Hi,

I’m sure some of you must be riding Trailraker tyres at the minute, maybe you can help out with this. The trailrakers are very grippy tyres in the conditions of late, but I really feel like someone is pulling on my back wheel when out of all but the gloopiest mud. I’m not particularly fit, but these tyres seem so slow. Those of you that have them will know that the rear tyre goes on in the opposite tread direction to the front, I assume this is so it really digs in on the back for traction. So i’m thinking I’m going to put the rear tyre on the wrong way round so the tread runs as the front, losing some grip and also hopefully some drag. Hopefully I’ll get to try it out one night this week. I was thinking about binning them today in favour of some Mud X’s but there surely isn’t so much difference in them.
If anyone has done it and noticed an easier ride, let me know.

Cheers

There’s an awful lot of difference between a Mud X and a Trailraker tbh. Less grip but much less drag. I’ve never run one reversed, can’t hurt to try but personally I’d be thinking about maybe a TR front and Mud X rear.

I put a trailraker on the wrong way by mistake once – big error. So big infact that I stopped mid ride in the pitch dark and rain in the middle of an impossibly muddy field and ripped it off to switch it around. Night and day difference when faced with proper goop.

I now ride mud x instead. IMO trailraker is really a mud only tyre and in those conditions an extra bit of drag is an irrelevance. If your ride has enough non goop that drag is a concern over straight survival then the mud x might be for you. Personally my problem with the trailraker was that in my neck of the woods muddy also means very rooty and I found them sketchy as hell (1.95s). Mud x will not be as good in the mud but better all around.

This may not be relevant, but the army experimented with tread direction on trucks and found that running them backwards decreased grip, but increased tyre life.
Look at the mixture on this one.

Assuming less wear = less drag then it might be worth a go.

I put a trailraker on the wrong way by mistake once –

I did see your original post when I was googling, had hoped that you’d got the front tyre the wrong way around not the back. So I’m assuming when you had them on wrong , the tread patterns were facing the same way for both front and rear? Anyway I’ll try it tonight and if it’s no good maybe get some Mud X or just put my High Rollers back on, they might clog up but at least they move. I’m glad to hear from someone that went from Trailrakers to Mud X and found a beneficial difference.

That army truck is exactly what I’m on about, I bet if they had both sets of back tyres facing as the middle tyres are, there’d be some right drag.

I run the rear the same way round as the front and there’s still loads of grip in the muddiest conditions. They are ‘draggy’ tyres though as they have deep tread blocks which dig into the ground even when you’re not really looking for that much traction.

Couldn’t wait, pair of Mud X pricematched this lunchtime at Evans £37.

FWIW, I’ve just put a pair of Mud X on my spare wheels. They are good in mud, but I’m not sure yet that they’re any better than (new) Fire XC Pros. They don’t seem much draggier either.

Andy