I am off for a dirty weekend riding with the wife at the end of this month. She is taking her full suspension (I need to convert to tubeless) and I am planning on taking my Bfe (26 in, but please don’t laugh at me). Planning on doing alpine singletrack (so not thinking of two days in the bike park). But was thinking larger volume tyres might help with the comfort, as I am old and not taking my fulls susser (not quite built up).

Do I need/should I bother changing my tyres over? I currently have a 2.4 Maxxis HR2 (front) and a Conti Trail King (2.2) (rear); both are set up tubeless although I think only the Conti was designed to be. Neither are dual ply/protection models.

I do have other 26 in tyres in the garage I could fit, but not sure if it will be much of an advantage. They are:

Specialized Butcher/Slaughter (GRID casing), both 2.3

Conti Rubber Queen 2.4/ 2.2 (on the other bike, only 2.2 is Protection)

Maxxis Ardents, both 2.4

Michelin Mountain X’Treme 2.2, with a natty grey centre stripe (I was feeling retro and like giving them a punt)

Panaracer Cedric Garcia 2.35 All Conditions

The other option is I could go and buy some tyres (like Minions/Baron/Trail Kings that would have some element of stronger construction and larger volumes), but sort of feel I have enough that I should be using.

TBH the Alps are not particularly rocky. So not a massive factor. Outside of the bikeparks they’re not that hardpacked either…. So again, not a massive factor.

Personally i wouldn’t want to ride a HT 🙂 but that’s what you have.

Any tyre swap won’t be a game changer, your on a HT so your gonna feel it.

I used a Hillbilly Grid & Trail King 2.2 Pro in Samoëns this year on my 120mm HT, up your tyre pressure. You could consider a Huck Norris or similar for added rim protection, particularly in the rear.

Where in the alps are you going?

I had a pretty tough time on tyres (3 punctures in SG schwables) in BSM but was surprisingly light on them (no punctures on DD maxxis) in Davos, same bike, same idiot on board!

What you currently have will be perfectly fine.

Trails really aren’t much different to the UK, just last a lot longer..

Scaled: Verbier.

Weeksy: don’t think I am going to get the full susser built up, (due to work home & commitments), but will try to make time.

Thanks all for your comments.

Be reet as it is.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/284wDnj]Sanderson Breath Les Gets[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

Supertacky tyres feel like cheating if you’ve never tried them before. Normal tyres probably won’t ruin the holiday (unless they get cut), but the incremental cost of new tyres on top of a holliday isn’t much so I’d get some (take the highroller in the bag as a spare).

TBH the Alps are not particularly rocky.

Bit of a generalisation! They were when I rode in St Anton above 2000m in the summer.

Here for example –

https://instagram.com/p/BlN0WeRHVdZ/

I swapped to some tougher casing tyres when I went for a week, mainly because the cost vs. hassle factor of ripping a sidewall or similar was definitely worth it for me. 45,000ft of descent later and no issues (not that i definitely would have had a puncture anyway) justified it for me. I haven’t bothered switching back since to be honest, I didn’t notice any disadvantage at all so I’ll run them until they wear out.

With a hardtail I’d certainly want as much sidewall protection and tyre volume as i could squeeze in to be honest. A lot of the ‘Mixed use’ and non-bikepark trails are rocky for miles and miles of descent, but if you’re just riding Morzine/Pleney/Les Gets purpose built trails I wouldn’t feel the need. Both types of riding are equally enjoyable, just depends what you’re planning to do.

TBH the Alps are not particularly rocky.

Considering he’s off the Verbier …. It very much is in places!

Personally, I’d grab a couple of EXO Maxxis tyres in 3c and dual or some Snakeskin Schwalbe tyres in soft and speedgrip.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> You can use them for the Alps, but when you get home just keep them on and enjoy the new rubber.</span>

I found that… 2.35 Magic Mary soft, 2.35 Hans Dampf speedgrip

Or

2.5 Maxxis DHF 3c, 2.3 Maxxis DHR2 dual

Work really well in Verbier.

the Alps are not particularly rocky.

Made of rubber in’t they! 😉

Always used Butcher Grid in Verbier and never had a problem with them. Saying that I only ever swap tyres when they are worn out. If you want even better protection the new Specialized Butcher Blck Dmnd are very good