so here is a thing. first ride back on 29r wheels after a summer on 2.8NN’s.

the hand pump I’d been getting on long descents is gone. vanished. not a hint.

nothing but the wheels/tyres changed.

confused.

For anyone interested, Alltricks have the 2.8″ 27.5″ DHF, DHR2 and High Roller (all in Dual Compound) in stock now

http://www.alltricks.com/C-40535-tyres/N-11923-brand~maxxis/N-58733-width~2.80/I-Page1_20

PNOCT gets you 10% on the DHR2

First night ride on the WTB Ranger TCS Tough 2.8 out back last night. Slammed into several rockeries at reasonable speed without any hint of a pinch flat, which is a major advance on previous tyres, trust me…

It’s pretty fast rolling despite being very obviously a little heavy. Grip feels about right to me for a rear tyre and was happy on everything from rock and hardpack through to medium soft stuff. Not so good on deeper mud, but then nothing much in b+ is as far as I can see.

It works nicely teamed with a 2.8 NN up front though I might swap that for the Rekon+ I took off the back.

As above, it’s slightly small for the stated size, the 3.0 might be a better bet for float, and probably around the same dimensions as a Trailblazer, but actually has some edge knobs, which is nice.

At any rate, the sidewalls definitely aren’t made of cheese. It was something of a relief… 😉

Got a 2.8 DHF 3C Exo from Bike-Components today, EUR 79.95, not fitted it yet, but it’ll replace a Nobby Nic, with a Rekon out back.

No more tyre OCD. Aaaaah.

Don’t think the tyre is listed on the site yet, but they did a special order for me.

Thanks guys, I’m glad you’ve done the beta testing already.

The 2.8in NN Snakeskin Apex Trailstar is quoted at 960g, which is 75g more than the 29er Magic Mary Snakeskin – and that has proved more than tough enough for my needs.

I prefer the look of the tread on the Rekon or Minion, but I refuse to pay that much for a bicycle tyre.

LOVE my 2.8 DHF 3c

After waiting the best part of a year for them, I’ve decided against buying the minions. The price, Maxxis narrow sizing and shallow tread has put me off.
I know that the view is that the tread doesn’t need to be so deep on plus tyres as there is a bigger contact patch, but that just says to me that they will need replacing sooner as there wasn’t much tread to start with and at £80 a piece I wouldn’t want to be replacing them that regularly.

The 2.8 butcher and slaughter GRIDs are now available in the states. If they aren’t going to be available in the UK anytime soon, I might see if I can find somewhere that’ll ship them over.

Not sure why so few people are posting re the WTB Bridger. Good few of us using them over here, and I’m not aware of anything but deep love for them.
We’ve got a good range of terrain over here every time we ride (rocks, flint, roots and slop etc) and they just work.

The Ranger is a much better tyre.
The knobs actually go all the way to the outside of the tyre.
Think it’s grown a little now too. I’ll try and measure it later.

Thanks mate

Has anyone compared the 2.8 to 3.0 Ranger? Got a trailblazer at the moment but fancy more grip to match the bridger on the front.

I’m running Bridger front and back with no issues really, still trying to dial in the pressures though….

Found the 2.8 butcher GRID in Arts Cyclery, but they are $60 each and they want another $60 to ship them via UPS. HiBike.de are going to have stock arrive end of May and they are much better priced at 50 euros each plus 9e for shipping. So I’ll be holding off on any tyre purchases until they arrive in Germany.

I think I’d said before I really liked the 2.8 NN front, rocket ron rear I had on my last scale plus (once I found the pressure sweet spot) Plenty of repaired tears on the Ron with glue patches but it was still absolutely fine run tubeless. No issues with the NN but it was only ever up front so not really at risk.
I’ve a 3.0 purgatory grid pair now and whilst it’s a much heavier tyre that I’ve no doubt it will not need anything like the sidewall repairs that the RR was subject to, however it is probably the least reliable tubeless install I’ve ever had. I can’t run it much below 20psi without it oozing sealant under JRA pedalling (in snow).
Once the snow is completely gone, I’ll try and solve the tubeless problem or just retire them for now and looking forwards to trying the rekon 2.8 that came on the new bike.

That’s proper mtb’ing Alex ^^

In contrast I managed a few local miles pottering through the woods on my freshly cobbled-together 650b+ bike [a 29 Parkwood with Recons] and 2.8 WTB Ranger Comps – it’s so ‘springy’ and fun to ride, I guess it’s the combo of a coil fork and soft 2.8 but it just launches off small roots and lips 😀

The sidewalls on the cheap Comps might be a bit cheese-like, but having ridden them now, I’ll happily drop £50 on the Tough version if I do manage to rip a sidewall. They ride nice and the clearance is good (wouldn’t want to go any bigger in the RS Recon). I only run 27mm rims and they still come up about 2.6 on the carcass and 2.8 across the shoulder knobs.

Not sure if these pics will work ..