Rubber news! I’m a fan of the Specialized Hillbilly. I always have one in my tyre pile. New Hillbilly looks like it may be bit more capable.

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By ben_haworth

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New Specialized Hillbilly looks ace, costs £37.50

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I do get excited by cheap rubber but hope the opportunity to try these is still a while away

I’ve been sucked in by keen pricing on Specialized tyres before. I won’t be touching these unless they’re significantly better than previous versions.

I’ve been sucked in by keen pricing on Specialized tyres before. I won’t be touching these unless they’re significantly better than previous versions.

Very much this. With the exception of the really old Slaughter Grid.
All others have been run for a few weeks, after which they ended up on the tyre pile and then used to get people out in desperate times.

I really like the Hillbilly. Just Works as a front tire for me. It maybe doesn’t exhibit Magic Mary levels of tenacity, but it’s also a lot more affordable than the 70 notes or whatever the decent compound MMs go for.

So a moar betterer Hillybilly at a decent price sounds like good news! 😄

Based mostly on an unscientific ‘who made it down a muddy steep trail the right way up’ test a few years back the previous (mk1?) hillbilly was better jn horrible mud than the MM of the time. The new one (mk3?) looks like a bit of a reversion to that compared to the current one (mk2?).

More of a mud tyre that isn’t awful elsewhere than a winter all rounder, which suits me fine.

I really cannot understand the level of  love when it comes to tyres. They pretty much give us the same chunky tyre as per a hundred tyres across the years, tweaking the shape of the knobble and the magazines then tout it as simply amazing.

Perhaps this latest incarnation has its knobbles spaced 0.025mm further apart(or closer in.

Never paid more than 32 quid for Magic Mary Soft, Shorty 3c Maxx Tera, DHF’s 3c Maxx Terra and Wild Enduros. Although the prices keep getting bumped a few quid each time!

Bontrager, Hutchinson and Continental have comprehensive ranges of good quality tyres. CST, MSC, Panaracer and the likes are not the easiest to get hold of in the UK. With that said there is plenty of choice without having to buy plastic shitters or tyres with wafer thin soft top layers.

DHR’s and Assagais (due to popularity) in useable configurations are much harder to get for reasonable prices!

Good alternative to a shorty.

“I really cannot understand the level of love when it comes to tyres.”

If you actually rode your MTB off-road then you’d have a different perspective! 😉

The old Hillbilly is a great tyre. Despite not having a super sticky compound it has similar grip to a Magic Mary soft, with the Mary a bit better on wet rock and the Hillbilly a bit better in soft ground. It also rolls better and wears much better than you’d expect.

I always want the hillbilly to succeed- it was the first of all of the “precut spikes” really, bitd but they never capitalised on it, it was a dh carcass only for ages and then the shorty came along. But specialized just seem to always get <something> wrong with most of their tyres. Whether it’s weak carcasses or feedback-free carcasses or single options across a whole range so that both front and rear’s compromised, or only included on full builds and not available seperately…

I mean, it’s largely because they maintain a smaller range, so they don’t have say Maxxis’s ability to fire the tyre blunderbuss and just see what hits.

Don’t say this magazine doesn’t have any power. Specialized have listened to Ben say how cheap they are at £37 so they’ve put them up to £45 😉

Don’t say this magazine doesn’t have any power. Specialized have listened to Ben say how cheap they are at £37 so they’ve put them up to £45 😉

They could come with a £50 note and I still wouldn’t have Spesh tyres

I have been bitten by Spesh’s lethal front tyres before, but word is the new T9 compound is pretty decent.

Still sticking with my Verdict for wet/intermediate riding though.

Went from borrowing a bike With Maxxis Assegai and DHR rear, to a set of Spesch Butcher T9 and Eliminator T7 on exactly the same model bike. I have a brand new Magic Mary waiting to be fitted, so have no reason to hang on to the spesch tyres if they were rubbish, but other than the rear needing more air, the grip is no worse for me in dry conditions.
I’d be trying the Hillbilly, if i didn’t already have the MM

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I don’t get the hate, I’ve run quite a few Specialized tyres and never had issues with grip. And that having also run a MM, Shorty and DHF.

The best “value” tyres IMO are WTB. Tough Fast on the back for bombproof tubelessness.