“light” trail bike…..tyres

Off the back of the “light’ trail bike thread I got thinking about my FS. A well specced Bird Aether 9C which isn’t exactly heavy but is heavier than expected when I ordered it. Never weighed it mind – just the standard car park heft test. Which made me look at the tyres……

It’s shod with the ubiquitous Maxxis 2.5 DHF and 2.4 DHR II in maxxterra EXO. Not exactly heavy and draggy but maybe could be a bit less of both.

So what would be the next step down the tyre sliding scale of gnar?  Not an xc summer only gossamer light bit of rubber only for use after a month of dry weather. Just a bit lighter and less draggy.

Context – mostly natural Cairngorms and surrounds though a Glenlivet/Laggan/Golspie centre day every now and then. I see surprisingly little mud and when I do I’d probably be on a different bike. I suspect whatever tyres are on it will stay on it

Or maybe DHF/DHRII is just about the most popular combo for a reason and it’s the perfect trail bike compromise….

Schwalbe Nobby Nic – 2.35inch – 840gms each. Fast rolling, pretty light and tough.

Stick the DHR on the front. Dissector out back. Lighter and faster.

I’ve recently binned the Nics in favour of Wicked Wills – even faster rolling, don’t seem to be much less grippy.

I’ve got Vittoria barzo TNT’s on my hardtail. Been really impressed by them 🙂

Not really much lighter. Maybe xr4/se4s? Could run an aggressor on the back and keep the dhf if you want it slightly faster rolling.

Dissector is the next step down zone the rear.

Strongly consider the V2 Forekaster though – they are absolutely excellent. Trail bike levels of grip at XC weight. Perhaps it’s thst they suit my usual terrain so much but I’ve been so impressed.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Nobby Nics seem to fit the bill and the others too to look up and see what’s available.

Like many I’m sure tyres are a bit of a compromise and I think it’s dawned on my that DHF/DHR even in trail flavour are just a bit too ‘enduro lite’ for my riding. Natural riding in the Cairngorms is kind of a bit of everything with long bits you’d take you gravel bike on through to slow nurdly barely ridable baby’s heads. The compromise of not wanting to rip a side wall out miles from anywhere but also not wanting a draggy with heavy tyres if you can get away with it too. If I was into slow winch followed by a high adrenaline plummet trail centre stuff and grip on the descent  was king I guess it would be less of a issue.

V2 forecasters, awesome tyres

Those saying forecasters…….how ‘burly’ would you ride them? Not that I am in any way burly in my riding you understand! They come in a surprising range of models including a 2.6 that’s only available in a tougher sidewall – so I guess tough and fast rolling but the same weight as the dhr/DHF with extra volume but less grip.

Wow consensus reigns…. I came to say Nocs of Forecaster 2s. Had both, like both .

2.3 maxxgrip DHF on front and something like a maxxterra minion SS on the rear.

Wow consensus reigns…. I came to say Nocs of Forecaster 2s. Had both, like both .

Can’t have that!

Ardents. Best all round tyres I’ve found, good robustness and decent grip, also last ages. I’m 10st4 though so not the heaviest of riders

I’m running 2.4 exo forecasters on mine. Not given them a huge kicking yet but a reasonable amount of techy stuff and a number of smallish drops and jumps too.
Heading to llandegla on the xc bike with them in the week, not expecting any issues

Ardents. Best all round tyres I’ve found, good robustness and decent grip, also last ages. I’m 10st4 though so not the heaviest of riders

The only positives I found with the Ardents is they’re pretty tough and last well. But they’re heavy, slow, have inefficient shoulder tread on a decent width rim. Also are a slippery nightmare in the wet. So I won’t be buying again.

Might be alright on the back but the Nobby Nics are so.much better. Actually a High Roller 2 is a much better tyre.

Ikon rear, Rekon front

I switched from Nics to Vitoria Mazza 2.4 last year. Similar weight to the NN but feel like they roll quicker.

Rekons or Wicked Wills.

2.6F and 2.4R works well in 29 for me.

Leave the dhf up front and put Rekon on the rear in 3c maxx terra / exo+ casing (don’t get exo in the rekon – it’s like tracing paper for sidewalls.

I ran the rekon on the back of my sentinel last summer and it wasn’t bad. Rolled fast and had some braking grip. Not an all year round tyre though.

My approach… Not typical I think and I don’t quite get it.

DHR2 is a fantastic front, not so much that it’s especially fast but the compromise between speed and grip is excellent. Even the maxxgrip exo is a usable allrounder daily tyre, it shouldn’t be but it is. I’ve never ridden anything else that’s much faster that doesn’t have to give away way more grip to do it. Like, a Nic is a usefully faster front but it’s got drastically less grip even in ideal conditions. It just feels like you always have to give up 2 portions of grip to gain 1 portion of speed (I was going to do percentages but they were all obviously made up bollocks).

