I’ve got a rock razor running on the rear of a nobby nic on my whippet. Love the RR, fast rolling with grip when you need it, I’m considering putting one on the front too, but everything I read says its rear specific? Anyone ever used one on the front? Or both?
Tread is similar to SB8 down the centre and they’re a front & rear tyre.

I wouldn’t, but if you’ve run a sb8 on the front and liked it then why not?

Let us know how it goes.

You could depending on the type of riding you do. Extreme canal towpath riding maybe where you want fast rolling on the straights but good grip when leaning right over in the bends!!!

In reality I wouldn’t want one on the front on my bigger bikes. You don’t really notice the drag of a bigger tyre on the front but you will notice the lower grip level especially on steep stuff and under braking.
I reckon one would be OK on my xc bike but there are probable better options out there.

Swap your front and rears and go for a ride, that’s the only way to know whether it will suit you. I have a similarish rear (slaughter) on one of my bikes and wouldn’t put it on the front but I haven’t even tried it… could be the best front tyre ever?

I think I read that Brendog runs them front and rear around the Surrey Hills.

This would be for my 100mm lightweight whippet that I use for quick, jump on and go for an hour or two XC rides, for heavier stuff in the peaks I use my FS.

Also I’m in a privileged position of being able to choose between Rock Razor, Rocket Ron or Nobby Nic up front. Nobby Nic the sensible choice then?

I’ve changed over to a Rock Razor this morning as the Rocket Ron I had on the back was pissing out it’s ass when being lent over on fast corners.

Thought about a Rock Razor on the front but I reckon there’s only a few occasions when it will work really well and the rest of the time be detrimental to ones health. So for the next few weeks I’ll be running a Hans Dampf on the front and the Rock Razor on the back. This is for the Surrey Hills and Swinley btw.

No reason why you shouldn’t for XCtype riding. Its basically a really agressive ralph and XC racers have been running ralph front and rear for years

Sod it, gone for it. I shall report back.

That’s assuming you make it back without crashing in a ball of flame 🙂

Ha ha!

No reason why you shouldn’t for XCtype riding. Its basically a really agressive ralph and XC racers have been running ralph front and rear for years

That was my thinking + once you get it leant over there should be plenty of grip from the big side knobs, it’s just what happens in between 😆

I’ve just fitted one to the rear of my hardtail and now sat here thinking “that might just work on the front”

Depends on how hard you ride and the ground conditions. It’s gonna be great for say 99% of the time and then there’s going to be that 1% e when you wished you had more braking grip and you’re off.
Was out with me mates last weekend and had a rocket ron on the back and we ended up going down a steep windy loose bank over the north downs. Didn’t have enough braking grip and ended up over the bars and doing 6 backwards rolls down the rest of it. The rest of the ride it was the perfect rear tyre. Anyway.

Thing is this bike isn’t used on anything that rough, hardly ever ridden in mud even, think this could work the more I think about it.

Put one on the front and an Ikon on the back for a XC race. As people have said, lots of XC race tyres have even less tread, and the side knobs on the RR are pretty big. I liked it, didn’t feel sketchy at all on fast rooty singletrack. Wouldn’t want to do anything steep on it, but it’s definitely not a widow maker.

I think the reason it’s not so common is that there are lighter choices better suited to the job.

I’d say go for it if you want to hit a tree as fast as possible

Don’t put a rock razor on the front of your bike. It will try to kill you.

I stand corrected.

I ended up fitting one to the front of my hardtail last week, after the 1st ride i thought exactly the same as the general opinion that it was crap as a front tyre after lots of close shaves losing the front end 😆

That was until i realised when i got home that i hadn’t checked the pressure after blowing it up tubeless & it was still rock hard 😳 Letting it down to a sensible pressure for the next ride totally transformed it and i was getting away with cornering at virtually the same speeds as my full suss with a magic mary on the front. Still wouldn’t want to use it in anything more than damp conditions but those big side knobs definitely do the job 😉

Only trouble now is after 1 weeks use and 45 miles on the Quantocks the side knobs are tearing off 😯 The rear rock razor is fine and they were both new last weekend so i’m wondering if it’s from a dodgy batch or something?

I’ve had a Rock Razor on the back of my Pitch all summer, the side knobs have been tearing for a while but none have actually ripped off.

My Mary’s just started doing that after about 15 days riding, though admittedly much of that was in Italy being uplifted.

Just replaced my rock razor with Hans D. The rock razor had really porous side walls with sealant coming through every day. Apparently it’s a known issue by schwalbe with some tyres from about a year ago. according to LBS.

Only trouble now is after 1 weeks use and 45 miles on the Quantocks the side knobs are tearing off The rear rock razor is fine and they were both new last weekend so i’m wondering if it’s from a dodgy batch or something?

Could have been stressed from running them at high pressure??

It’s only had 35-40psi in it which isn’t excessive for a tyre, the rear is fine and I’ve got a magic mary on another bike which has been on since april and taken a lot more abuse than this one.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable expecting a tyre to last more than a week without starting to fall apart 😆

Yeah should definitely last longer especially on the front. Must have been a dud. I’ve put about 250km (all off-road surrey hills) on my back one and it still looks pretty fresh.

Only trouble now is after 1 weeks use and 45 miles on the Quantocks the side knobs are tearing off The rear rock razor is fine and they were both new last weekend so i’m wondering if it’s from a dodgy batch or something?

Standard Schwalbe ‘feature’.

Every single Schwalbe i’ve ever used has done that. usually within about 40-50km. By 250km, it’s in the bin.

I complained to them directly, and went through a phase of literally having new tyres sent out every 3 weeks and them having the other back – got bored in the end and sold the replacements – too much hassle.