Went out a few days ago and really struggled on some of the climbs due to the mud. I have a 29er with Nobby Nics on both at the moment with tubes.

A few of the guys I was with recommended swapping to Maxxis Beavers, so I went to my local LBS. They don’t keep Maxxis, but recommended Schwalbe Fat Alberts instead.

Price wise, the Fat Alberts are £50 a tyre from LBS and I can get the Beavers for £30-35 if I buy online.

So, question is, are the Fat Alberts as good as the Beavers?

I have a Stans tubeless kit arriving in a couple of days and was planning on keeping it until the summer, but open to options/recommendations

Not seen any reviews on the 2016 Fat Albert yet.They are totally different for this year and have a front and rear specific version. Look like they might work Ok. Had proplems in the past tearing knobs with Schwalbe tyres and run a Shorty/Minion Dhf combo for winter duties. The Beavers size up a little small for me.

Why bother?

We’re coming to the end of the mud now

Your Nics should be OK

50 quid for tyres is bollox a 20 quid chunky monkey up front will do better than. Nns in the mud (if you have the clearance)

Shorty would be my choice

As said its coming to the end of the mud season so not sure I’d bother however why not look at the storm control which is newly released in 650B and they also do a 29″ version. I have them on the hardtail in the wyre forest and they’re bob on!

If you have your heart set on a mud tyre, try £24 Bontrager Mud 29 from Evans

Fat Albert isn’t a mud tyre, or anything like one

Maxxis beaver are good and can be had at a reasonable price. pretty light too. Think tey are about £30 on nextdaytyres

Why bother?

We’re coming to the end of the mud now

You hope!

You didn’t really say what sort of riding. Fat Albert is an allrounder not a mud tyre but would probably be better than an older Nobby Nic (don’t know about the latest but there’s never been a good Nobby Nic before that…)

Beaver is good though. Much less sacrifice than say a Bonty Mud or Storm, but still good mud performance though, makes more sense for all but ploughed field plodding imo. My policy is, if a full on XC mud tyre like a Mud X is the right tyre, then it’s the wrong riding.

I run Bonty muds all year and they roll really well in the dry.

Fat Albert isn’t a mud tyre, or anything like one

Glad someone pointed this out.

Are you riding predominantly dirt-based trails? Get some Beavers from the web, Germans or French will probably do you a pair for £50 or £60.

Alltricks.com for Maxxis with code PNMAR for 10% off

Thanks all.

My riding is mostly around the South Downs or Hindhead on the trails and bridalways and at QE park.

I’m still new to mountain biking and realise that a lot of my troubles are probably skill based rather than equipment, but every little helps 🙂

TBH, it sounds like the shop were recommending what they had in stock rather than what you need

Front – http://www.alltricks.com/mtb/tyres-tubes/tyres/maxxis-shorty-mtb-tyre-26×230-foldable-3c-exo-protection-tl-ready-tb73309100-470-186510.html

Rear – http://www.alltricks.com/mtb/tyres-tubes/tyres/maxxis-minion-dhr-ii-mtb-tyre-26-foldable-dual-exo-protection-tubeless-ready-foldable-470-269300.html

And 10% off with PNMAR

Edit – just realised I assumed you were on 26″ tyres…. but those are available in 29 and 27.5 too

Bonty MudX is a brilliant tyre and yep they roll well too. I’ve a pair of Maxis Beavers which are good too but be careful to check the strength of the sidewall. I managed to pick a set which were a bit thin and tore one of them.

op – hindhead is my back yard. I’m running spec purgatory on the rear and maxxis shorty on the front …. spot on for mud around here. alternative front is a spec hillbilly. pop in to see tom at tamed earth hind head or cycleworks in haslemere/peters field to see what they have. JC

I always used NN in olden days when we rode 26ers.
On my 29er I originally went for Bonty Mud X on back and NN on front and was pleased with that set up.
When it came to replace them I went for Beavers all round. I think they are better overall in very muddy conditions, but it is a close call.

Hindhead and the surrounds does not need a mud tyre. The soil is sandy, so an all rounder will be fine there. QECP on the other hand…can be very muddy, or slippy, or both. But again something like a storm will be better all round than a mud x most of the time. But in true claggy south downs mud, then the mud x is great.

tbh, I would go tubeless with the nobby nics for extra grip/speed, and put up with a bit of slip n’ slide for a bit as most of your ride will be fine on the nics.

Never ridden the Beavers but generally prefer the predictability of the schwalbes especially the Fat Alberts in all kinds of terrain from smooth bike park to back country to slop. You’ll probably notice a big difference just going tubeless on the NN’s. Although it’s tending to dry up out there we’ve had some heavy rain the last few days and the already wet ground is returning to its wintery norm slop. Tyres can make a huge difference to how the bike handles, but it’s rare anyone gets the opportunity to try different tyres on the same bike on the same day in the same conditions to make a fair comparison. I prefer the predictability in loose conditions of the FA’s whilst others seem to blindly trust maxxis to reliably do their thing. I’ve gone from oem HRII’s -> Hans Dampfs which for me was a huge improvement and now looking at the FA’s for more performance especially when leant over (been riding 26″ FA’s since 2011 & now have a 650b).

I’ve ridden beavers sometime ago and then went for magic Mary and love them however too big a profile for my hardtail so I got a set of the newly in 27.5 specialised storm control I think they’re called and actually really rate them too. Have survived a wyre forest winter nicely really and they’ll stay on all year as its my winter ride

Michelin wild mud’s get my vote, heavy but good grip and strong sidewalls as I’ve got a tendency to rip tyres on the local flints. I ran them at 18-20 psi all winter and rarely ran out of grip.

Running a Minion dhrII Exo 29X2.3 brilliant grip and braking and they are just under £23.00 at Acycles

Geax Gato or Datura both work well in the mud and both roll well in the dry and are usually dirt cheap at on-one and the TNT versions work really well tubeless, found the Gato works better on my hardtail and the Datura on the full suss, no idea why but the Gato didnt seem to work overly well on the full suss. i run both on 26″ wheels and they both roll faster than my riding buddies beavers on 27.5″ and work as well if not better in the mud.

50 quid for tyres is bollox a 20 quid chunky monkey up front will do better than. Nns in the mud

I love a CM up front for days in the Lakes etc, but they are piss poor in mud.

I’ve got a pair of Dirty Dans recently for XC racing, and they are great in nasty mud, not brilliant but are capable when it’s dry.
Would recommend.

I’ve got 2 undamaged Beavers used twice tubeless you can have for a budget price of £30 posted the pair – email in profile if you want them.