Maxxis Minion DHR II review: the one tyre for EVERYTHING

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Despite its name, the Maxxis Minion DHR II is not just for downhill and it’s not just for rear wheel use. It rules everywhere. Prepare yourself for something of a shameless love letter to a bit of rubber…

  • Brand: Maxxis
  • Product: Minion DHR II WT 2.4in tyre
  • From: freewheel.co.uk
  • Price: £69.99
  • Tested by: Benji for 5 years
Rubber love

Three things I liked

  • Traction
  • Cornering
  • I can finally get on with my life

Three things I’d change

  • Could be cheaper
  • Er
  • Nope. That’s it.
The tread

My name is Benji. And I am addicted to rubber. I used to change tyres all the time. I used to change my bike’s front tyre more frequently than I trim my fingernails. I used to enjoy it. Changing tyres that is. Not trimming my fingernails. But then something happened.

I can’t really pinpoint what it was. Possibly it was pandemic related. During the infamous year of 2020 I rode my bike a lot. An awful lot. Much more so than normal. I’m sure most of you did the same, where possible. During that time I didn’t really mess with my bike very much. I just rode the bejesus out of it. According to The Evil Orange (Strava) I did pretty much twice the mileage of a typical year.

I guess that’s what happens when you can ride a lot. You don’t have to scratch the itch by doing some bike fettling. You just spend every possible spare moment out there on the trails.

There was also another side-effect of the pandemic bike boom. Lots of folk I know got (back) into mountain biking. And what do beginners do after they’ve been mountain biking for a few weekends? They start to wonder if their tyres could be better (which, almost always, they most certainly could be better than the sketchy XC OEM rubbers oft found on bikes). So they ask their more experienced riding peers for tyre advice. Peers like me.

Eventually I realised that the answer they wanted to hear wasn’t a ten minute long diatribe about the importance of specific tyres and how their current tyres were basically a joke.

Apparently they just wanted me to name one tyre to run. All year. Front and rear.

Well, here it is…

Use it on the front too

I’m not even joking. Nor being facetious. Just want a freaking tyre that works well everywhere all the time? Get a Maxxis Minion DHR II in 2.4in WT flavour. Heck, get two.

There are a few different versions of the DHR II in terms of compound and carcass. If you know your tyre nerdery, you already know which to get. MaxxTerra DoubleDown for rear, paired with a MaxxGrip EXO+ up front maybe?

If you don’t want to get all nerd about it. Or you just want a surefire will-be-okay-everything DHR II then get then MaxxTerra EXO+.

You will be fine.

How does the Minion DHR II perform on the trail?

It’s easiest to just tell you where it doesn’t work: it clogs a bit in the sort of mud that clogs up anything. It’s also not as fast-rolling tyre as a tyre that will kill when you ask it to handle anything interesting.

If you’re predominantly interested in a tyre with loads of braking grip, climbing grip and crazy capable cornering (and why wouldn’t you be interested in that?) then you’ll love what this tyre does.

It’s even one of the more friendlier tyres for mounting up tubeless. And holding air decently in between rides.

Maxxis Minion DHR II overall

As most of you will know, the Maxxis Minion DHR II is not a new tyre. So why I am reviewing it now? Because great things get forgotten and they need to be shouted from the digital rooftops again.

I won’t pretend that I run a pair of Maxxis Minion DHR II tyres front and rear for 365 days of the year. I’m a bike journo and tester. I run all sorts of things and I do still do quite like slapping on a set of really specific mud tyres for when I feel like it, or really need it.

But I am genuinely heartfelt when I recommend the Minion DHR II as the simple choice that actually works incredibly well on everything.

They are so good that here at Singletrack World we’re going to start putting them on all our test bikes. To level the playing field. To act as control tyres. Once a useful numbers of test rides have been done on the test bikes’ own tyres, we’ll be swapping them out to some Maxxis Minion DHR II 2.4in WT tyres.

Mountain bike tyres really are that important.

Cheers to the good folk at freewheel.co.uk and Maxxis

Review Info

Brand: Maxxis
Product: Minion DHR II
From: freewheel.co.uk
Price: £69.99
Tested: by Benji for 5 years
Author Profile Picture

Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

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  • Maxxis Minion DHR II review: the one tyre for EVERYTHING
  • Northwind
    Full Member

    Nope, I got mine from one of the euro shops.

    Posted 2 years ago
    johnjn2000
    Full Member

    Just to balance this. They are not amazing in wet chalk/mud combo. They don’t shed the sh!t as well as the Michelin WE’s or the Assegai (which is weird, surely they are very similar?) I had on my previous bike, but any other surface I am sure they are great

    Posted 2 years ago
    scuttler
    Full Member

    I iz lazy and hate fiddlin with bikes.

    I love Minion DHF on the front – summer, winter, peak, lakes, spain, Ard rock. I once stuck a DD High Roller on the back for a week in Spain.

    Posted 2 years ago
    1
    reeksy
    Full Member

    I’m surprised you say an Assegai sheds mud well.

    Posted 2 years ago
    Northwind
    Full Member

    I think that was specific to chalky mud? Which observes no known laws of physics. Assegai definitely clogs more than a dhr in most conditions.

    Posted 2 years ago
    reeksy
    Full Member

    Ah, ok. I’ve only experienced a more clay type wet mud experience. Bike ground to a halt.

