Tyres. I want to try them all, but I know it doesn’t make any sense

Most of us will never really test the grip limits of a tyre – our relatively poor technique will generally mean that we fail to extract the maximum.

I’m sure we’ve all slid the front wheel in a corner, locked up under braking, or spun the rear on a slippery or technical climb. Yes all can be attributed to poor technique that would be avoided by a more skilled rider but all are exceeding the limit of the tyre.

Learning the limit of your tyre and riding within them is part of the fun of it. This can be entirely subconscious, or as spreadsheet nerdy as you want. You could be changing tyres weekly or run the same set for a year and replace with an identical pair.

Conditions vary massively – I did the FOD Mini Enduro yesterday and I don’t think I’ve ever ridden trails as churned up as that. It had been a very wet week so I went with a T7 Hillbilly 29×2.6 grid trail up front and a Conti Kryptotal enduro / soft 29×2.4” rear. Glad I did as anything else I own would have been a shocker I think. I caught the guy in front of me on one run – he was all over the place – Magic Mary upfront and maybe a slightly worn Magic Mary on the rear. Not a clue on casing / compound as everything was caked in mud all day.

Maybe I could have run an even more grippy rear (Argotal?) but what I had worked about as well as it could I reckon. At times you were entering corners kind of locked up the wrong way (opposite lock) and drifting round to the correct way – which was pretty fun – you could rely on the hillbilly to grip and turn mostly as it was biting through all the slop.

“you always save more time on the ups with a faster tyre than you save on the downs with a grippy one”

I’m not sure why I wrote that considering yesterday my rear tyre wasn’t bad downhill but was struggling to find the traction uphill in the muddiest bits! That’s why I’m thinking I’ll have to swap it to something with taller and less ramped tread (Eliminator to Butcher) and the Butcher’s side knobs have a bit more space and the centre knobs corner better too (in those moments where the bike’s not leant enough), so I’ll have a downhill gain as well as an uphill one on the muddier days.