Truth is, it’s still a little draggy despite all that, it’s definitely as much tyre as I want to really pedal for a long way. So I balance that with real speed on the rear and semislicks are the absolute <bollocks>, I love them. Rockrazor for preference, they’re the best tyre Schwalbe’s ever made but choice has got smaller recently sadly, semislicks are out of fashion. They have surprising grip in the wet as long as the tyre can cut in and get the sideknobs into play, and even when you run out of grip it’s generally fun

And <managable>, is the thing. Some tyres when they give up gripping do it really well, some don’t. DHR2 as a rear is an awesome slider, it follows you and it’s predictable and slower reacting and managable. Rockrazor is way more abrupt and more wayward but it still basically follows you, you can work with the slide and you can get traction back. And that’s just a huge advantage, I honestly think a fairly ungrippy tyre that slides well is better on the back than a grippy tyre that slides badly. Like, remember the original DHR? OK while it gripped, terrible when it slid.

I tried Wicked Wills, Forekasters, Dissectors (omg the dissector, worst sliding tyre I’ve used since the DHR, it can go any direction and it’s super hard to stop it sliding once it starts) tbf I think they’re all a bit shit on the rear. Perfectly good tyres but they fill a role that’s not very valuable. They all drag massively more than a semislick, but they’re not all that much more usefully grippy (1 dollop of grip for every 3 dollops of speed!) and when they break loose, which they do, they’re pretty much all less good than the consistency you get with a semislick. I’ll happily take a rockrazor to the golfy in the wet and have a slidy, controllably out of grip time, not so much with these middle of the roaders, I’ll still ride it but I’ll enjoy it less, be more tense and defensive.

To put it another way if you go DHR2 >>>>>> Rockrazor, I’ve just never found a “fast knobbly” that’s close enough to the rockrazor in speed, to balance out how close it is to the rockrazor it is in grip. There isn’t as far as I’ve found anything that’s perfectly in the middle, or perfectly “1 drop more fast and only 1 drop less grippy”, the compromise is always less good than that.

So, business at the front, party at the back.

Awesome response!

I’m basically doing Northwind’s thing but adjusted for trails that are mostly dirt and have a very short window of hero dirt in the dry before they get loose. So my “summer” tyres are a Magic Mary 2.35 (soft snakeskin) and a Rock Razor 2.35 (speedgrip snakeskin), with Rimpacts in both.

The front does most of the braking, both are good at turning, the back has good driving traction unless it’s surprisingly muddy, and the faster compounds make up for the MM’s slower rolling knobs.

Have Nobby Nics on my Shan (lazy pic from my garden chair soaking up the sun earlier) – seem to zip along nicely, but they do have 30psi in them ATM for shopping duties. Will drop the pressures when I go bikepacking.

I did ride them off road for a while when it was my main hardtail and don’t remember them trying to kill me

Rode my hardtail with a Wild Enduro / Rock Razor combo today actually. Zips along quite fast on tarmac for something with chunky tyres (rock razor is 27.5 x2.6” / Wild Enduro is 27.5 x 2.4”).

Doesn’t brake that great in loose / damp loamy stuff. The Rekon on my bike last year had more braking great than the rock razor.

So about as many ways to get to roughly the same point as I thought there would be! I ‘think’ I’m going to go for a pair of 2.4 nobby nics… in the Super ground construction with a soft compound at the front and the  speedgrip at the back. Probably wrong but I haven’t wasted money on tyres for a while! Unless I keep the DHR II and put it on the front and save a few quid.

Nobby Nic rear, Tacky Chan front.

Both 2.4 Super Trail Addix Soft (or could go speedgrip on the rear for a little faster rolling).

80-90% of the rolling resistance comes from the rear tyre (not that the Tacky Chan is slow, but it’s worth running it for the significant extra edge bite on the front over a Nobby Nic).

Could even go for a Wicked Will or a Rock Razor (if you can still find one) on the rear for even more speed.

Dhr 2 front forekaster 2 rear both in maxxterra exo+ works for me as a lighter allround choice, that’s on an alloy aether 9 too.

Dhr 2 front forekaster 2 rear both in maxxterra exo+ works for me as a lighter allround choice, that’s on an alloy aether 9 too.

Well, after extra procrastination last night I actually bought a pair of forekasters 2. Theory being I could run a pair of them or put the existing DHR2 on the front when I felt the need…….and I hate myself for this…..the maxxis logos matching front and rear which wouldn’t have if I’d gone Schwable with a nobby nic!

I’ve gone maxxterra exo rather than exo+ though – a bit lighter but a bit less tough I guess.

Two new fat bike tyres too….that’s an eye watering amount of money to spend on tyres in a oner.

I also hate myself for having to admit the Maxxis video with Jackson Goldstone (who must weigh about the same as my left leg and be about the same age as some of my underwear) shot just down the road and using the term ‘downcountry’ way too many times might have influenced my decision too. So clearly as he’s on similar trails to me and the same tyres I’ll be riding just like that in no time. It’s logical….

I was running a DHR II front and a Rock Razor rear, just swapped the DHR II for a Tacky Chan and so far really liking it. As much grip as the DHR, but more precision.  I was, for amusement, going to try lighter wheels with a Wolfpack Trail front and Racing Ralph rear on lighter wheels, both in 2.25 yesterday but perhaps fortunately, realised I needed missing adaptors for the front hub.

I’ve run an XR4 front with a Rock Razor rear before, but I think if you’re running a Razor out back, you need something properly grippy at the other end to do the braking bit of things. So Tacky Chain/Rock Razor for me, surprisingly fast, surprisingly grippy 🙂