Holliday – 2.5 highroller DPC super tacky (youd die riding them uphill all day!)

Summer (and late spring and early autumn) – 2.35 high roller, maxxpro, SPC, kevlar, with a semi slick on the rear when its dry.

Winter – lighter/narrower rims as the dirtjumps are unriable, and specialized storm pro’s.

I wouldn’t change them for a different ride/area though. and it doesnt cost much more, as tyers not being used arent being worn out. So I’m not wearing out my winter tyers in the summer or vice versa.

I’m quite poor… so I just have one tyre that I use on the front during the summer… then in the winter I fit it on the back instead

I am a serial tyraholic and I change tyres all the time.

My excuse? I have to ride out to the trails a lot of the time on easy hard surfaced paths – so nee a fast rolling tyre, however some of where I ride gets very muddy in winter so I need a mud tyre then, Ihave studded tyres for ice – currently on my commuter. I have some DH tyres for riding in rocky places.

Rather than having loads of bikes I have one (main) bike and loads of tyres

Managed to use Smallblock8’s for most of the year, even a weekend at CyB & MachX. They were pumped up bloody hard though, to avoid pinching.
Had to go back to Nev / BG in october as they are rubbish in mud, literally no grip at all. Love the SB8’s though, no rolling resistance.

Since I got my SS bike in May it’s been running Mud X’s, they’re bang on for the local woods in all conditions, a bit slower than Ignitors in the dry, but hey ho.

I’ve been running NN’s on both my FS & HT for a good while now, and i like them. so they’re staying.

Arguably the NN isn’t as good as the Mud X when it’s proper muddy round the local woods but it ain’t too bad.

chakaping – Member
Hey Bigjim, you forgot to mention the people with a chip on their shoulder who like to post condescending messages about people with more than one set of tyres on the internet.

I assume you’re referring to me as being condescending, and that I’ve got a chip on my shoulder? How so? Care to join in and share your rubber fetish with the internet world?

i used to use fire xc, changed to conti speed king, when they wear out ile probly go back to fire xc as a pretty good all round tyre.
i do have another set of road tyres, i use those, er, on road.
what ive found is that when riding as a group, all using different tyres, is that we mostly seem to get stopped all at the same place, therefore my conclusion is that the differences between different types are actually fairly small.
just my 2p worth.

Personally I hate fannying about changing tyres, I had a couple of wheel sets for my DH bike for a while, one wet, one dry, but pretty much always used the lighter “dry” set…

Got a hardly used set of double ply swamp donkeys in the garage which I may use again but they weigh a ton, they are draggy, and I wasn’t that impressed with their grip…
Sticking to Speccy Eskars for a while now on my hack bike, seem to suit 80-90% of what I need and will probably be all I ride through the winter…

Got some cheap 2.0” Michelins waiting for summer to put them on the XC bike though, but that’s just forward planning…

I think the ideal solution is something like: buy set of knobbly mud tyres for winter. Ride until they resemble a set of semi-slicks (for summer). Repeat annually.

3 different rides I have done recently that I used 3 different sets of tyres

1) – 65 miles half on road half on easy off-road reasonably dry – needs fast rolling set

2) glentress in the wet at night – needs grippy set – black chilli that wears out in no time on tarmac

3) attempt to get to the pentlands in the snow – needs narrow studded set

Tyre moaning is just another excuse – “oooh I would have tackled that section fine with my Mud XXXX badger print thermo gripper tyres – must fit them next time…”

Same with the vast variety of MTB categories – “dammit, I needed my 20″ full sus rig for that DH bit and my 16lb super rocket whippet for that bit”

Don’t know about anybody else but I always have my ‘man’ following discretely behind carrying a selection of alternative bikes and wheels so I always have exactly the right equipment for the conditions.

I thought that’s what everybody did 😉

Tyre moaning is just another excuse – “oooh I would have tackled that section fine with my Mud XXXX badger print thermo gripper tyres – must fit them next time…”

Same with the vast variety of MTB categories – “dammit, I needed my 20″ full sus rig for that DH bit and my 16lb super rocket whippet for that bit”

For me, its not really about excuses. I don’t need to make excuses, given my limitations as a distinctly average rider. Its about gaining an improved advantage for the conditions, and more confidence, plus a dollop of ‘I wonder how this tyre works?’. I’m no racer by any means, but I like to be able to have the best balance of grip and rolling resistance for the conditions. Who wouldn’t?

That said, I don’t specifically change tyres for individual rides. I don’t go further than changing for the drier and wetter parts of the year. Dry-intermediate for late Spring, Summer and early Autumn, and wet/intermediate for late Autumn-Winter-early Spring.

It was icy on yesterday’s ride and I was struggling to get rear wheel traction climbing on steep limestones and close-cropped grass. Being SS, I would normally stand and lever the bike up, but the rear would not stick down enough under power so I had to sit and suffer. Even then it would slip quite a bit. Downhill was hugely fun sliding and slipping the tail around 🙂

I guess a 2.1″ 70a is not ideal. But I can’t be bothered to change it to some draggy compound tyre 😉