Tyres coming to the end of their lives and have had Purgs for the last 3-4 years. Time for a change, maybe, probably.

I have no idea of tyre options and would love some input. What’s similar/bettererer?

Use them for everything from trail centres to peaks to lakes.

Need decent sidewall protection and needs to be 29er.

Butcher front with slaughter rear if you want to stick with spesh?

Not fussed about sticking with Spesh, just a case of grass is greener i suspect.

Conscious I stuck with Conti Vert pro’s for ages and when i did try something new, much preferred them (ie the Purgs). Want to continue my ever so slow tyre adventure.

Hillbilly front, Ground Control rear, Grid.

Butcher front with slaughter rear…

Running these on my smaller wheeled bike. I love the Butcher and find the Slaughter slightly less grippy than the Purg (unsurprisingly), but being as Purgs dislike braking in straight lines it’s no big deal. Cornering feels equally grippy, probably due to the shared side-knobs, and it rolls faaaaast. My limited time on the Ground Control was a pleasant affair too; I’d happily buy again.

Otherwise Conti MK2s and X-Kings are worth a look, but pay for the Black Chilli variant. The X-King is a superb fast-rolling tyre for most conditions, and in 2.4 comes up pretty big.

Purgs are a bit of a limbo tyre – hence the name. A ground control 29er grid is resilient, faster and more versatile; and if you need something serious then folk are always going to look at beefier options like the Butcher / Slaughter or one of the maxxis offerings.

Maxxis Minion DHF front.
Choice of Minion DHR II, High Roller II, Ardent or Minion SS on rear depending on rolling/grip level desired.

Both in EXO TR flavour. 3C on front.

(2.3 on front is enough imo)

Bontrager XR4 or XR3, or the stronger sidewall versions in SE4 and SE3