. I had never fallen off so many times in such a short time. They lasted 2 rides before I switched back to Small Block 8s, at least with them I knew I when they were letting go and could surf the slide/wobble out. Not the XC muds.

Mud tyres tend to have big spikes. To avoid big spikes wearing too fast, it’s easy to make the compounds hard. This makes for lack of grip on roots.

More expensive compounds lead to more expensive tyres but do (or at least can) mean softer compounds that provide some grip on roots but don’t wear too fast.

and +1 on trail_rat.

low TPI & hard compound.

With tyres you get what you pay for. cheap tyres tend to be crap.

Unfortunately on this bike I have to compromise with the harder compound as I use it a lot to ride to work on when I’m going the long way home through the woods. For this bike expensive soft tyres don’t last long enough and the riding isn’t good enough to warrant expensive tyres.
I always use the expensive softer tyres on my other bikes but they tend to have a specific purpose e.g. playing off-road where they never see tarmac.
The performance line fat alberts that I was replacing were a good compromise and used to last ages whilst still having a decent amount of grip which belied the £12.99 price tag. I might just find some more of those.