This’ll be for Thetford & later the Gorricks. I was thinking Rocket Rons, it if makes a difference they will be going on AC MTB Race wheels.

Anything else to consider?

Bontrager Mud. Light as RR’s but tonnes more grip.

Surely you’ll need a couple of options depending on the ground when you arrive?

No point having RR’s if it’s muddy – and no point running Mud X’s if it’s a hard frost.

I’d agree, but I imagine the Gorrick class he’ll be in will have already been cut up by the novices earlier on.

I don’t have the luxury of two pairs of races wheels and I’d rather not faff with tubeless on the day.

Black chilli Mountain King 2’s?

If the description of the Geax Gato is correct, it sounds like it was made for those events.

Grooved, high knobs, widely spaced with a self cleaning pattern do the business in wet conditions and heavy soils.
Use: XC/Wet, loose conditions

Maxis beaver.

Grippier than it should be in mud for how fast it rolls on harder ground.

Bontrager Mud – love mine 🙂

Are the Bonty’s not slow for racing? I mean, I’ve used and like the 26 version but I haven’t raced them.

@ Nobby – those weren’t the ones you were using in Afan were they?

God no! Those were Saguaros.

Wouldn’t know, I’m just slow at racing… But at least I now stayed on the tracks!

I don’t have the luxury of two pairs of races wheels and I’d rather not faff with tubeless on the day.

Two expensive sets maybe a luxury but racing on the ‘wrong’ tyres is just pointless.

Put the tyres you use most on your race wheels and then buy another pair of cheaper wheels for the other tyres.

‘Cut’ Bonty muds.
At the nationals at Hopton the course was hard pack climbs and fresh cut muddy descents .Ralphs were lethal and the muds too slow.So I cut the spikes to half height down the middle on the tyre.Result! (the dh boys have been doing this to full mud tyres for ever).

Mud x’s are great, but the track would have to be in really bad condition for most of it for them to be better than riding something with less tread and managing them through the manky bits. So something faster – ground controls, x-king etc, and have the mud x’s in the boot. They go up so easily tubeless that you could do it quickly at the venue if needed.

Bontrager Mud. Light as RR’s but tonnes more grip.

A 29×2.1″ Ron is 490g (and accurate), and 2″ XR Mud is 650g, and Bonty are horrendously optimistic with their weights! So >30% heavier!

Dirty Dans are a very similar tread pattern to an XR Mud, but they are a comparable weight to a Ron.

+1 for the maxxis beaver. Fast rolling and good grip. Use them as my Epping winter tyre

Maxxis Beavers are great. Bear in mind you don’t always need mud tyres in Thetford because it drains fairly well. Rons seem to work well there.

Maybe a Beaver /Dan upfront and ron performance on the rear then?

Bonty Muds every time – I won two races last season, both mudbaths where they probably made the difference between me and 2nd place. Fantastic tyres, and the previous comment about them going up easily is spot on so you could keep them in the boot of the car and stick them on if and when you need them.

I wouldn’t touch a mud-x having now tried beaver

Rocket Rons are fine for the Gorrick venues. They are what I used for all of last winter’s Brass Monkeys races and they were all pretty grim weather. The type of soil there doesn’t need full-on mud tyres, it is sandy, not clay. Mud tyres will just drag horribly.

Haven’t been to Thetford for a few years, but from what I remember it isn’t too dissimilar. In fact, that’s the reason I haven’t been for a few years – a long way to go for similar terrain to what’s on my doorstep!

Beavers, fast enough not to be a liability if it’s dry/firm, still very good in the goop. Way faster than a MudX.

I’m not a serial tyre changer, so a Beaver/ Ron performance combo looks good value then, whereby I won’t get caught out I’f it’s wetter or dryer in the thetford sands, and the beaver will give some confidence over wet roots.

I’d also be happy with that at my locale also at Epping…

I wouldn’t touch a mud-x having now tried beaver

I wouldn’t touch a beaver having used a mud-X!!!

Have you used both?

I thought the racers tyres of choice at Thetford were Nobby Nic front with Rocket Ron on the back.

Rocket Rons should be fine for the Gorrick’s, maybe with a backup MudX for the back if the weather goes west like last year..

Any of the mud x haterz want to sell me a pair? 29er flavour 🙂

FWIW, I found that mud x (26, mind) are great in winter and way better than they seemingly should be on hard trails where I’d expect them to be slow and drifty.

