Hello all,

I usually ride anything from fire roads to natural trails through some local forests not much in the way of rocky stuff and I’m looking to replace my front tyre as its starting to loose quite a bit of grip, not sure if its the tyre or me getting more confident on the bike and going a bit quicker.

Anyway the tyre im replacing is a Hans Dampf ( really like how fat the tyre is)and I have a conti X-king on the rear. I’ve done a bit of reading up on tyres over the last couple of days but I think that’s just confused me all the more. I was going to go for a conti mountain king up front but thought id ask for some opinions first.

Not worried about make but 26″, wide and tubeless would be nice.

Cheers

Davie

Wtb vigilante or a Maxxis Shorty

Not full on mud tyres but great in slop and not too draggy

Cheers for the reply Bob,

I was originally looking at the shorty but never thought on the vigilante.

If you like the Hans Dampf, and you like the volume, I’d say you won’t like the shorty or vigilante as much as a Magic Mary.

It clears way better than the HD, is way more grippy, barely noticeable that it’s gripper on climbs. It is high volume, comfy.

The downside is durability isn’t great, it’s the same as the HD really. But if you’re not slamming into catch berms, you’ll do fine.

CRC are the cheapest at the moment. Trailstar, snakeskin.

Trail King if you want to go Conti both ends.

What @rickon said, anything but the mountain king. The trail king 2.4 has the most volume and the magic mary has the most grip and also plenty of volume.

As it’s been so dry I’ve just changed my magic mary on the front to a maxxis dhf 2.3 and it looks pretty pathetic in comparison.

Shorty, Vigilante, Magic Mary, all cracking tyres.

New 2.8 Mary is gonna be fun!.

I’ve recently taken a punt on something a bit different,the new fat albert front.I was looking for something with a more comfortable volume for winter hardtail and still be able to roll on roads and paths between woods and deal with winter conditions.I’m absolutely loving it so far-fantastic grip over/through all the loose autumn debris that’s covering the trails at the mo.
Dry as a bone here at the mo,so real test will be when winter turns up.

26 Fat Albert Front

The fat albert looks interesting, that tread is a bit of a brain twister for a monday morning though!

Bontrager XR4

That link for the 26er fat albert is misleading,Schwalbe don’t appear to make the new one in 26 so ignore that.
Shame it could of been a good winter option :

I’m also on 26 inch.

If you like the Hans Dampf up front then try the new Nobby Nic 2.35 TrailStar SnakeSkin up front (and rear for winter). Clears much better than the Hans Dampf (still got 4 on the garage wall) and sticks like a mini Magic Mary. Climbs up anything at the rear too. Awesome tyres the new Nic in TrailStar. Really rating them. I’ve been through so many tyres in the last year and the Nic TrailStar is the best all rounder.

I’ve got a set of SuperGravity Mary / Hans Dampf for DH and they’re just unreal for low PSI and grip. But for everyday AM / Trail / XC a set of Nobby Nics is awesome. Surviving North Wales sharp rocks anyway. I’m running them 22/25PSI tubeless. Had a set since January and they’ve been on and off the bike. One bike kept a Nic up front most of the year – never let me down. Both bikes on Nics now.

Stay away from the Conti MK2 BC PT 2.4 when it’s wet. I tried it with an X-King rear in the summer – as soon as it rained it tried to kill me. Never again.

I went to look again at the new Fat Albert front/rear specific as I thought it was 650B only and it does look like an excellent tyre but it’s just not available in 26 which is a shame. If it does come out in 26 I’d buy a set.

I’d also pick up a SuperGravity Nobby Nic in 26 if they do one for rear summer duties. They keep prototyping it on EWS bikes… hopefully they’ll make it to production. I guess they won’t do 26 though.

@gelert Last year I went from a der baron project to a nobby nic trailstar on the front. The thing that stood out was crapping myself at any high speed corner when the ground was muddy, the der baron was just on a different level. The nobby rolled a lot better though and preferred it on the back with a hans dampf at the front. If the nobby had the corner lugs like a magic mary or rock razor then that would be awesome.

@acidtest which version of the Nic was it? The 2015/2016 version has much bigger supported side knobs and feels to me very much like a mini Magic Mary (which I rode around on up front for 12 months).

The Hans Dampf is pretty good too (rode those around all year on one bike before the new Nic came out) until it’s muddy when it just clogs up. The Nic seems to fare better in mud but is equally better at everything else too. So far anyway – almost a year on off riding them.

Nobby Nic…the new one, the old one was lethal.
Magic mary…maybe overkill for your riding.
Shorty…same again, maybe too much.
HR2 is good.
WTB Vigilante but similar vein to Shortys and Marys…very aggresssive.

Trail King in 2.4 lovely volume, not too agressive tread, could be perfect.

Dual compound chunky monkey?

High roller 2 in 3c and 2.4in?

I’m with acidtest on the Nics,the 26er ones were great when they were upright terrible when you need to rely on them when leaned over or to hold a line off camber or through furrows.I think they were the only expensive set of tyres I actually took back off the bike,they were so unnerving. Now if they had a decent cornering edge on them…..they would be quite a tyre.

