Building up a fully rigid 29er and looking for tyre recommendations. Ride a mixture of trail centre (Glentress/Inners) and natural routes. A mixture of surfaces, from smooth man-made to muddy natural. So tyres will need to be all-rounders.

Have Maxxis Ardents on FS 26er which I quite like; had Conti Mountain Kings on 26er hard tail and really liked those.

Also seen good things about Race Kings – but not sure how they’d do on wet natural stuff.

Any suggestions?
Cheers.

Ardents front & crossmark back 8)

check dis thread:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/on-one-smorgasbord-tyres

What bigsi said. Or Ikon/aspen on the back.Good allround combo. I run Ron and Raplh or NN and ralph everywhere

@bigsi:

Ardents front & crossmark back

Have read that CrossMarks are not good in the wet/on roots. Is that your experience?

‘light & fast’ sound good tho…

Put a pair of Conti X-Kings (2.2) on my 29er HT for an event last weekend and loved ’em – very impressed.

Bonti 29-4 (2.4) front and FR3 (2.3) rear all year round for rocky, rooty south Wales

2.4 Ralph is nice big and fast. 2.4 ardents are huge comfy and good in most conditions except proper mud. Beavers are excellent in mud, better tyre than the mudx as an all rounder. Hearing fantastic things about the ikons though! I think they will be my next purchase. My friend really loves the hans dampf, seems a good all rounder, hence the name I guess.

I run with Specialized Ground Controls on mine, bu tthye only come in 2.1″ size so maybe a bit small for rigid activities.

Other than that they’re great all rounders, fast, grippy and light

To add if you wanr something less pricey than a Ikon I ran a Spesh Fastrak on the back of mine for ages. Cheap, hardwearing and suprisingly good for a tyre I hated in 26inch form

Left field suggestion: GEAX Gato

Great in clag on my 26″ SS Chameleon. Twentynineinches rate them and Wiggle have the 29×2.3 in their sale at the mo.

Got the race kings on my full bounce, amazing in the dry, but not in the wet. Just fitted xkings to the 29 fat roll but better mud control

Spesh 2.2 Purgatorys are much better in the wet / mixed than Ardents ime. Really good tyres, TLR and dual compound for about £25. Got them on a rigid and miss the 2.4 Ardent’s cush, but not the poor wet ground cornering grip. Ardents are OK on wet gravel but not great on woodland / muddy kind of wet.

I’ve just fitted 2.35 HAns Dampf to mine. They’re nice, big, spacious, nice tread.. although i’ve not tried them on dirt yet.

2.4 Ardents appear to be good in most conditions, but there was the odd occasion where I would have liked something a little grippier on the front when really pushing on through wet off camber rocks and roots, but the same could be said about the majority of tyres I’ve ridden that aren’t Super Tacky.

SmallBlock8’s are my all-round ride and race go-to tires for my 29er. Not the best on wet roots, but then nothing is, and seem to be pretty good on everything else.

Im running crossmarks. Great tyre for hard pack and dry summer. Its been okay with loamy wet soils but so far I’ve avoided all roots.

CONTI X KINGare always a safe bet