I’m off to play in the rockies next month, and I’m trying to decide what rubber hoops to put on my wheels:
I’m guessing that early July in whistler is going to be dry and dusty? My riding is XC (I don’t do northshore) and a bit of throwing myself slowly round the bikepark. I’m doing a helidrop into the snow so I need to cope with that as well.

So my current shortlist of tyres is:

1. Continental Vertical Pro (UST) 2.1
2. Hutchinson Pythons (UST) 2.0
3. Continental Mountain Kings (UST)

So what should I take? is there anything else that would be suitable?

Is my assumption about it being dusty and dry in whistler correct?

Please help – It’s my first cycling holiday outside the UK so I want to get it right and I haven’t a clue what tyres to take.

I doubt any of the others I’ve got in the shed are suitable as a lot of them are skinny fast things:
Conti XC 1.5
Hutchinson Scorpions 2.0 UST (these do anything I throw at them)
Hutchinson scorpions 1.5 UST (pinch flat heaven!)
Continental twisters UST
IRC Mythos 1.95

Many Thanks

You’re not going with T2R by any chance are you?

I ran High Roller 2.35 Super Tackys last year with grear success, although I am taking a Maxxpro rear this year. Both with Maxxis Freeride inner tubes.

What rims are you running. Last year I used Flows with Bontrager Jones ACX TRs. I tore 2 sidewalls in 2 days! One on Comfortably Numb about 3 or 4 km in (I fixed it with a puncture repair patch and re-seated using a minipump!) and another in the bikepark after giving my spare tube to a DHer with a flat.

Luckily that night my wife won some WTB Dissent DH casing tyres and I used those for the next 4 weeks for XC (including the 7 Summits Trail) and lift/shuttle stuff all over BC with no punctures/ issues.

BC riding encourages and rewards an aggressive approach and the trail/rider interface is the tyre, and these take abuse off rocks and roots, and it appears that the sidewalls suffer the most.

This summer I’m planning on DH Blue Groove/Nevegals Stick-E.

Big (2.3 at least) High rollers 😀

Mikey yeah I’m going with T2R.

My rims are Mavic Crossmax SLs (UST) – I’m taking my S-works stumpjumper FSR (carbon) with me – as I say I’m an XC person.

For the day off in the bike park I may hire a DH rig for the day – although I have been looking into getting the bus to Squamish and doing some of the trails there as I will miss the guided Squamish ride when I go on the float plane trip (squamish v float plane was a close toss up but I have a thing for aviation so the float plane won).

Hmm. I’ll have a look into the High rollers, the Nevegals and the WTB Dissents.

Any other advice?

Many Thanks

Badger

I’m there 4th – 18th July, you?

By the way, if you don’t do North Shore at the moment you soon will when you get there lol.

Also look at tough inner tubes, bash guard instead of big chainring, and knee/shin pads at least.

highroller 2.35 front
hollyroller 2.4 rear

its what im using at the moment and its unbelievably good!

The cool kids are running rubber square things these days I hear

T2r eh? theres a guy called Joe who is a trail guide with them who’s a right **** 😉 😀

know him do you?

Kenda Blue Groove up front and a Minion or High Roller on the back is a popular bike park combo. I dunno why, I think the kenda is a horrible tyre.

At any rate you’ll want something very big and at least 2 ply for the bike park. Super tacky may not be necessary in the warmer months, all they’ll do is slow you down. Maybe a good thing.

A friend of mine did the heli drop last year – He’s a pretty skilled rider, as were the guys he did the drop with. By all accounts it was total carnage with three riders breaking bones. Armour up.

I went last year with t2r.
Tyre combination I used was minion 2.35 super tacky on the front & highroller 2.35 60a on the rear,they worked well.

He’s a friend, through university. Jammy barsteward getting to work in whistler all summer!

For the day off in the bike park I may hire a DH rig for the day – although I have been looking into getting the bus to Squamish and doing some of the trails there as I will miss the guided Squamish ride when I go on the float plane trip (squamish v float plane was a close toss up but I have a thing for aviation so the float plane won).

I don’t want to rain on your parade (pun intended) but check this out:

Big fire at Tyaughton Lake…

80 sq km of fire plus plenty of smoke. Pray for plenty of rain before your trip…I’m supposed to be doing the float plane trip in August but local news reports were suggesting the fire may burn all summer (It’s been a VERY dry June in BC) 🙁

Luckily, the fire is SE of the lake and most of the accessible riding is North and West…

first, whistler is in the costal mountains not the rockies!!

2nd, i live there and its my 6th summer.

and tires, if ur riding xc, most the locals use small block 8, specialized chunders/clutch in the sx casing, or maxxis larsen tt, highroller,minions all 2.3 ish.

You might wanna hire a dh bike for the heli drop, and defianlty for the bike park. We have not had real rain for almost 5 weeks and the park is super beat already. Unless it rains soo the float plain is out, the forest fires are buring and we could not drive out to ride spruce lake area last sunday, and it gets smokey in whistler when the wind blows.

2.3 single ply Minion Supertackies for XC, 2.5 dual plys for DH/park stuff. The XC riding makes most UK DH tracks look flat and boring.

1.25″ Specialized Fatboys and bar ends so you can OWN the road climb up to the top of Kadenwood. Show those guides what a riding god you are! 😉

“friend” in the loosest term PJ 😉

im not bitter, they can keep him.
if you see him tell him hes a tw@ from me.

bit of a hijack…
are 2.35 hi-rollers smaller than 2.25 aDvantages?

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that you may want to consider using flats instead of spds as there is a fair amount of woodwork.

Biggest pedalling tyres I run are 2.2, don’t really need much more IMO
My Ransom runs 2.2 Kenda Karma
My Genius will to as its a perfect Whistler tyre.. would prefer 2.2 Cortez but its NLA, Genius is currently 2.1 El Moco front, 2.1 SB8 rear.
My Spark 2.1 SB8 always

Heli drop in early July will be a go but snow riding wont be much of an issue.. if there is snow, it’ll either be the landing patch which is a 50-100m of riding (if you want to play).. any snow further down and you’ll likely be walking it anyway.. there are still lots of people that’ll walk the first few steep sections without snow.
So, don’t worry about snow when you consider tyres.

Big thing I guess is what your motivations are.. do you want to cover ground, or play about sessioning the more technical trails?
If you want to play in cut-yer-bars, kill me thrill me, the no flow zone etc then a higher volume tyre is a nice thing, however if, like you mention, you’re XC orientated, then a lower volume tyre will let you see more of Whistler’s superb trail network on the trails that would suit your riding more.
I’d recommend renting a DH bike for a bike park day to get the most out of the experience.

Flats vs SPD’s.. ride whatever you are confident on. At the end of the day, the guiding should be tailored to your level and aimed to encourage your progression, so you shouldn’t be thrown at something you’re not comfortable with.

Weather wise.. we are due a sh*t load of rain.. we need it. June has been ridiculously hot and dry so far.. this is highly unusual!
If this continues.. we’ll be back to the provincial park closures we had a few years ago.

Have a great trip though! It’ll be fun