Forum menu
[Closed] Summer Tyres???
What your best combo, front and back, I want to be fast rolling with a bit of decent grip on the front? When I switched from winter mud x's back to XR3's I found I had a gash that no-tubes would'nt seal. Wat da ya recommend.......
Either Maxxis Ardent 2.25 60a folding or Maxxis High Roller 2.35 60a folding on the front and Maxxis Crossmark 2.25 60a out back. Fast rolling, light, grippy in the right places, works great throughout the warmer months.
Rocket Rons, Ignitors, Racing Ralphs or Ardents front and back.
IMHO high rollers are draggy, more so than mud tyres
I run Speed Kings as my summer tyres but, given I live in Scotland, some of the bikes stay with Eskars year round and one even with my winter/mud combo on (Purgatory on the front, Storm on the back)!
Racing Ralph,
GB
Racing Ralph/Rocket Ron
SB8's are about as fast rolling as you'll get this side of slicks. If your riding style / terrain suit they are great, but nervous of mine after a big crash w'end before last. That said, it was off camber, loose pebbles & I hit it way too fast. Can't wait to get some on my 29er SS.
Just put my ignitors back on. Loved them last summer.
High Roller as a summer tyre seems odd, it's a good all-year tyre though.
Smallblocks are ridiculously fast but lack a wee bit of edge grip, they work better than you'd think in the wet though. I count them as a rear tyre really, you can use them on the front but, well, I wouldn't even though I love them on the back. Go up a size if you can, the 2.35 isn't heavy and doesn't give up much pace but it's a hell of a lot grippier than the 2.1. As you might have noticed they won every summer tyre test they were entered in last year, that's pretty unheard of.
Crossmarks are great too, or Ardents if you want a bit more grip.
I got Maxxis Aspen with my bike - which I bought in Nov - was recommended to change for winter which i did - bug have no put them back - seem pretty fast on local cheeky - but will they be good when I head for the hills?
Rustler sb8 for 29er are great, love mine. But for OP I haven't been able to run them tubeless yet.
Kenda Small block 8's are v good!
Hutchinson Python rear (I doubt it serves well as a front due to small shoulders), I'm working on the front... Currently have a Hutchinson Barracuda which corners nicely but could be replaced with something a little less centrally knobby.
DMR Moto diggers were good too (I had a pair so not sure about variations).
Ardent front, & Crossmark rear
Seems to work well on the Singlespeed & HT.
Rubber Queens in the Heckler.
Small Block 8 on the CX
Schwalbe Ultremo R1 on the road bike..
Kenda smallblock 8s 2.1 on the XTC
Conti Explorers 2.1 on the Rock Lobster
Schwalbe SmartSams 2.1 on the 456
I think I've discovered the perfect summer combination, been riding with these for the last month or so...
Kenda SB8 2.35 rear
WTB Weirwolf LT 2.55 front
Both roll v fast but the front has a surprising amount of grip - while the rear is easy to snap round dusty corners at speed.
I picked up a very cheap Conti RaceKing 2.2 last summer and have been very impressed with it. Very light, nicely grippy in the dry stuff and very, very fast. The sidewalls are a bit thin but I only got 1 puncture last summer so they are perfectly OK.
I generally use that at the back with a High Roller up front which seems to work for me.
Where do you live and what kind of riding do you do on what type of trails? Rather hard to suggest anything without knowing those!
But...
Racing Ralph 2.25s for hard packed woodland dirt on my singlespeed.
Crossmark/ADvantage 2.25 for rockier moorland/hill days out in Northumberland and North Yorkshire.
Rubber Queen 2.2 or Highroller 2.35 for steeper, harder, looser rockier stuff in the lakes.
Yeh, good on dry stufWTB Weirwolf LT 2.55 front
(on the back I've a grey michelin xc UST thing that somebody (CRC?) was flogging off cheap last year. Roll well, not sure about grip but nice & resistant to flints despite quite light)
Dual ply 60a highroller 2.35 on the rear, single ply 42a highroller on the front. That combo all year around. Depends on what you ride though. I ride mainly in the lakes and lighter tyres just don't hold up to the abuse. Going to go dual ply on the front as well once that one wears out. Would rather have the reassurance that I'm not going to get a puncture than worry about riding a bike that is a couple of pounds heavier
My recommendation was for our currently dusty and dry southern singletrack - or trail centres of course.
For rockier stuff and freemincing I will stick my Rubber Queens back on.
Advantage 2.25 unknown tpi Front
High Roller 2.35 60a Rear
Advantage is bigger than the high roller.
