They’re normally so expensive I don’t pay them much heed, however they’re being sold cheap somewhere at the moment. As far as I can tell….

Snakeskin is recommended for tubeless
Evolution tyres are tubeless ready, but Stans sealant means this isn’t necessary (ergo plain snakeskin should be fine as opposed to snakeskin AND evo)
Are the Evolution tyres tough enough for tubeless or should I stick with Snakeskin only?
Are the Alberts any good? I mainly ride mixed terrain so know that grip is incredibly subjective but the limited reviews I’ve seen suggest mediocre grip and a short lifespan.
Are RR’s summer only?

Anything else to consider? I’d plump for Nobby Nic’s but they’re only available in standard or evolution and I’ve heard that snakeskin is really important.

And I know there is a search function but it doesn’t return many results.

You need to consider compound as well as casing, they’ve got a load of new compounds with different levels of performance now too.

Haven’t ridden any enough to give you a definitive verdict myself though, sorry.

Until very recently I’d been using 2.4 UST Big Betty’s on both my hardtail and full suss bikes. They come with gooey gluey soft or ORC hard compounds. I had ORC’s and while they were great in the dry and wore really well they were horrible in the wet and would let go without warning on wet roots and rocks. I think the compound is similar to Maxxis 60 or 70a. The gooey gluey version is supposed to be much better but I haven’t tried them.

Previous to the Betty’s I was running 2.35 UST Fat Albert Snakeskins on the hardtail and they were pretty decent. They rolled well, were relatively strong and worked well in the wet as well as the dry. The downside for me was that they were an absolute bitch to get on Mavic 819 UST rims. They were fine on 823’s and Stans Flow rims but the snakeskin sidewalls weren’t strong enough for the type of riding I was doing on the big bike. They were fine on the hardtail though but I gave up using them because of the faff getting them on and off.

A lot of people are running the normal nobby nics tubeless.

I’ve just bought some nobby nics and can’t speak highly enough of them so far. Yet to give them a test in real gloopy mud but on my normal tracks and trails they’ve been great.

Er? I’ve got snakeskin Nobby Nics.

Last summer i ran a Nic up front and a narrow nic or racing ralph on the back

Great in the dry weather, not so great in the damp.

The place that are selling them half price don’t have the NNs in snakeskin

And how do they measure up compared to Maxxis Advantages?

I’ve been using a NN/RR front and back combo in UST for a few years now for racing. I think they are a racing tire which offer reasonable grip rather than a trail tire. They are OK in wet conditions in the summer when the ground under the slop is hard but are pretty awful in full on winter conditions. They do however roll very well and though they are famed for their weak sidewalls it isn’t something I have ever had a problem with and I ride some rocky stuff on occaisions.

I have one non snakeskin ralph and it does look flimsey compared to snakeskin versions.

As well as dry conditions both nic and ralph were very forgiving in dusty and/or loose stuff

I’ve been running hobby nic evo’s with stans since last summer on both hard tail and fs, I like them, didn’t bother changing them for the winter like I normally do. One of the easy tires to seal too

Mine seem to have lasted very well too.

very impressed with the 2.25 nobby nic snakeskin runing on stans, certainly wouldn’t pay the full price but the half price deals make them worth it. nothing more special than a normally priced tyre about them.

I run a UST Fat Albert 2.25 on the rear of my hardtail. Currently an Evo tread and before that a non-evo. No real difference I can tell. You need a UST sidewall on the hardtail though.

And a 2.35 or 2.4 non-UST snakeskin FA on the front, running ghetto tubeless. Again, currently an Evo tread and before that a non-evo. The Evo is marginally better I think but not much in it. Front doesn’t need a full UST casing IME, for my riding (and I’ve had them in the Alps).

Big fan of this setup. Not super fast but very grippy and tough. Better than the Maxxis tyres I’ve used.

FA’s.

EVO + Snakeskin = fantastic trail set up.

so good, i’ve stocked up on more and more in the on one sale 🙂

I plumped for the 2.25 FAs with the evo & snakeskin combo. May get some RRs for the summer too…