Need a new tyre soon on the front of my 29er Smorg £17 Purg £20 , seems the Purg in Control form has quite flimsy sidewalls but is the Smorg a bit on the lardy side ? Chunky Monkey is too wide , oh and I want to run tubeless on a Stans rim .

I beieve the consensus (no personal experience, just what I’ve read) is that the Smorg is awful on the front. Very good on the rear (That’s where I have one)

And the purgatory sidewalls are flimsy, I’d go with the more robust smorgasbord on the back

I think the supposed “flimsiness” of Specialized Control sidewalls is overstated imo.

Big lad who rides hard and mostly on rocky or flinty terrain = go for the Grid casing.

Average weight rider who’s general riding consists of typical red grade trails and XC stuff = Control will be more than fine.

I use both purg and smorgasbord on the rear of bikes, but wouldn’t use either on the front.

I’ve just gone from a worn-out Butcher to a Purgatory (both Grid) on the front. It has a bit less absolute grip than the Butcher but its more than capable in the current dry conditions. Much faster rolling as well obviously. I’m happy with it.

Grid sidewalls are far stiffer than Control. My Purgatorys with Control sidewalls were ok but not amazing, certainly were a bit too flexible at 35 PSI. They would smear and then drift a bit unpredictably…

Edit. I’m about 90kg at the mo – so a big lad.

My Purgatorys with Control sidewalls were ok but not amazing, certainly were a bit too flexible at 35 PSI. They would smear and then drift a bit unpredictably…

I’ve just taken one off the rear of my full suss and would agree with that, I’m only just over 10 stone but they needed well over 30psi to get the best out of them.

It did last 15 months and get a hammering on the Quantocks (including a lot of use on the Triscombe d/h trails) so can’t complain too much but the sidewalls starting leaking out the stans sealant, cornering grip wasn’t brilliant, braking grip was a bit rubbish, and they don’t actually roll that fast.

Bit of an average tyre really 😕

I used specialized grid tyres on this year’s ard rock. Ran them tubeless and had no problems at all.