I did initially believe the Nic was too flimsy and it didn’t make it onto my 160 bike until last month. I tried all the other tyres on the 160 bike swapping brands and treads many times all year. The trail bike tried a few different rear tyres too but having ridden the trail bike everywhere with Nics on and not had a fail I decided the 160 should get them too. Not had any scares yet.

I don’t think I’ll do any DH on the Nics, they’re not for that and I have much better tyres for that already. I’m giving them a thrash on the 160 over winter though this year.

I’ve trashed/flatted/won’t-re-seal a few Maxxis DHR 2’s on the rear but I think it’s down to pot luck really. The Nic is doing rather well for it’s low weight.

My all time favourite do it all combo is TrailStar Mary up front with a Maxxis DHR 2 3C out back (both trail versions not DH). The new Nic both ends is sitting a very close 2nd right now.

I wouldn’t use a nobby on the front again, there’s too many other tyres that do the job better. For the weight they’re really tough and less gap between the tread compared to the DHR2.

I guess it depends on how fast you’re cornering. Most tyres are ok at around 30kmh but when you’re hitting over 40kmh there’s only 3 tyres I trust: Der baron projekt, magic mary and DHF. I’m sure there’s others but they’re what I have experience with. The hands dampf is close but it’s a bit squirmish at it’s limit of around 35khm lent over on hard pack.

You’re in a league above @acidtest.

The best I’ve averaged for a decent but very narrow windy single track “stage” descent of 1km length is 34km/h where I did just hit 41km/h on the straightest steepest bit but I’m not cornering at 40km/h. I’ve done that trail with both Mary up front and Nic up front.

That’s the best/fastest I’ll ever be going at peak fitness and best trail conditions.

I don’t think I’ll be cornering at 40km/h ever.

All depends on the trail and conditions. There’s a trail called time tunnel at Newlands corner in the surrey hills, it’s one of my favourite fast ones around here. On my fastest run the average speed was 39kmh and top speed 50kmh, it’s a natural trail with no big corners. There’s one narrow part that you hit at around 40kmh and just take off whether you like it or not! Here’s the segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/9601861?filter=overall

Swinley’s a good place to ride berms fast. Blue 14 my average speed is about 34kmh and top speed on the bottom berm is about 45-48kmh, you have to hit the berm right at the very start otherwise it’s too much of a turn in and impossible to carry the speed as the bike just wants to carry momentum over the side. Segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/8177157?filter=overall

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bW19EcJ-2I[/video]

Wow loads of replies!

I spent a while (again) reading about tyres last night and had decided on the Magic Mary, it’s actually sitting in the cart in CRC as I type this but I thought I’d go back and see if there’s any more replies on the thread!

Probably go for the Magic Mary or Trail king

Cheers again for all the replies

Davie

Never get bored of a good tyre thread!

Looks like good fun @acidtest.

Totally different trails those. Not going to see any G forces around the turns on my favourite trail.

A loose rocky fern-heather-lined narrow rut (at best) for 1km with 100m descent (can be extended but into more techy slower stuff). It’s exposed to wind and horizontal rain/snow with all but a few tall bushes / small trees here and there. No berms but a few small natural take offs landing into ruts and narrow rock gaps to guide tyres between or crash if even slightly offline. Loose stones on slightly off camber corners which can really test your nerve at speed.

Shows how useless a tyre thread is on here though. It really depends what kind of riding you’re doing or have locally.

For day to day riding I need a sticky compound rubber to cling onto wet / mossy rocks and roots on techy climbs and grab any available grip on loose stoney corners with muddy patches in ruts but also survive Welsh slate and sharp rocky scree plus also get me across muddy heather moorland to access further away trails.

Still we do agree that one of the best tyres available is the Magic Mary up front. If you had only one set of tyres available to you and you wanted to be sure it’d work everywhere you went… I have and would ride a Mary up front every single time with a Hans Dampf or Nobby Nic out back you couldn’t go far wrong.

Yeah Swinley’s good fun, it’s not extreme but you can blast around it pretty easily and it’s a good place to chase KOMs. It’s busy, if you stack it badly someone will find you pretty soon. Definitely completely different terrain to what you’re riding, other than a few roots and braking bumps Swinley is pretty well manicured. For the most part the mary is overkill but it’s nice to have the grip on tap when needed. I’ll be back on the mary and nobby when the weather turns and riding the surrey hills again.

The main things about the hans dampf you have is that they’re very cloggy- the tread fills up with mud easily and stops working entirely. And a nasty combination of fast wear, and being dependant on their square tread to work. So as soon as the edges wear off the blocks, they go off and lose a ton of grip. IMO it’s a pretty poor tyre overall.

But if you basically like the tyre when it works then it’s pretty much in the same class as the Minion, Trail King, and similar. The question then is, do you actually need a slower, grippier tyre like a Shorty- or would you be OK with a better take on the allrounder tyre you have now?

Minion DHF 3C. I have mine on front all year round.
Blocky so clears quite well, 3C grippy and newer Maxxis size up better than previous years.