Currently running a HD on the rear as well but I’d just like something a bit faster and lighter. Needs to have strong sidewalls, Nobby Nic snakeskin seems the obvious choice from Bike-Discount.de for £32-ish although I’m not sure whether to go 2.25 or 2.35. They’re also not that much lighter and I’ve read some complaints about very fast wear. Would like to give tubeless a go as well so tubeless ready would be a bonus. Any recommendations or votes for the Nobbys?

Nobby’s work well, that’s the set up I’ve currently got and been running over the winter. But as we’re moving into summer and hopefully drier conditions, I’ll probably stick a Rocket Ron on the back. I’m keeping the HD up front, it’s brilliant. I’m sure there are other alternatives, but the Schwalbe setup is pretty good.

You on the Trailstar, or the quicker Pacestar on the back?

HD on front Snakeskin Racing Ralph on rear here. Top combo.

IMO the weight of the HD’s not worth the grip for XC/ST and it deadens the trail a bit too. Nic + Ron for me, 2.25.

Trailstar front, pacestar rear, would still like something quicker

Perhaps I’m being thick but how do you have a faster rolling tyre on the back. Surely both wheels roll at the same speed? Variation in grip I get, variation in speed I don’t.

Snakeskin Ralph on the back

Perhaps I’m being thick but how do you have a faster rolling tyre on the back. Surely both wheels roll at the same speed? Variation in grip I get, variation in speed I don’t.

It’s just another way of saying less rolling resistance, i.e for the same effort a less grippy compound or tread pattern should be faster. Obviously some things help both grip and rolling resistance, like high TPI casings and light weight. A lot of people like to run a ‘faster rolling’ rear tyre as it does less work in the corners, and uphill when it is doing the lions share of the work it’s heavily loaded.

My point is if you have a HD on the front having an RR for example wouldn’t roll any faster because it is limited to the speed of the slower tyre. Rolling resistance is only going to be as good as your slowest tyre, if that makes sense. Obviously if you had two RR on one bike versus a bike with two HDs then there would be noticeable difference.

Jeza-Put a 40a Mud spike on the front and a slick on the back and report back with your findings 😉

If you have two slow / resistive tyres on then you have more resistance to overcome, its a cumulative effect.
Therefore if you reduce the resistance of one tyre (by changing it) you reduce the total resistance in the system.

Most of the rolling resistance comes from the rear tyre, it’s more or less proportional to the load on the tyre and the rear is usually carrying at least 50% more load than the front so you can make a big difference to how fast the bike rolls by swapping the rear for a faster rolling tyre.

Nobby Nic 2.25 Snakeskin here due to clearance issues with the HD. No regrets tbh, the HD on the rear has always been overkill except for when I did FOD DH in the wet.

Leave it on the front all the time now though.

Also +1 for rolling resistance being nearly all about the rear tyre.

Thanks bigyinn and robinlaidlaw that does make sense, I just couldn’t picture it like that. I run a lesser tread for my rear tyre but that’s more to do with cornering and how I like my bike to feel, never associated with it actually being quicker.

Now its drier, consider putting the pace star HD on the front and a pace star snakeskin Racing Ralph on the rear. Constantly amazed by what it can do.

Racing Ralph looks interesting SO, have you run yours tubeless? Few whinges on CRC reviews about them not sealing well

I’ve been tubeless for years now. The trick is to make sure you get the right one with snakeskin walls, not the silly paper thin sidewalls. I find it weeps a bit of clear fluid which shows up as damp patches about the size of a coin around the tread, but pressure holding is fine, as per any other tubeless tyre.

HD front
NN rear, both snakeskin & both tubeless
Ace

Those of you running NN rears, do they roll noticeably better than HD’s?