As a life long Panaracer user, the whole world of Schwalbe is a bit of a mystery to me. I’m after some tyres to cover XC racing through to a bit of “light trail” use, whilst getting weight down as far as possible. Schwalbe Rocket Rons seem to be in the slot weight wise but do a rather bewildering array of models. What is the collected wisdom of the forum say on their tyres? Width wise do they come up fat or thin (say how do their 2.1s comapre to say an XC pro?)? How do they wear?

I’ve got Rocket Rons on a Scott Spark I’ve just bought and used to have XC Pros on a Cannondale Jekyll. RRs are certainly lighter and to date don’t seem more puncture prone. In the dry they seemed to have less drag than XC Pros and just as grippy but I went around the Marin in the rain on Sunday and they didn’t seem quite as reassuring on slippy rocks. Still very pleased with them though and will probably replace them with the same.

Rocket Ron’s are a good all-rounder, although the sidewalls are quite thin on the EVO version, so depends where you use them if they will be the best solution.

Racing Ralphs are similar weight wise and a bit faster while also having a slightly thicker sidewall. The Nobby Nic is another good all-rounder, although the slowest and heaviest of the 3, but still pretty competitive.

If you are worried about punctures though, the Snakeskin models are well worth looking at.

Are the Rons good on the front? Need something with a little more grip than the Geax Sagauro I’ve got at the moment, lost all faith in it after a couple of falls earlier this year…