Just been in my inbox and saw a trek email about some new tyres.. and shock horror, they have names.. made from letters forming words… this is madly confusing.

Previously there was basically a range of tyres, 1-6 in order of aggressiveness… and 2 casings, XR for lighter duties, SE for a tougher casing… so picking a tyre was pretty simple.. not got enough grip, go up a number or 2, damaging tyres, go for an SE instead..

so on their website they seem to list very few of the XR/SE tyres, and 4 of the new tyres with names.. .hopefully they don’t end up with too many options like other brands….

hopefully they don’t end up with too many options like other brands….

Aren’t they just phasing out all the numbered tyres – they seem to be on sale – and replacing them with different ones that do basically the same thing, but with names? They already have ‘too many options’, maybe they’ll end up with fewer?

The numbered tyres keep regenerating like Dr Who anyway, which is mildly confusing in itself in the sense that different iterations of, say, the XR4 are actually different tyres albeit with the same general intent.

looks like the XR4 and SE4 have been directly replaced.. I didn’t check out the 2 xc examples but probably mostly the same.. and the SE4 equivalent video mentions 2 compound options…

I really like the ‘old’ bontrager system, so easy to understand. In contrast I find Maxxis so complicated that I have stopped using them. But that could be explained by me not being the sharpest pencil in the box …

Is there one using the letters M,U and D?

https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/equipment/cycling-components/bike-tyres/mountain-bike-tyres/bontrager-xr-mud-team-issue-tlr-mtb-tyre/p/12195/