Sorry folks.. I was thinking of some tyres that would be hard wearing so I don't trash them on road, but would also be reasonable in places like Swinley or Tunnel Hill. Not too gloopy round here (although Tunnel Hill was somewhat slimy in places) so I may get away with it.. was thinking perhaps Maxxis Larsen TT or Kenda Small Block 8.. which the Kenda guy at some race or other reckoned was good in mud.

Bump for the morning crowd.

Larsen TT wear down faster than a fast thing if used on the road! Both the Larsen and the Small Block 8 are dry weather tyres, they'll cope with a small amount of damp conditions, but the smallest amount of mud, gloopy or not and you'll be on your arse!

They're a bit old, but I have done plenty of miles on the road with my Panaracer Fire XCs. They seem to last quite well.
They are also pretty good in sand & fairly wet conditions. The only time I have found they were really no good was in thick gloopy mud, as they clogged really badly, but I don't think that many tyres cope well with that, no matter how well they supposedly 'clear'.

Much as I hate them, I was thinking of fire XC.

What about Conti Mountain Kings?

You will unfortunately have to compromise somewhere. What is your priority?

-Hard wearing on road
-Fast on road
-Grippy off road in the dry
-Grippy off road in the wet

Only the first two are really mutually compatible 🙁

Dunno about Mountain Kings, but the angled position of the blocks would make me think they will disintegrate fairly quickly & probably be quite draggy – only going on the apperarance of the tyre though.

FWIW, my cheap-o speedkings (the wire, hard rubber version) lost about 1/3 – 1/2 of their rear knobble height in one 30 mile road ride, so perhaps MKs would be similar, although perhaps not quite as bad as the knobbles are bigger….?

Poppa, I'm well aware of this. What I'm after is compromise.

I've got speedkings on there now, and the knobbles are widely spaced and hence isolated, so each one takes a big whack of force as you ride – which is why road wear is bad.

So I want something with closer spaced blocks I reckon. The soil down here is mostly sandy or peaty, so they wno't have to contend with much gloop which is the real enemy of tyres.

SB8's and Larsens are designed for dry, loose conditions so might be OK for the conditions you descirbed, but they will clog up in mud. Don't know about durability on road.

Sorry, slight high jack but I'm think of getting some Ardents 2.25. I've heard their quite large, has any one tried putting them on a rockhopper, if so what do you think.

I found Small Block 8s (1.9") rather draggy on the road compared to what I was used to. Although I ride a mountain bike my priority is road performance but I like the ability to explore and go off-road too. I'm finding Panaracer Razer XCs suprisingly good on the road, although I don't think that they're going to wear that well. I suspect that they're deadly in the wet or in mud though.

I really liked Intense System 3s but had real issues with bulging casing (3 in total but apperently it's a fault that's been rectified).