Morning. Last night I removed the old Bonty tyres that came with my SS and popped off to my lbs, Evans, to buy some new rubber but on arrival they had the sum total of one 29er tyre on the racks :-/ Call me old fashioned but I struggle with buying unfamiliar stuff off the Internet and like to see the items first and maybe get some help/advice from the staff. All the staff were busy so I left empty handed and clueless as to what to buy/order. So here I am, asking the STW massive what is a good tyre combo for my rigid Swift? Something that’s not too draggy on the roads until I hit the trails, commons, tow paths etc?

Also, I’m looking for a real bike shop within 30 miles of South West London that has a real good or varied stock of MTB parts and accessories. Most of the shops around near me are a bit heavy on the commuter, road bike side and while they sell MTBs they don’t have many accessories or upgrades on the shelves.

Thanks for any help given

Steve

Try Moose in Tooting. Good people.

Failing that, Cycle Surgery have redone one of their Spitalfields stores as a MTB specialist branch. Haven’t been in since the refit, so can’t really comment, but could be worth a look.

Went in the Cyclesurgery in Croydon yeserday for the first time, 6-7 different 29er bikes for sale, but not a single tyre.

I know you said that you don’t like internet, but you can never go too far wrong with nextdaytyres.com

Racing Ralph 2.25 on the front and Maxxis Ignitor on the back works for me on mixture of road, track and South Downs. Swap the back out for a Mud X when it gets splodgy.

Cycleworks in Leatherhead have Schwalbe 29er tyres. Think they had Racing Ralph and Nobby Nics as well as Specialized in 29er. Good area to ride in as well!

Mountaintrax in Barkham (possibly a bit far for you) have Maxxis, Kenda and I think Schwalbe.

Currently having fun with Kenda Slant 6 and would also recommend Maxxis Ardent on the front with a Crossmark on the back.

Mountaintrax in Barkham

Take your credit card, I had to pay £35 (£17.50 each!) for a set of shimano brake pads, anything fancy, just some spare pads for an upcoming trip away, so even more anoyingly I didn’t need them anyway!

As for 29er tyres, I’ve got Spesh Purgatorys on my swift at the moment and relly like them, but by the sounds of it you’re using it for more cyclepath type riding so they might be a bit overkill.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
Try Moose in Tooting. Good people.

They are but they were pretty scathing about 29ers when I spoke to them so I don’t know what stock they’s have.

I bought my Swift from Head for the Hills in Dorking, they should be able to help you out

Ardent 2.4 front, it’s massive and helps with comfort on the front and is a great tyre, rolls well, grips well in most conditions. May put the 2.4 ralph on the front if it gets really dry in summer but not good in the slop…

Ardent good on the rear too, 2.4 if single speed or smaller if using gears as the 2.4 interferes with the front mech.

Crossmark good on the back too especially when a bit dryer.

Mud-x or beaver in the nasty mud.

Thats what I use on my rigid swift anyway…

I really like the Specialized 29er tyres. I currently have a ground control on the front and renegard on the back. A word of warning; the S-Work carcass very light but can be a bit prone to side wall damage so it may be worth looking at the cheaper, slightly heavier control version…

I find the Renegade super fast and much grippier than it looks like it should be, when it’s super dry I’d put one on the front too but in the current mixed conditions I find the extra bite of the ground control a bit faster/more stable

Brilliant stuff. Thanks for all the info, gang. I never thought of putting a beefy 2.4 up front on the Swift 🙂

Do it… 2.4 ardents and ralphs are fantastic, would like to try a 2.35 Hans Dampf as I’ve heard they are quite voluminous too

2.1 (or possibly 2.2″) Ignitors on my Swift and I’m happy with them.

So a 2.4 ardent up front, same for the rear? Or something else?

2.4 ardent too big for rear if you are running gears, it will interfere with the front mech.

2.25 Ardent just about clears the front mech, crossmark also good rear unless muddy/boggy.

I’m singlespeed at the moment, loving the one gear so doubt I’ll be upgrading to gears any time soon. I might go for an ardent 2.25 for the rear…. unless the crossmark is a better rear tyre.

Ardent better allrounder, crossmark faster

I like 2.4 rear in my singlespeed swift, but I like big fat tyres, the 2.4 ardent is so big I reckon it changes the gear ratio by a tooth!

If it’s any good to anyone I have an almost new 2.4 29er Ardent (did one lap of W2 at Afan) that i bought at Mountain Trax and a slightly more worn 2.25 Ardent if anyone would be interested. The 2.4 is just too big for me.

2.4 cost me £49 from MT, would do both for £35?

I’d second the Purgatory and Ground Control. Ground Controls are like a cheaper Nic. I’ve got ten front and rear on my Solaris at the moment and love them. I will probably give a Renegade a go on the back in the Summer.

Went in the Cyclesurgery in Croydon yeserday for the first time, 6-7 different 29er bikes for sale, but not a single tyre.

My cycle surgery (victoria) has 29er tyres as do the specialized concept stores in covent garden and kingston, evans are also now stocking 29er tyres

better off mail ordering though insetad of travelling to find stock – even ‘decent’ shops will only carry small stock

Rootes, I might be in there later on! Top guys in that shop (*Waves at Jimmy, Pete, JJ and Mark. Oh, and the spanner wizard that is Darek upstairs!)

^ not been in today, went to the Regency Cafe instead… 😉

Putney Cycles (Putney bridge road store) has a healthy selection of 29ers now, not been in for a while so don’t know what they’re parts stock is like though.

Top place for a spot of lunch/brekker! Might head over there tomorrow morning….Hmmm.

I think the thing here is, 29ers are still niche. For more “generalist” shops, as all London ones are pretty much by default, stocking niche products just isn’t really good commercial sense.