thinking about new tyres but dont know what size to get. i ride manly trail center’s and am now doing some xc race’s im runing 2.3s at the min but think there a bit slow. am also thinking about tubeless any advice would be appreciated
thanks

race king 2.2 is what I have and the rolling resistance seems rather low and they have surprised me with how grippy they are. not tried thm in mud yet but the reduced tread size makes it better aerodynamically too. I don’t feel another reduction in tyre size (I was on 2.4 mountain kings)is necessary

Unfortunately stated size means nothing. I have 2.2″ tyres on my bike and they’re bigger than pretty much every 2.3″, 2.35″ and 2.4″ tyre I’ve seen, because they actually measure 2.2″ rather than 2″ or 2.1″…

wider can be run softer which can give more grip and lower rolling resistance.

Weight is not all.

Aero @ mtb speeds = irrelevant

Aero @ mtb speeds = irrelevant

yeah maybe but I ride my mtb home along a road and have a shwalbe albert front tyre and I can feel the drag it makes. I feel my speed is limited to an extent by my front tyre that is all.

wider can be run softer which can give more grip and lower rolling resistance.

am i missing something here?

“albert front tyre and I can feel the drag it makes”
The aerodynamic difference over any other MTB tyre is going to be neglible no? Itll be the the tall square block (unramped) tread that’ll be draggy?

“runing 2.3s at the min but think there a bit slow”
What tyre and on what rim?

eg a 2.3″ Conti Vertical on a mavic XC717 is going to be a fair bit smaller than a 2.3″ Specialized Eskar (or 2.3″ Conti Baron) on a ZTR Flow rim

“am i missing something here”
While a narrower, higher pressure tyre will roll better on a perfectly flat surface, eg (theoretical) road riding, when things get rough/uneven, a wider, softer tyre requires less energy to deform it to the terrain, so is supposed to roll more easily, or so the theory goes

hi james i forgot to say im runing conti vertical 2.3 on mavic rims at 40 psi dont know if the psi is right im 14 stone