Ok so clearing out the garage and found a few old tyres. Mainly dhr/dhf types.
After a couple over night trips on my hardtail I’ve been think about a second wheel set with faster rolling tyres (or a gravel bike but that’s another thread😂)

So I thought could I cut the knobs of the tyre down with some of those tyre snips to make it faster rolling? Would a cut down tyre be faster than a worn out tyre?
Over nights are normally a mix of bridleway/ road/ fire road. I like to Chuck in a few trails as well, nothing mega gnar natural rooty kind of stuff.

So anyone done it? Would it work?

Surely it is more to do with tread pattern and how bendy the tread bite is already.

shallower knobs should theoretically flex and move less than longer ones, robbing you of less momentum, but if they are siped and quite large size anyway they may not make too much difference. I would say it will roll faster, but block spacing will also play a part.

Sell the chunky ones, pick up a second hand set of faster rolling tyres.

Maybe.

There’s a big difference between part worn and cut down tires. It’s the nice sharp edges that generate grip.

But…. You’d get more grip and less resistance from lots of small sharp knobs than a few big ones. The idea of a cut down spike tyre is quite a niche thing for Downhill races on loose but dry courses.

Isn’t that what they used to do with DH tyres a few years ago when there was less choice? and you were maybe faced with a drying, but still muddy in places type track and/or lots of loam?

i.e. when the choice was between a ‘Wet-scream’ with wider spaced but longer, draggier spikes and a ‘swamp thing’ with more rounded profile and shallower closer packed knobbles, the middle ground option (for the pro’s) was to get their mechanic cut the central spikes on the wet-scream, keep the shoulder lugs to dig in and have a tyre that faster in a straight line but would bite when leaned over…

I never did this myself, I owned a set of 2.2″ ‘slow reezey’ swamp things which were terrible so I just carried on with Highrollers come sun or rain 🙂

Since then more tread patterns have come out so I’m not sure many people cut treads down often.

like the OP though I’m thinking a less aggressive, better rolling tread on the rear might suit current conditions I’ve got Butchers front and rear, the obvious choice is a slaughter or a purgatory (or whatever the current equivalent is) but I guess I could just attack the rear tyre with some cutters…

Is a worn tyre different? possibly, the shoulder lugs will be a bit more knackered than a cut spike of semi-slick so that leant over grip will have suffered a bit too.

A lot of the rolling resistance is in the casing, a DH tyre with a heavy rigid casing is always going to roll slower. I swapped an almost bald Maxxis High Roller DH UST 2.5″ for a brand new Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo Snakeskin 2.4 it felt like I had been riding with the brakes on before, the way the the NN carried speed.

Yeah I get what you are all saying. I’m more trying to make use of the old tyres than any thing! Something faster rolling for bikepacking on the hardtail would have been brilliant but I will just put up with it for now as I don’t want to buy new tyres for a once a month trip!

I want the best of all worlds on that bike! Fast rolling for distance and bike packing stuff. As well as cushioned and grippy for trails/ gnarlier stuff!