Winter front tyre (25mm rim, Calderdale)?

Winter front tyre for 25mm internal rim?
To go on 27.5 short travel full suss riding Hebden/Calderdale, hoping for a confidence boost on wet steep stuff in woods.

Last winter tried shorty 2.3 maxxterra; good for slop but bit skinny and not as convincing on rocks or roots.

Current front tyre dhr2 2.3 maxxterra in good condition. Should this be enough – i.e. I’m just not a very good rider and need better skills/commitment – or worth trying something else?

Shorty v1 2.5 and v2 2.4 WT and not suitable for 25mm rim?
Schwalbe say Magic Mary 2.4 okay on 25mm rim but heavy casings OTT (65 kg and been fine with Exo)
Hillbilly old 2.3 or new 2.4? How’s size compared to Shorty 2.3? Assuming okay on 25mm rim, T7 or T9 for riding described?

One other thought for locals…. should I even be considering this, or is it time to perhaps give it a rest and try minimise ground damage? I know what I do and am happy with it but curious to hear others views

DHR2 front on mine, likewise always found the shorty just a bit sketchy.

perhaps give it a rest and try minimise ground damage?

Perhaps an unpopular view, but all the tracks around the Hebden Valley end are on ex Industrial land, even the ones that are through the woods – that have grown in the last 60-100 years are ex Industrial land, you’re tyres aren’t going to add materially to the damage that already been done.

Which dhr2 are using nickc? I’ve not tried bigger than 2.3 due to 25mm rim but I believe the blocks are bigger and more spaced on 2.4?

Interesting comment on trails on hebden woods being ex industrial land; not something I’d ever considered really, they just seem like nice woods to me and a lot of folk – rightly or wrongly – don’t like the impact we have on them

A 2.4, I’d happily throw that on a 25mm internal, it’ll be fine; don’t overthink it.

Yeah there’s lots of MTB in the valley fo’shure, and some folks are just looking for an excuse to be rowdy at people enjoying themselves on bikes; just don’t be a dick.

27.5×2.4″ Magic Mary now available with the Super Ground casing is 975g… Albeit the Super Trail casing is only about 130g heavier, and quite a bit tougher…

I’d not worry about using WT tyres on that rim. I’ve used a v1 WT shorty on a 23mm rim in the past without issue.

Local too, never had any issues with a magic Mary up front. I don’t think any tyre grips the bluebells in Elland woods or the rocks on Copley cracker.

As far trail damage, my natural hibernation seems to result in less riding so less damage.

I’ve not tried bigger than 2.3 due to 25mm rim

Depends who you speak to, but many people (look at the WC DH field) would argue that a 25mm internal rim is the ideal width for a 2.4″ tyre…

Either way, I remember back around 2004-5 when we were all running 2.5″ Maxxis or Michelin DH tyres on Mavic D521 rims with their 21mm internal rim width, and that was as good as it got at the time. Then on our XC bikes we had 2.3″ tyres on 17-19mm internal width rims!

I’m not saying this was ideal, but it wasn’t a problem… Certainly I think the world went crazy on the rim width front (just as it did with bicycle reaches), and has started to settle on something now that is wider than we rode 10-15 years ago, but perhaps not as wide as some of the crazy width rims people were fitting 5yrs ago… My personal opinion/experience is that a 30mm internal width rim is absolutely ideal for a 2.6″ tyre, a 2.4″ tyre is ideal on say a 27-28mm rim… But you can probably go 5mm either way pretty safely on my ideal rim widths, if not more, and it still work ok if not absolutely optimally.

A 2.5 Shorty works great on a 27mm rim, might be ok on a 25mm

A 2.4, I’d happily throw that on a 25mm internal, it’ll be fine; don’t overthink it.

I run a DHR2 2.4 on the front on a 25mm rim… knobs are better spaced for winter than a 2.3… it’s not magic though… wet winter riding around here gets very sketchy, no matter what.

Crikey, can’t believe it’s been 3 months since I started this thread.

Big belated thanks to all you replied, the real world feedback on comments on tyre/rim sizes was much appreciated.

I ended up getting a new Hillbilly T9 Grid Trail 2.4 for a bargain £40 direct from Specialised (with introductory offer of fiver off). The size and shape on the 25mm rim is absolutely spot on. Carcass size seems only fractionally bigger than the DHR2 2.3 I had on, I don’t have calipers to measure, but with the lugs it’s way bigger. Great to ride; as expected the grip is a big step up from the DHR2 2.3 Exo MaxTerra, and better damped as well. Don’t know how it compares with heavier / grippier Maxxis/Schwalbe options as haven’t ridden them. Once or twice I started to wonder if it wasn’t clearing particularly well, but then I looked at the 2.3 Shorty I’d moved to the back, saw that was clogged as well, so put it down to a combination of vile conditions and me not being good enough to ride fast enough to keep any tyre clear.
I’m not hard or heavy on tyres but roughly thirty hours of Hebden winter has barely done anything to them. Any increase in rolling resistance on the front is not enough for me to worry about so assuming it continues to wear okay I’ll probably just leave it on the front all year round (based on thread comments above I had intended to keep an eye open for sales if 2.4 DHR2 or Mary but now I don’t think I’ll bother). Only slight disappointment worth mentioning is that the tyre is definitely heavier than advertised. My kitchen scales put the brand new 27.5 Hillbilly 2.4 GridTrail at about 1080g, which is noticably more than claimed, even allowing for variation between scales. Has anyone else checked the weights? The only reviews I’ve seen only include claimed weights.

Thanks again all for the quick and good advice

As you’ve probably already/just discovered, it was probably the rubber compound that was your undoing (on the Shorty at least IMO).

Spesh T9, Maxxis 3C MaxxGrip, Schwalbe Purple Addix… those are good on wet rock/roots etc.

p.s. why did you weigh them? 🙂

It felt heavier than expected when I pulled it from the box and the scales were already out from making pizza dough (classic Singletrack answer…)

The differences in rubber compounds is a funny one; as a climber I was much more on top of it but on the bike I just assumed I wasn’t riding anything hard enough to warrant mega sticky rubber that I thought would wear badly. Anyway, if I’m light enough on tyres to run a soft tyre up front without it wearing too quickly I’ll probably just leave it on there.