    Posted 2 years ago
    argee
    Full Member

    All bets are off on wet chalky runs, dont think there is a unicorn tyre that can improve on that type of terrain

    Posted 2 years ago
    Blackflag
    Free Member

    Not as good as a Magic Mary up front though…. 😉

    Posted 2 years ago
    gavstorie
    Free Member

    The DHR 2 was my go to tyre for a few years, but only as a rear. I tried it on the front and it was horrific in comparison to the likes of a DHF or Magic Mary.

    MM/DHR2 was a fantastic setup but its been overtaken by the MM/Big Betty now.

    Posted 2 years ago
    joebristol
    Full Member

    @convert

    Existential crisis moment – am I slower and having less fun on the interesting bits with this tyre than I would have on a less grippy but faster rolling tyre because I’m more knackered than necessary getting there on the bits in between?

    The 2.3 Dhr2 with the same acronyms you have (exo / 3c / maxterra) is much faster rolling than the WT 2.4 version you have. The 2.4 is only marginally bigger casing wise but the knobs are significantly bigger. Good for steep / wet / muddy stuff – but the 2.3” version is almost as good in that but rolls quicker. I like gMBR same 3c version you have (rather than the dual compound version) as it grips wet rock better.

    In the winter I run the 2.3” dhr2 at the moment with a 2.6” Hillbilly up front – works really well in most places. I couldn’t find the equivalent 2.6” Magic Mary or Wild Enduro or Shorty in stock anywhere in December. Hillbilly was literally the only aggro sort of mud tyre I could find in 29er.

    Posted 2 years ago
    whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    Some great deals on DHRs on Merlin £41-55
    Exo 3c maxxgrip exo+ and DD

    Posted 2 years ago
    devbrix
    Free Member

    Honestly can’t tell the difference between DHR, DHF or Assegai on the front. They all just seem to do the job. Snake oil.

    Posted 2 years ago
    b33k34
    Full Member

    Would be good if you could still buy 60a compound tyres in modern widths for the back.

    Googling says “ Maxxis Dual Compound = centre tread is 70a (hard), shoulder tread is 60a (normal).

    Maxxis 3C = three layers of different compound rubbers, available in 3 combinations (see below). The base layer is always a very firm, stiff rubber and the two layers on top of this are progressively softer. The idea is to create a grippy tyre that doesn’t squirm around or drag as much as a single compound soft tyre.

    Maxxis 3C Maxx Terra = 70a base, 50a centre, 42a shoulders.”

    I think there used to be tyres that were just 60a as well?

    The shoulder knobs wear really quickly/rip off using 3c tyres on the rear.

    Posted 2 years ago
    BadlyWiredDog
    Full Member

    They are so good that here at Singletrack World we’re going to start putting them on all our test bikes. To level the playing field. To act as control tyres. Once a useful numbers of test rides have been done on the test bikes’ own tyres, we’ll be swapping them out to some Maxxis Minion DHR II 2.4in WT tyres.

    I’m curious – as well, as going by my comments a year ago, a bit cynical – but does this actually happen? The ‘control tyre’ thing I mean, or was a it a nice idea that never quite happened in real life? And if it did, was there anything you learned from it?

    Are there bikes which undergo a radical transformation just by fitting a set of DHR IIs? Or even feel worse with the original tyres ditched?

     

    Posted 9 months ago
    alpin
    Free Member

    Been running them front (3C) and rear (harder compound, DD) for years….

    Although now got Aggressor on the rear, no fancy DD or compound. Survived many bike parks and Finale without any problems.

    Posted 9 months ago
    2
    tops5
    Free Member

    But I thought the Hillbilly was the best tyre going??

    Stand Out Product Of The Year: Specialized Hillbilly – Singletrack World Magazine

    Posted 9 months ago
    Northwind
    Full Member

    TBH it’s always about your idea of “allround”- the Hillbilly’s superb, but it’s definitely a “soft conditions tyre that can do hard stuff”. Most riders just don’t do very much of the soft, difficult riding where it really earns its keep. Let’s be honest, most do none or almost none. If you do, then the tradeoff of dragging it around on hard stuff and having that reduced traction on the dry is probably worth it, but it’s never going to be worth it if you don’t.

    (IMO the Hillbilly like the Magic Mary has been completely outdone by Conti’s Argotal Soft, I think it’s better at everything, all the time… And more so in the areas where the Hillbilly doesn’t shine, it makes no sense that the Argotal is as good as it is at trailcentre hardpack etc. But, on the other hand, the argotal costs a million pounds and only comes in like 3 versions so far)

    I’d disagree with Ben on the Minion too, it’s a superb tyre but “one tyre for everything”? Nah. It’s pretty much a 3 season tyre for me, it can do mud/soft/slippy especially in the maxxgrip but it runs out of steam at much the exact point where I start really wanting a tyre to keep me upright. I would never choose it to go and race at kinlochleven, or for a day of winter fort william offpiste survival, it’d be the difference between riding and walking, or riding and crashing. And that’s OK, because it’s so damn good all the rest of the time.

    And like with the hillbilly, most people don’t do much of that sort of riding where the minion is struggling. But that’s “one tyre for everything except” And the same applies at the other end, I never go to a faster rolling front tyre than the minion except for my one xc race a year, but, there’s “everything except” again.

    There is no one tyre to do everything, but there is one tyre that’s best for your compromise, and there’s a good chance it’s a Minion.

    Posted 9 months ago
    alpin
    Free Member

    soft, difficult riding

    What do you mean by that? Muddy, slippery rides? Slow and technical?

    Posted 9 months ago
    Northwind
    Full Member

    Yep, mostly. Not necessarily slow though, I mean the hillbilly and similar really have their birth in cut dh spikes. I guess you could say any time you’re really asking a lot of the tyre

    Posted 9 months ago
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