I found one venue last year to be pretty scary. Some fast descents with off camber amongst trees. Slippery enough that you can’t touch the front brake and fast enough that you’ll gain an uncomfortable amount of speed even starting slow leading to 2 wheels drifts at speeed.

Rons were frankly terrifying, Beavers were better and didn’t clog, Bontrager Muds were OK too. (all on 26)

Unless you fancy yourself as a serious contender/bike handler I’d be conservative. I’ve lost count of the number of times people on here talk about draining well, rocket rons etc and I’ve turned up and found a full on mudfest.

29er this year – I’m trying 2.25 beavers all round.

This Sunday we’ll be riding 2.25 NN, I’ll be at the low end of pressures as will be riding rigid, and herself maybe a bit higher as she’s riding a hardtail.

I’ll be running Rons at Gorrick this weekend. As said already, the type of soil there always has grip, it’s sometimes under a thin layer of slime but it’s there.
Can’t vouch for Thetford.

Look at some of the selection of different tyres on display and tell me honestly whether the mud is going to know the difference. I think much of it is in the mind.

At the first Thetford I was running a RR front and a Rubena Kratos rear, not the grippiest(or light combination) but they seemed to do alright. I’ve never bought into mud tyres really, and I don’t go for narrow ones as they bugger my wrist up when I’m on the rigid winter bike.

The Winter Series/Brass Monkeys are just a bit of a piss about really, so I wouldn’t worry too much about having appropriate tyres – it’s fun going sideways!

@Rorschach , did you race on the Saturday? I found that by Sunday the mud had gotten sticky enough that double Fast Trak 2.0s were all that was needed. Practice laps on the Saturday were a tad sketchy on them though.

In short – I wouldn’t go for anything heavier/grippier than Rons unless it’s a proper slop fest that you really wanna do well at.

Well I have 2 ralphs and a ron in the man cave so it seems sensible to add a beaver to the armoury, especially as eppng is traditionally muddy until June. That way I have Beaver/Ron, Ron/Ralph and Ralph/Ralph setups throughout the year.

So er, which Beaver do I need – it seems the 2.0 545g dual compound 60tpi non eXCeption one is the best compromise of weight over performance – its not eXCeption and therefore doesn’t carry the 700g weight penalty…?

eXCeption is the lighter (490g), super thin sidewall version. EXO is the reinforced sidewall heavy version (735g in 2.25 only)- weights for 26er tyres

2.0 folding, 60tpi version is the way to go IMO as you suggest

Mud X grip in just about anything, but by god they’re slow!

Beaver’s are quicker than you might expect, and grip isn’t bad, but not most bite if it’s really sloppy.

Geax Gato 2.1’s (the 2.3’s are huge so not really suitable as a winter tyre) bite very well, are certainly quicker than a Mud X but lack the edge bite when leant over.

Hutchinson Toro’s (available in a range of sizes, the 2.15 is probably the best compromise for winter unless really muddy as they’re narrower than they suggest) are very good in the slop too. Tread pattern wise, they’re (as Rorscah suggests works well) kind of like a cut Mud X, but roll much faster and with better edge bite too. They’re not as light as the racier tyres, but performance, speed and grip is fantastic!

Well I plan to run Ralph’s front and back. I’ve got beavers setup non tubeless on the training wheels if it’s proper horrible.

Mboy I looked at the Toros based on the stw review. They look at though they have a wide transition to the edge. As I’m not a “leaner” this – as found on some maxis tyres doesn’t suit me.

Otherwise it looks like a tire I’d leave on all year on my race wheels which I quite like the sound of, but then so does a Nobby Nic which I’m comfy with but got fed up in 26 becuas of the tlr being a pain in the arse to get seated tubeless.

I was at the first round of the Winter series and I had not gotten round to changing my (29er)x king front and Race king rear. Apart from about 4 places around the lap they coped well in the conditions. If you wanted more grip how about Mountain king 2 front and x king rear?

I used a Ralph on the back and a Rubena kratos on the front on Sunday and the tyres chopped pretty well. Going to mud tyres like beavers is overkill for thetford.

I’ve also found x kings and rons to be fine in the wet at thetford.

Have a look at the vredestein black panther extreme. I could never quite get on with the nic on the front, but this is a pretty good winter tyre in the fast and light category. Goes tubeless easy but be careful with the bead choice if you’re running stans rims.