After a Gorrick race where I spent more than my fair share of time on my @rse, going sideways or my back tyre travelling twice as far as my front, it is time to rethink my tyres.
A post on here said the course despite the rain was well drained and fast. After more rain Saturday night it was very sloppy and XC Pros were obviously not the order of the day.
What do people race on in those conditions? Nobby Nics seem an obvious choice but at £40 a pop not in my budget so what else were people using?
How about paying £25 for nobby nics like everyone else does?
Mud Xs are a fantastic tyre in the slop, but they're not very fast.
Nics roll much faster, but aren't as grippy in the mud.
Ah the infamous Gorrick mud! It's weird stuff that, kind of a mix of Peak District style grinding paste but with more clog-ability.
My mud tyre of choice has always been the Specialized Extreme Control/Master 1.7" combination but you they're no longer made. I like the Specialized Houffalaize tyre, it doesn't look like it'll work in the mud but it does. Available in a 1.5 and 1.8 inch flavours.
To be honest I would of thought fire XC would be fine.
I was using Michelin XC AT's, which I tend to find a bit more slippy than fire XC.
Ok the first lap out it was pretty bad but after that it was fine, I was glad I had a reasonably fast tyre on the fire roads / ups and I managed to over take a fair few people here.
Smee, where do you get Nobby Nics for £25?
I'm pretty sure that the last lot I got came from Merlin.
[url= http://merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=1352&categoryId=153 ]£30 each[/url] at the moment, not too bad.
NN's seem to come up on the Classifieds quite a lot too.
I'd sell mine actually, they're a little big baggy to seal on my Roval wheels. £40 the pair, in fact I'm gonna put them up there now!
Fire XCs tend to clof in muddy conditions (well, they do at Thetford anyhow).
I got some Continental Edges for when it's really sh1tty and they are pretty grippy and clear well. But they do drag on the drier sections, which is a price I am more than willing to pay for a bit more traction in the wet stuff.
I couldnt be arsed to change out my rear tyre so i ended up racing yateley yesterday with a Bonty Jones ACX front and a Racing Ralph Rear, YES a RR dont laugh!
i have a NN and also a mud x but thought i'd give the above combo a good go.
i'm well impressed with the ACX on the front in gritty gloopy mud, i much prefer the control of the acx over the NN on off camber slippy mud, not too slow, and cleared ok in the unusual consistency mud.
VERY surprisingly the RR performed to an aceptable standard, yes i lost traction on steep climbs but was able to overcome this most of the time.
Sideways slip was more of an issue but still better than expected, the only cloging was on the edges, which probably decreased sideways traction.
a 1.8 mudx on the rear probably would have been the perfect weapon with either a mudx2.0 or acx on the front.
i dont like NN on front in those conditions, far to sketchy
I had 2.0 Mud X front and rear. No grip problems, just skill and power problems!
conti explorer is a pretty good budget choice for gorricks; was running a gravity on the front yesterday and it was spot on. my rear tyre wasn't great (maxxis larsen tt) a friend was running conti speed kings and found those ok too.
What about speccy storms? ive been very impressed, massive improvement over NN's.