I currently run a beaver on the front in winter. Grips nearly all the mud I throw at it and doesn’t suck on everything else.

On the back I’ve had have something more summery like nobby nic or conti x king.

In the mud the rear tends to drift a lot which is fun, though can’t be that good for some of the trails. I wonder if I tried a beaver on the rear as well, might I end up being faster / riding better / not sliding / stylishly drifting two wheels rather than one (in my dreams).

Has anyone here run that combination? How was it?

Beaver is more of a rear tyre anyway IMO. Planning on running a 2.25 on the rear with a 2.3 Shorty on the front this winter on my HT.

Shorty is more of a DH tyre and much heavier and draggier though?

(Sorry should have said this is for hardtail which has to climb hills, then take whatever I throw it down, which may sometimes be of DH standard, but more often than not isn’t, and might include road spins between trails).

I also run a Beaver on the front through the winter months. It may not be the best in the real slop but most of the stuff I ride is much more varied (roots, rocks etc) and it seems to be a good compromise for me. I run an Ardent on the rear which I think works really well as it breaks away sooner than the Beaver on the front which gives you a sort of early warning grip system.

Was going to try a Beaver front / Ikon rear and see how long I lived before replacing the back. Was also considering Spec. Purg or Ground(?) as they are reptty cheap for 2Bliss variants

Beavers front & rear here. Great tyres for the money.

I have been running a mountain king protection BChilli front all year round and an Ikon or beaver on the back depending on season. Find them really good combos.

Interesting, I’d have imagined the beaver would be much better than the mountain king as a mud front tyre

I ran this combo for the first time this morning, on my way to work. I had never tried the Beavers before (so it was my first time with a beaver… 😳 😆 ).

This are now my favorite autumn/winter tyres!

I rode through leafy/rooty woods (wet), gravel tracks covered with leaves (wet) one steep loamy downhill singletrack with two sharp corners (wet) and plenty of tarmac (dry) – despite the nice, low rumble they were very easy to roll, but most importantly they gripped to everything they went on!

They are narrow, but I feel more confident on them than I was on Butcher/Purg combo to be honest!

Can’t wait for commute back…

Been running 29×2.25 beavers front and rear all year round on my HT. They are such good all-rounders I never took them off after last winter.

The rear is pretty worn now so thining about going with mboys option of Beaver on the back and Shorty on the front. On paper the shorty is only 95g heavier than the beaver.

I run 2.0 Beavers front and rear on my XC HT race bike when it gets too soft/wet for the 2.2 Ikons. They are great, but are quite low volume, and I certainly feel more beaten up after using them compared to the high volume Ikons.

I’m going to come back and confuse this thread with a footnote.

Being a fan of the beaver 2.25 exo 29 on the front, I thought I’d try it on the rear as well. Thinking maybe it would get me up those muddy climbs? But in that respect it has turned out to be no better than the x king it replaced. Maybe I’ll try reversing it to see if that helps climbing traction.

The only place it seems to be an improvement is when braking down muddy steep stuff, which I do like riding so maybe that’s no bad thing. But that has come at the cost of much increased rolling resistance over the x king. So not sure I’d go for it as a rear again.

Funny as somebody above was saying it’s great rear and rubbish front … for the kind of riding I do on my hardtail it seems to be the opposite – each to their own I suppose!

2.25 Beavers f&r here. Been using them for races recently including last night night race at Haldon. Seem a great compromise between grip in winter and not too draggy.

Being a fan of the beaver 2.25 exo 29 on the front, I thought I’d try it on the rear as well. Thinking maybe it would get me up those muddy climbs?

Few rides in to my combo now (2.25 Beaver rear, 2.3 Shorty front) and can confirm this is probably the one weakness of the Beaver. It definitely doesn’t have as much traction in the mud as a Mud X or the like, but my god it’s awesome everywhere else! As a relatively fast rolling (yes it’s slow, but not as slow as proper mud tyres) “soft conditions” (rather than full mud) rear tyre it’s grippy, predictable, a decent size and despite not being labelled as Tubeless Ready it went up tubeless first time and has stayed up since. It’s a relatively round profile though, which I like on the back, but it’s not got the edge bite for my preferences on the front.

I’ve done a few runs in the FoD now on my combo, and after a bit of experimentation with pressures, am finding the Shorty up front a pretty awersome pairing with the 2.25 Beaver on the back on the steeper, more technical natural runs down there, without being too draggy on the fireroad links compared to a Mud X/Michelin Mud etc.

Keen to try a Magic Mary on the front for comparison FWIW.

beaver 2.0 or bonty mud-x rear would be a better bet for mud.

For wet trail riding a shorty 2.3/beaver 2.25 combo is great and provides much more confidence than my previous beaver each end on steep and fast stuff without any noticeable difference in pedalling.

don’t have the 29er version but I use 26 version front and rear on both my bikes over winter / spring. I think the combination works very well. I have more traction on the rear compared to summer tyres and find it clears mud better too so cornering and braking are better too as the tyre isn’t clogged.