Sorry, ard rock tyres, maxxis/bontrager

Got ard rock in a few weeks. I’ve been using maxxis assigai and a disector this year on my hope hb130, totally overkill for the bike and what it’s intended for but make up for my lack of skill. Mega grip but on longer rides like rock the draggy aspect gets tiring, I’ve a set of bontrager se4/se5 in the garage and wondering if these might be better suited? From what I remember ard rock was mainly rocky. A couple stages had grass and from the rain last year my maxxis combo got filled with mud anyway.

It was dry-ish when I did it last year, so no probs, but there are a couple of grassy sections that I think (from what riders were saying) can get bad with the mud if it’s wet. It’s certainly rocky so a lighter weight tyre might be vulnerable there. I’d perhaps take both and see what the weather is doing on the weekend.

Either way I’d just run whatever I felt was best on the stages and not care about drag on the link-ups. It is a big day’s ride but the connectors are just casual pedalling so it doesn’t really matter imho. I don’t know if cut-off times are even a thing anymore in enduros, but if they exist it’s just nominal to keep everyone moving around the course. There’s an alehouse on the ArdRock circuit, for example – don’t want any competitors bedding down there on raceday.

I wouldn’t say your tyres where overkill at all, the Dissector is a pretty fast rolling rear, in fact I’d say the Bonty’s are fairly similar looking at pics online.

My bike has 10mm more rear travel and I’ll be running an Assegai/DHR2 combo, unless the weathers grim. Then I’ll put something spiker on the front as there’s some bits that get propoer sketchy in the wet on, I think, stages 1, 2 & 7.

It was dry-ish when I did it last year,

Haha… You must’ve done the Saturday then!? Sunday was horrific!

I’ve ordered a new Big Betty for the rear in case there’s a repeat of last year…. So for that reason I’m predicting it will be dry and dusty

My SE4 I had on the front a couple of years ago wasn’t up to the mud – neither was my skill to be fair. Bike clogged up on the push up from stage 2.

Swapped out to a Magic Mary and that feels like a much more planted tyre – not used again at ardRock but great for general peaks riding

I did the Friday last year @richardkennerley – rained a little bit on the day but trails were dry. Assegai and dhr2 iirc for me.

Thinking about it there is something to be said for pushing on between the stages at this event – stages 1 and 2 were a crowd scene for me as I had a later start. Wouldn’t influence my choice of tyres, but would encourage me to do some pedalling. But that was the Fri event – I don’t know if they order things differently in the other races, or you start with a 30 sec gap etc.

Hillbilllies on the Sunday last year. They were far better than the rider.

Assegai Maxxgrip front, Dissector Maxxtarra rear, that’s my favourite combo currently.

I’d prefer a less draggy rear to get me round than a DHR2.

I’ve just put an SE5 on the back after a snake bite killed a Dissector exo.

I had tried the SE5 briefly on the front (couple of rides) and didn’t really get on with it. I found it a bit deofty but that might just be me. On the back, it’s working nicely. Much less pingy compared to the exo casing Dissector. It took a bit of a beating in Wales today at low pressure (19psi). Didn’t really have any issues at all. It was a good mix of muddy bits  grassy bits, rocks that move and rocks that don’t. The SE5 seemed quite happy.

It looks very DHR2 ish but seems to pedal much better. Possibly because it doesn’t feel quite as sticky but I’m happy with it on the back.