Might remove the HR and put another advantage on the rear to save the HR for the wetter stuff in the Autumn.
I have racing ralphs, although I ran them all through winter as well ๐ณ
front Bontrager XR
rear crossmark
Ignitors tubeless on my 29er - seem to roll well and I find the grip predicatable in pretty much anything other than the very worst claggy clay-type mud.
Very unfashionable, but I recommend WTB Nanoraptors, for extra speed in the bone dry pop a WTB Vulpine on the rear.
They are well priced too.
Monorail, . . . Monorail . . . . Monorail . . .
SB8's are great on the back but reckon they lack a bit of bite on their edges when used on the front.
Don't forget that Michelin tyres are once again available, with a decent range and (in my opinion) superior to Maxxis:
http://www.stendec-works.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=11
Lots of good advice here, basically chuck a fast tyre on the back and a normal tyre on the front.
I think the Nanoraptor is very much underrated as a fast rear-tyre too.
Maxxis crossmarks all-round for me.
I normally run 2.1 Maxxis ADvantages all year but have just put a 2.25 Maxxis Aspen on the rear and am impressed with it so far. Had bought a 2.1 Aspen initially but aesthetically it was too narrow for my liking...so if you want a 2.1 Aspen I have one for sale! ๐
I recently put on an Aspen 2.25 60a on the rear for southern singletrack. Lovely tyre, rolls very well but has reasonably decent side knobs which I think Larsens or SB8s lack. Goes with an Ardent front.
Geax Barrow Mountain - fantastic tyres
2.2 Black Chilli Rubber Queens F&R
front: maxxis minion 60a 2.35
rear: continental xking protection 2.4 (with super duper black chilli compound ๐ )
got 15 psi the continental at the moment, feels amazing.
I really like Ignitors - 2.35 on the front, 2.1 on the back.
I've tried Cinders, High Rollers and an ADvantage/Crossmark combo as well as a Minion Supertacky front this winter, but the Ignitors just work really well in everything apart from mud. Very rounded profile, no gaps like a HR and roll very well.
I'm a bimbler though, so you may prefer something with a more aggressive side profile, but they seem pretty ideal for me - grippy on rock, roots and grass, like Cinders, but much easier rolling.
aDvantage front and a Cross Mark rear! Lovely ๐
still using my maxxis monorails, they did bite me in the ass tonight on a reckless loose berm, which got the adrenaline pumping, ralphs good too
Tonight I found you can't take the same lines/speed with my aspens as fire xcs when the trails are very dusty
It's only blood ๐
If you like the Mud X, you may find Bonty Jones ACX worth a look for summer - the sidewalls can be a little thin, but they grip very well and roll pretty fast. They come up a little wide for their stated width (2.2 is more like a 2.3) but I've had mine for 4 years with no complaints.
Ardent front 2.25 Crossmark rear 2.25 LUST roll very nicely
Pythons are terrible for cornering, but flipping fast. I'll probably get something grippier when they wear out, but that's a while off.
I live in the Sinai desert so it is "Summer" here all year long. Lots of loose fist and head sized very, very sharp rocks in the gulleys, loosetop hardpack is around if you'e lucky, lost of sun-baked sand and then there's the polished eroded rock. Apart from about twice a year, the only water I ever have to deal with is coastal/tidal and where there are palm trees their roots don't show.
WTB Prowler MT 2.1 on the front works amazingly well, but loads of rolling resistance in on the hard stuff. The rocks are really, really harsh on the soft rubber side knobs. I also ran an old Hutchison Scorpion AirLight on the rear which did admirably here despite some of the terrible reviews they get.
I have recently switched to Maxxis Aspen 2.25 (f) and 2.10 (r) eXC (120 TPI). I run tubeless (Joe's Sealant) on ZTR Olympic rims at about 28psi. They go on a treat and don't lose air from the outset.
These are so fast it is untrue and as yet have not managed to make them fail me where grip is concerned. I was a bit concerned when I first fitted them because the tread looks so sparse and low profile. They seem pretty tough, but as with all tyres here, time will tell; the rocks are ridiculously sharp here.
I did start out on Continental Twister Supersonics 1.90, but they lasted about 2 weeks here.
I've just put a set of ardents in 60a on my enduro wheels on my reign X, SPOT ON! they're noticably less grippy when g-ing the bike round turns than the minions i had on there previous and the bike prefers to drift a bit more, but they roll well and are plenty grippy enough!
Anyone tried Hutchinson Cobras? Will I die riding them on hardpack/setts?
Andy
