I’m after some new tyres and haven’t used spesh tyres before. Seem cheap compared the other brands.

My riding ranges from Wharncliffe, peak to Welsh slate. An all year combo would be good.

I’ve been looking at butcher front and purgatory rear and hillbilly front and butcher rear.

Is the hillbilly overkill as an all round tyre and what is the butcher like as both a front and rear?

I’m also a little confused by the casings. Need something that’ll hold up to some abuse and rocks. Which should I be going for, 2bliss, grid, black diamond etc.

I think the hillbilly is a bit too wet/mud focused to be an great all rounder, I think it’s great tyre but I’ve switched to a Magic Mary for slightly better all round performance. It’s probably equivalent of a Maxxis Shorty.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Butcher t9 front, purg t7 rear in grid flavour?</p>

Purgatory just got updated to completely different tread pattern (from very wide lowish knobs to fairly universal knobby pattern). No idea if they work, I’m riding them tomorrow for the first time.

In general, newer Specialized tyres have been quite nice, good rolling and fairly lightweight with Grid sidewalls give some support even if they are not very strong against sharp rocks. Anything with T7 rubber has not been super grippy but lasts well.

Butcher t9 front, purg t7 rear in grid flavour

great combo BUT, you really want Grid Trail, Grid is not enough sidewall support ime

Doesn’t that depend on weight, riding style and inserts or not etc.

I’ve a set of the new purgatorys in t9/t7 on order. Currently got the older tread in pre tX version.

Grid Trail for sure for proper trail riding anywhere there’s the danger of tearing a sidewall. Speccy tyres have always been good but the recent updates are, in my opinion, excellent considering they can be had for half the price of Maxxis / Schwalbe. Butcher / Eliminator would be my preferred combo.

I run Grid Trail with Cushcore inserts, Butcher T9 front, Eliminator T7 back.

Really impressed with durability on both and the grip on the Butcher. The Eliminator is a bit lethal in the wet IMO.

I’ll definitely buy again, but thinking of trying a different combination next time.

My purg t7 grid did ok in Les arcs. Did get a small puncture from an awkward rock smash but it sealed up without a plug.

I run butcher 2.6 grid trail front and purgatory 2.6 t7 back on both MTB.

The newer purgatory seems a bit slideier in deep mud compared to the previous purgatory in 2.3. it’s better everywhere else.

I run the blck diamond butchers in 2.6 front and back as tyres for uplifts. They are 300g heavier per tyre but much tougher.

Running Butcher Grid Gravity front and rear on the Turbo Levo and Butcher Blck Dmnd front and rear on the Enduro. Use them in the UK and abroad all year round. Plenty of grip and seem to roll ok.

<p>I love the hillbilly as a winter tyre – I don’t think I’d run one all year round.</p><p>Butcher T9 is probably the allrounder. I tried one for a month and it was ok, but I didn’t love it. </p><p>Haven’t ever run a Purgatory to comment.</p><p>If you’re going anywhere rocky / slatey you want at least Grid Trail casing I’d say. If you’re going anywhere near Dyfi (or similar stuff) I’d go up to Grid Gravity.</p><p>I don’t think any other manufacturers are getting near the price of specialized. I really like some of the new Contis but they’re quite spendy. The Xynotal enduro / soft is good on the rear – the front all rounder is probably the Kryptotal front in enduro / soft.</p>

I had a butcher and Slaughter on my bike for a good couple of years as they came with it and I’m tight and don’t usually believe in buying stuff unless the benefit outweighs the cost

To preface my opinion also is I put 2 years of riding on them, took a 4 year break then started riding again last year, I also used to be a strictly fair weather rider avoiding mud and wet roots like the plague, I also only ever used nobby nics before this too so go figure the reason for my fears.

I had a bad crash back in November due to forgetting my fears from years before, losing grip, getting hung up on a root, front wheel sliding off the root and the me going otb arriving just in time for my dentist appointment with Dr Earth and his assistant Nurse Mud

Was pushed to change as it really shook me and I knew it wasn’t just a skill issue as I had grip then all of a sudden it was gone, it was a slow crash but a bad one, bent my bars and my seat rails and damaged my ego on a really easy trail, so I done my research and replaced them with a magic Mary on the front and a big Betty on the back and it was a night and day difference. I won’t be bothering with spesh tyres anymore for what it’s worth, unless dry weather riding is all you do I wouldn’t consider them

They’re in my shed and still have plenty of tread left, I only put maybe 300 miles tops on them over the 2 yeara

I prefer my Hillbilly T9 to an Argotal soft on the front (and nearly as good as a Magic Mary Super Gravity as an all rounder for me) and just leave it on there for most of the year- my riding mostly is woods in the north east which are either wet, or sandy.

The T7 compound tyres were okay, the T9s seem excellent.

I put 2 years of riding on them, took a 4 year break then started riding again last year

The only similarity to current Spesh tyres is the name and I wouldn’t expect too much from 6 year old tyres regardless of make.

Recently bought a butcher t9 (I’d have to check casing) 29x 2. 6 to replace a heavily worn dhf max grip and I’m very happy with it.

I’ve just refreshed my hardtail’s tyres with DHR2s which were cheap on CRC/Merlin, but before that I was running Hillbilly front and Butcher rear as a year round “fit and forget” option.

I have run a Butcher on the front for a bit on a couple of bikes but they always seemed to want to kill me. On the back I liked them, although they would step out a bit on wet grass.

Hillbilly up front was less draggy than you might imagine (Trail Grid casing). Decent in the mud, and fine in the dry IME. Not as good an allrouder as the Magic Mary, but also not as expensive!

Thanks all for replies. I’ve bought a 2.4 t9 purgatory for the rear and 2.6 t9 butcher for the front.  Both in grid trail. Will see how it goes.