Are these worth getting? I have seen the performance ones for about £25 seem good value and light weight. Only worried they might be flimsy and the side walls will get worn easily.
Otherwise there are the more expensive versions.

How are people finding them?

Depends on your riding style, terrain etc. Performance is the cheapest compound. Anything of 2011 vintage an after has a thicker sidewall, or if you are really worried get the snakeskin version.

Me, I love them and they are the perfect tyre for me – after many years of biking I found the trail tyre that suits me best.

Others will have different opinions.

not the most grippy, but predictable and quite fast rolling

I like em, 2.25 snakeskins for me. Fast and hook up pretty well, corner ok as well. Limited in proper sticky mud though!

Utter guff as far as I’m concerned.

Grippy for the weight, I use them in everything except winter mud.

Tried them, found they broke away a bit too early on the front, but part from that generally ok.

I run a Hans Dampf on the front and RaRa on the rear instead (29er).

Each to their own though, you’ll get 20 different responses here probably!!

bike-discount.de normally do Schwalbe tyres for a pretty decent price.

Personally I think they are one of the worst piles of crap I’ve ever used and would definitely not recommend.

Draggy yet not grippy. Expensive for what they are and the nobs fall off. They’re also not as light as claimed. And, yes, the side-walls are REALLY thin.

A Maxxis Ignitor would be my first choice as an alternative.

Mine were pretty good til the knobs wore, at which point they seemed to lose all their bite. Unfortunately, the knobs wore very very fast. If they had lasted, oh, 10 times longer before they lost their edge then I’d definately consider buying them again but as it is, they’re expensive tyres that last 10 rides, and just don’t perform well enough to justify that.

If you have a smooth riding style you’ll like them, if you prefer to hit the corner hard and drop it on its ear they are not the tyre for you. They respond very well to controlled riding that doesn’t upset their sidewall.

“they’re expensive tyres that last 10 rides”

Are you permanently riding on granite?? 🙂

Mostly on the ground 😉 Don’t get me wrong- they had tons of life left in them, but bad life- when I say they last 10 rides i mean that’s as long as they work well for but after the edges are gone off the knobs, they become really pretty poor.

The manufacture of them seems to be inconsistent, some folk as you have get ones that just disintegrate although from the threads I’ve seen on this site and others it does appear to be the 26″ ones more than the 29″. I’ve had nics on my 29 for just over a year, the rear is exhibiting the knobs starting to separate as you say but the front has plenty life left. They get quite a hard life too trying to follow Dug, good to meet you on Sunday BTW.

Ah it’s yourself! Yep, good to meet you too.

If you have a smooth riding style you’ll like them, if you prefer to hit the corner hard and drop it on its ear they are not the tyre for you. They respond very well to controlled riding

That’s the style i ride / meant. Although since I’ve been Jedi’d last year I’ve spent more time on the edges.

Ive spent a year on dry/wet/loam forest trails, with about 4 Wales visits in that time. My front still has the sipes, my rear has lost the sipes and the nobs are rounded in the centre section. I believe the wear issue is worse on rocks.

They are usually in the One one & Merlin sales at this time of year.

I’ve had 2 (UST)

1st one sidewall was deformed. Thought it was just from folding and that sitting on the wheel would sort it. Blew off the rim overnight at 30 psi and never got it to seat – major bulge in the sidewall

2nd one had one of its knobs ripped out of the carcass on its 2nd ride (in the extreme gnarr terror of the new forest). Hole right through the tyre

they’ve put me off Schwalbe in a big way

Brake-neck – Member

The manufacture of them seems to be inconsistent, some folk as you have get ones that just disintegrate

The people who get split sidewalls are generally the people who buy the cheap ones, or the ones with the really thin sidewalls.

The proper Evo Snakeskin ones are a very good allrounder.

Thanks for the feedback, I do ride a lot of rough stuff and pretty aggressively. Maybe I should look at some maxxis. A few people have recommend advantage model.

Really liked the tubeless NN I had on my old XC bike. Super grippy and zero faff once it was on properly. The normal NN I had on my current AM bike tore a sidewall on its second outing. Now trying out the On One Smorgasboard. Same price as the Nics and it seems fine for what I do (bit of trail centre mincing, bit of sloppy Pentlands XC, bit of AM enduro-lite).

As others have said, they’re expensive and after a few wicked skids they’re pretty much fit for the bin. And they HATE roots!!

Difficult to make up one’s mind based on these kind of threads.

There are just too many variables:
people 1) ride differently on 2) different terrain with actually 3) different tyres even if it’s the same model (compound, width), on 4) different width rims and 5) pressure can make a huge difference, too AND nobody ever has the complete picture, because if they say “this the best tyre ever” you never know which tyre they have ridden in comparison etc. see the 5 variables above.

BUT you can try to get a rough picture and it’s always nice to read something that exactly corresponds with own experiences ! ->

If you have a smooth riding style you’ll like them, if you prefer to hit the corner hard and drop it on its ear they are not the tyre for you. They respond very well to controlled riding

So here’s my piece of variables
– had a pair of Nobby Nics evo 2.1 on hardtail
– in addition to what has been said: found them surprisingly good at sticking to humid sticky-clay-y soil
– never liked their “grips-better-than-you-think-but-you-can-never-be-completely-sure-about-it”-feel
– but again: it depends on how you ride!
– I ride mostly forest singletracks, packed to loose, sometimes sandy, few stones, some roots
– like to ride aggressive into corners, also like to thread like a needle through tight twitchy stuff, not very technical riding though
– run much lower pressure (below 2 bar) recently as new tyres (below) like that more than Nobby Nics

I have tested a few tyres recently and found 2.2 Purgatorys and especially 2.4 Ardent on the front much more to my liking.

So as I said: Difficult to make up one’s mind based on these kind of threads ’cause I can’t compare either as the Nics were 2.1, new tyres are wider and I (can) ride them with lower pressure… 🙄

Hope you get a picture nevertheless! Cheers! 🙂

I’ve used Nic’s on most of my bikes and found them on the whole to be really good, but worth getting the stronger side walls , we suffer a bit with flints slashing tyres unexpectedly on the trails but that can happen to any make of tyre… I’ve used them on dry dusty stuff to mud and yes they’re not great in deep mud but most tyres aren’t unless they are a proper mud tyre… try one if it doesn’t work out sell it on here in the classifieds. By the way the 2.1’s are sods to get on big rims.

Fantastic grip. But sidewall wore out before tyre tread.
Got a couple pairs cheap off on-one last year.
False economy!

I am a big fan of UST nobby nics. Find they are a bit pressure sensitive (though not as bad as Conti UST tyres) but once set right they grip well and roll fast enough (but not on grass…does anything?)