Im off to Coed y Brenin on friday and after having a fall out with my inner tubes and wired nobby nics ive decided to say sod it and buy some new tubeless compatible tyres tomorrow. .

My LBS has a good stock of tyres and they were trying to reccomend me specialized ground control and purgatory tyres today, one up front the other on the rear, these were only £30 each so look a good deal, is it worth me getting these or should i avoid and spend an extra 20 odd quid on some tubeless nobby nics? If i could get some rubber queens locally tomorrow then i would but ive left it too late!

I want these tyres to be able to perform well round uk trail center red/black routes, recommendations welcome but its all down to what the shop has in stock tomorrow.

Spesh tyres are ace, and compared to Schwalbe, a bargain too. Ground control probably more suited to you if you only ride trail centres. Purgatory are really ace on natural stuff, very predictable on grass, rock, mud and roots. My fave tyre by a country mile for west of Scotland riding.

Ground control is my tyre of choice at the moment
Been very impressed
Found the purg at bit slower rolling but it did give good confidence
Spesh do two versions at the same price

S-works – these are lighter with thinner side wall
Control – these are a bit tougher
Both are tubeless compatible Useing sealant

Alwasu worth being cheeky and seeing if you can have a deal for a pair

I ride all sorts but after a set of tyres specifically to use at trail centres as ive got racing ralphs for hard pack locally and spesh butchers on my status for the big stuff but need something for everything else.

Butchers too heavy/slow, ralphs too thin and the nics need tubes which i no longer wish to use.

thanks for the input so far

I’ve used purgatory’s for the last year, they work well all round, not a mud tyre but then at anything other than 24 hour races where is a ride made up entirely of mud, they work well enough for a British winter, but unlike (IMO) Mud-X and Storms they actually work in the dry too, not as fast rolling as a summer tyre, but at least there’s grip rather than horrible squirmy-ness.

Love my spesh tires. Just come back from dalbeattie and kirroughtree never let me down once. Funny though I was just about to put a butcher on the front and move the purgatory to the back.

I am really pleased with my ground controls in control casing. Been running them tubeless for 6 months. Lots of miles and mixed terrain. No punctures. The front needs pumping up monthly and the rear every 2 weeks or so. It’s probably time to change the fluid. Lots of even, predictable grip but not too draggy. They really seem to bite on uphills. Very happy.

Oh forgot to mention went tubeless with these 2 months ago. Easy as hell. Should have done it ages ago.

Currently running a 2.3 Purg up front and 2.1 Ground Control out back on my 29er camber.

Ace tyres – Purg nice and grippy, GC relatively fast rolling and still grippy enough.

Rode Cwmcarn on the camber this weekend, really happy with tyres, and just done my local loop with same wheels on my Carve hardtail.

Managed to tubeless them on stans rims with only a track pump too – no issues with Spesh tyres at all – only just taken the Storms off now we’ve seen sun……..

i use purgatory on the front too

Purgatory front, The Captain rear. Running both tubeless on Flows – both went up first time with a track pump. Pretty good all-round, all-year combo. At least as good as the Rubber Queen / X King combo they replaced, and much less hassle to work with than the Contis. Cheaper too.

I had prurgatory/butcher on my fsr, winter and summer and they were great.
Currently running ground controls on my ss, tubeless, on non tubeless rims, and these are sweet too.
Spesh tyres are normally pretty good and easy to set up tubeless. Does make you wonder why other makes are nearly twice as much.