Is it possible to get a "definitive" view on STW for the best winter tyre…?

….and if so, where to buy them from, good deals etc?

most recent magazine reckoned Bonty Mud X. I used to swear by Trailrakers but agree that Mud x are a better allround winter tyre

Beaver.

There’s no one sort of winter riding, therefore no one best tyre.

Frinstance, I wouldn’t recommend a Mud X on the front to anyone, for me it just meant slow down or crash and I didn’t much want to do either. But then I reckon most people would be unhappy with the drag of a supertacky swampthing.

I want it to snow hard so I can stick screws through my old tyres and stick em on my hack bike.

Mud X , jejames online offer £19.99 with web code 40597 . enjoy

for real gloopy / claggy mud there is no tyre like the Trail Raker in 1.95 flavour for me!

Yes.

Yes it is.

There is always one “best” product for any general situation.

On one are doing dirty dans at £20 a tyre, wiill have to wait and see if there as good as a maxxis medusa they are replacing. But at 450g per tyre and tubless ready their certainly lighter and look more”aggressive”M

Big Fat Larry?

New ones.. with an aggressive nobbly tread pattern..

I always invest in cheap new tyres at this time of year.. whatever is on special offer seems to do the trick..

By the end of summer next year when it’s all dry they will have worn down to decent semi slick hard conditions tyres..

Kenda Nevegals last year FWIW.. they were ok

Shwalbe Fat Alberts this year

for proper sized wheels im loving the Beaver 😀

What’s the best type of winter for MudXs? Or Ice Spikers? Or Conti 4seasons?

Have I laboured that enough? For the record I have a set of each on slightly different bikes – roll on winter.

Mud X is great, but I find even the 2″ a bit narrow. It’s superb if you ride mainly soft open trails, but I find on rocky and rooty trails prevalent in most places I ride, they’re just a bit narrow and I have to run them too firm.

I wish they did a 2.2″ version (proper 2.2″ not comedy big 2.2″ like the XR4!) which would be ideal for me. Ok it wouldn’t be quite so good in the out and out mud, but it’d be grippier where it counts to me, and would probably still be a bit less draggy than a swamp thing!

I’d have to go for the swampthing, supertacky front and rear. When it’s muddy and slimy gotta go for max grip..forget rolling resistance.

Mud X + 1

Awesome tyre. Lots of roots, rocks and mud where we are and it does it all. Is even pretty quick on the road…….!

Actually there is 1 best:

Any Continental 700 x 25.

First muddy ride on Sunday on my all-rounder tyres (Wild Grip’r 2.25 front, Wild Race’r 2.10 on the back). Front end stuck fine and cleared OK. Back end all over the place and clogged almost instantly. Just ordered a Wild Grip’r 2.00 for the back.

I know the Wild Grip’r is good for me on most surfaces under most conditions, so losing a small amount of outright mud performance compared to specialised treads is bearable. The odd twitchy moment keeps you on your toes, no?

Go with what you know.

slainte 😀 rob

Mud X is great, but I find even the 2″ a bit narrow. It’s superb if you ride mainly soft open trails, but I find on rocky and rooty trails prevalent in most places I ride, they’re just a bit narrow and I have to run them too firm.

I wish they did a 2.2″ version (proper 2.2″ not comedy big 2.2″ like the XR4!) which would be ideal for me. Ok it wouldn’t be quite so good in the out and out mud, but it’d be grippier where it counts to me, and would probably still be a bit less draggy than a swamp thing!

+1 Bonty should make a bigger mud x. 2.0 is fine on the rear, but a tad too small on the front. I also wish maxxis did a dual compound swamp thing and high roller. I might try a 60a swampy this winter and see how it compares.

im not even gonna bother with mud tyres this year – im going for an allround ust setup in the advantage……id be very surprised if most of your riding is continuous mud, and if so why on earth would you want to ride in it 🙂

anyone around the peak area will get away with an agressive xc tyre for most of winter…..

mud x’s are a good tyre in the mud make no mistake – but they are light, have thin sidewalls and dont feel overly firm or stable on rocky stuff to me….

it was pretty mucky in places up peak at the weekend (not so much muddy as there really isnt a great deal of mud of the route we did) but certainly wet/mucky/slippy in places and i still had a crossmark on the rear and it performed pretty ace considering the wet slippyness alone…..

it may be a crap idea and i end up regretting not sticking the mud x on, but im sure the advantage all rounder will cope pretty well with it all…

mud x for 29ers in the NW Alps, brilliant tyre

Mud X is great, but I find even the 2″ a bit narrow.

i thought the idea of a mud tyre was to dig in to find grip through the mud, anything bigger would just float and slide about on the top wouldn’t it?

Rode the Dirty Dans in not very muddy conditions on Saturday and they were excellent, like a faster Mud X. Scary on the road though unsurprisingly!

I just ride the same tyres all year round, ok may not get the absolute best performance at any one time, but its more fun and your skills improve.

Is it possible to get a “definitive” view on STW for the best winter tyre…?

Of course it is, but it’ll be 200 different definitive views…

Mud-X for me front and back, is seemingly the best compromise for local riding, where stretches of road or canal work between off-road sections mean that the like of Trailraker are just painful

Though there are seemingly lots of new mud tyres around this year, I’m hoping for a break thru… fast rolling but grips wet roots (a delusion I know)

SWAMPTHING.

Maxxis High Rollers all year round on all of my bikes. Although, very occasionally I’ll put a spike on the front of my DH bike.

But then I like sliding about in the mud, I’m no slower than any of my mates and I’m not after small gains to put me on the podium.

Is it possible to get a “definitive” view on STW for the best winter tyre…?

No.. we all ride different surfaces, therefore there are lots of tyres which work best depending on where you ride.

Minions all year round for me, lakes.

mud x is not a bad allrounder

I used mud x last year, great tyre, I also gave the bonty xr3’s a try, I didn’t get on with those at all. I’ve just switched to spesh storms, pretty identical tread pattern to the mud x but slightly harder compound, I find them very good too, definitely faster than mud x on the dryer days though. Saying that any tyre would have struggled on the leaves last weekend.

IMO Trailraker is a mud tyre not a winter tyre. For Dusk til Dawn a few weeks ago, which was basically an 11 mile long 1 metre wide ribbon of gloop, Trailraker would have been perfect. But for general winter riding (wet roots and so on), it’s not the boot for the job.

Despite it’s name, Mud X looks to be a better all round winter conditions tyre.

Trying to get this place to agree on anything is like herding cats..

I too like the Mud X’s but I’m keen to try these here new fangled beavers on my new bike.

Then again i rode with Nobby Nics all last winter on my HT and never had any problems with them 🙂

I ran swampthings front and rear right up until May this year (ST front and 60a rear). I thought they were excellent as all rounders and no where near as slow as I thought they were going to be. Single ply ones are good value too.

I like the look of Mud-x’s but as someone has said they are a bit thin, fine for mud but if you take a trip to rocky’er places (peaks/lakes) then you’ll have to keep the pressure up otherwise rims will get dinged.