hovering in my basket, which to go for ????

I have no experience of either, but they both get good reviews

Will be going on both ends of a Soul, riding mainly natural west of Scotland stuff.

Go for the purgatory, great all-round tyres. Don’t go for 2.25 ardents unless it’s a slidy rear tyre you’re after. I use both and 2.4 ardents in some combo or another for 90% of my riding.

thanks jameso

Purgatory. Awesome tyre, Iain. Control is a wee bit tougher than the s works.

Both excellent tyres! I tend to use the Ardent as a rear and purgatory on the front.

aaaargghhhh, bought them both 😳

How quicker is a purgatory over a butcher (both control).

Was running a butcher front and purgatoy rear and loved it but with all this sunshine, I stuck a crossmark on the back last night…

Just wondering if i should swap the butcher for the purg laying in the shed.?!

Thanks

I tend to use the Ardent as a rear and purgatory on the front.

Great ‘middle conditions’ combo. I swap to a 2.4 ardent up front in the dry, Purg on the back in the wet. But if I had to choose 1 tyre for everything it’d be the Purgatory, slower on the dry trails than some but great everywhere else.

I like the Purgs.

Only major downside I’ve found is that they don’t brake brilliantly in a straight line on steeper stuff compared to something like a High Roller, but then again they also roll a lot better.

So maybe a purg rear, Butcher control Front would be a nice combo?

Don’t go for 2.25 ardents unless it’s a slidy rear tyre you’re

sniggers and feels much better about my riding on 2.25 ardents. Dropped from minions and not worried by it at all, grippy and good in all but sloppy mud which is the same as anything bar spikes.

I know it gets well reviewed but I found the Purgatory to be terrible on anything off camber , it slipped about all over the place and gave you no warning that it was about to do so .

Must be just you then….. 😀

I have the butcher/purg combo to try this weekend up mugdock – just gone from minion exo/ardent. Both seem pretty alike but the spec package is a bit lighter. 🙂

Mr plow. Would be very interested to know how you find that as that’s what I’m looking at. Currently got purg front and cap on back.

Mr plow I would also like to know how this goes I ride with minion/ ardent combo and am looking to change to either butcher/ purgatory or purgatory/ captain. I ride mugdock, lennox, cambusbarron etc.

Creedy just read your post what is your combo like?

so it seems like the Purgatory gets the vote for the wet side of allround, and the Ardents maybe better/faster rolling for dry stuff ?

Please update Mr Plow with your findings on the Purg/Butcher combo. 🙂

Rode these today but my comparison is very subjective. Background: I have been riding an 06 enduro through winter with minion front, larsen rear for giggles.
Today I was out on a 2012 enduro, sameish travel (160/160 2012 vs 160/165 06)and setup with the butcher front and purg rear – both tubeless.

First thoughts – the butcher seems very good. Very like a minion in most respects. Appears to edge well into corners on all type of surface. One thing that feels slightly better to me is the transition across the tyre if you are going right left right etc. There seems to be no transition feel, it is very smooth. On a minion you can feel it slightly, on a highroller it is very obvious (not that this is bad – just that you can feel it, HR ultimately has a dead spot and needs leaned all the time imo). I thought that this would transfer into less bite on the edge of the Butcher but it does not seem to be the case. I felt instantly confident in the tyre and did not manage to wash it out as I can a minion now and again with lazy riding.

Rolling resistance on the Butcher: not sure – I was riding flats instead of SPDs and the trails were damp instead of bone dry like last time I was out. It feels no worse than a 62A minion. You can hear that it is softer. I think on softer damper ground that it might be a tiny bit draggier but adding more grip. On hard stuff it rolls with no increase in drag felt. Given I have dropped weight compared to the minion exo and it already feels very good I think me and the Butcher will get on well as long as it can survive rocks is it must have a lighter sidewall.

The Purg – Seemed to ride very like an ardent. If it was a blind test I would struggle to tell you what was on there or the differences in feel. The bonus of the purg and the ardent over the larsen is off camber stuff. You have to be careful on a larsen or just be out for sideways fun. The purg/ardent are a much better balance for a minion/butcher up front. I think the purg may be a ting bit harder than an ardent but the purg has slightly more defined knobs for grip. You can feel it trying to bite on loose ground when climbing a little more than an ardent. I would say they both do the same job. Would take a long day out at a trail centre to decide what rolls better. Again I dropped weight from running a lust ardent to going to a control purg so I am happy.

Over all I am very happy with the butcher/purg. I am also happy with the minion/ardent combo. I like to ride everything on the same tyres for low faffage. I like to ride long days XC and steep natural off piste stuff at Inners etc on the same tyres. Boths these combos are perfect for that imo. The specialized combo is lighter but may ultimately be weaker.

I did manage to clag the tyres up on one claggy trail that drops to rosie’s road. They handled like any other tyre clagged up! lol The tyres both cleared as soon as I was on a different surface off that trail.

Not sure if that helps anyone and you may have different experiences etc caveat caveat lol

My spesh evo came with butcher/purg and they both grip like s**t to a blanket and roll pretty well. only problem is that I put a hole in the side of the purg after only a few rides on not the most challenging terrain.

I swapped the purg out back for an ardent 2.25 lust, it maybe doesn’t have the same side grip as the purg but rolls well and i have peace of mind that my ride isn’t going to be spoilt.

The butcher is staying on the front mind , gives you bags of confidence.

Was back out on these again yesterday. I would say that the butcher/purg combo has a tiny bit more drag than the Minion/purg combo which aligns with what others have said. Pretty happy with how rides, front end is very good and the weight saving over LUST/EXO maxxis is nice as long as they don’t fail early… 😯

Butcher/Ardent may be the holy grail but not tried it.

Purgatories are superb on the front too.
Very predictable, loads of grip, fast.

Used for ages (just about to stick a part worn pair on this afternoon),
my favourite all rounders, along with Bonty XR4’s, which are a bit grippier but a little bit slower.

I’m not buying anymore though, unless someone can point me in the direction of some cheap ones.

Considering getting a 2.3 29er Purgatory but a bit concerned about clearance height wise could someone please let me know if this is a tall tyre? Would be great if someone has it and can let me know the height and the rim it is seated on.

The 2.3 29 isn’t on here yet but the other Purgs may give you some idea:

http://www.reifenbreiten-datenbank.de/reifen-Specialized-Purgatory.html

The older 2.2 and 2.4 were accurately sized (ie big compared to most) but the new 2.3 is more like the old 2.2

That is a very useful site guru many thanks.