XC Racers…

What tyres are you using?
If I’d titled it “What Tyres…” even less of you would have looked.
I can’t decide if I should get some 1.9ish mtb tyres or some 35c cross tyres?
I’m not fussed about comfort, volume etc. I just want some lightweight tyres with some off road capability.
Also, lightweight tubes or tubeless with a scoop of Stans sealant? Again, with optimum weight in mind?

XC Racers – What tyres are you using?

depends on the venue and conditions!
But normally something low tread and fast rolling in 1.9-2.1 inch on the back*, coupled to either the same or slightly bigger on the front**, with increasingly knobbly variants as it gets sloppier.

*Bontrager XR1 or 2, old Bontrager XC Dry, Maxxis Larsen TT, Geax AKA, Conti Race King
** as above, but also Spesh Ground Control, Spesh Captain, Bonty XR3, Geax Barro, Maxxis Beaver

lightweight tubes or tubeless

tubeless every time

I just want some lightweight tyres with some off road capability

Er, do you actually want these for XC races? there’s normally a fair amount of offroad involved in them

2.1″ Vittoria Peyote on my HT and 2.25″ Vittoria Barzo on my FS, why on earth would you want 35c CX tryes on a MTB, unless it was mega muddy?

Ron Ralph for me, both snakeskin and tubeless.

Conti Race King 2.0?

“Er…” ? Lets’s keep it friendly, eh?
“…with some off road capability” with reference to blatting around the bridleways, rocks and sometimes, singletrack and roots of the Peak District as well as short right through to multi day races.
Thanks for the replies so far.
Anybody had a go at ‘cross tyres on an xc bike?

Kenda Smallblock 8 2.1 as tubeless are my year-round all-round tire, because I can’t be bothered changing tires around. I’ve used everywhere from Malaysian jungle to (current location) Scottish rocky tracks in winter.

They aren’t perfect, but they are fast and good-enough at all-round usage for me. Which reminds me – time to buy a new pair – if anyone knows where to get them online (as 29er, tubeless not UST) for a reasonable price in the UK would love to know. CRC no longer seem to carry that model.

“Er…” ? Lets’s keep it friendly, eh?

sorry, should have added a smiley, 😉 😳

was trying to ascertain whether you actually wanted tyre recommendations for XC racing, or something else as the title vs content made it a bit ambiguous.

Sounds like you’re after more of a CX/Gravel/skinny XC tyre then? got limited experience there personally but a decent light 1.9inch MTB tyre isn’t much of a weight penalty and will get you more traction and comfort (whether you’re bothered or not) and won’t slow you down.

Nobby Nic, snakeskin tubeless, with Stans.

Can’t see me ever wanting to use cross tyres in a XC race, what a curious idea.

Thank you. Any recdommendations for a 1.9 lightweight tyre? I’m just about stopping short of drilling holes in crank arms but the top cap is off and I’m pondering two bolts on the stem rather than four 🙂
Just exploring ideas to see what would work, or not.
I have super lightweight Schwalbe tubes at the moment and I wonder if they’d be lighter than a couple of lengths of insulation tape and a little bit of Stans sealant?

……….are you even allowed to run CX tyres in XC races?

For maximum light weight/rolling/grip Rocket Ron/Racing Ralph Liteskin combo.

For more puncture resistance and faff free tubeless setup Vittoria Peyote TNT.

I have three tyre set ups, all tubeless:

Winter filthy mud Maxxis beaver 2.0 front and rear, run about 23psi f&r

Dry conditions oir intermediate but not too technical, Rocket ron 2.25 front, racing ralph 2.1 rear

wetter conditions or more technical rocky terrain
Rocekt ron 2.25 front, roket ron 2.1 rear.

both these two i run about 19psi front 21psi rear.

If you’re weight-weenieing, the lightest tyres I’ve used are Maxxis Maxxlite 310, but they’re barely more than a slick. Twister Supersonics at least pretend to have some knobbles.

Any recdommendations for a 1.9 lightweight tyre

I’m a big fan of the current Bontrager (and Spesh) range, easy to tubeless, decent weights, and considerably cheaper than Maxxis/Conti/Schwalbe, and if you have a bigger Trek or Spesh dealer locally then they are likely to stock a fairly good range for going to look in person.

The Bonty ones work on an increaseing number for aggressiveness, ie: XR0 is almost semi-slick, 1 is low tread, 2 typical Xc, 3+ gets more aggressive.

The Team Issue TLR model XR0 comes in 1.9 @ ~450g and is very very quick, go up the range if you want a bit more grr but the XR1 is still pretty quick.

Spesh Fast Trak and Renegade are also good options and come in 1.95 ish sizes too.

The Kenda SB8 is a bit dated now but still good, and comes in MTB and CX sizes although I haven’t used one for a good few years.

There are some silly light options for Maxxis, the Maxxlite I think? and the Supersonic Conti options but my only experiments with <400g tyres ended in tears on every occasion, and even that was at higher pressure than I wanted to run.

Some people get on fine with them, and if you’re on the ball and have finesse I think you could be OK, but when I’m racing especially I can get a bit sloppy, or enthusiastic and I prefer an extra 50-100g of carcass and rubber as a safety net!

Maxxlite 310s were utterly comical! Can’t imagine what the 285s were like!

Thunder Burts are light and very usable. Furious Freds slightly lighter but significantly less usable (and allegedly slower rolling than a Burt).

I presume this is about hanging the bike on some scales, rather than actually using it though? In which case Freds get my vote.

To answer the question in the thread title – 2.25″ Rons/Ralphs, or Burts.

I have seen one person using CX tyres for XC racing at Sherwood, it looked stupid and they were slower. Utterly pointless endeavour IMO.

rons or ralph 2.25 or maybe 2.1

For an actual XC race

I like thinner is Im trying to link bridleways in the summer.

I remember running stupidly narrow tyres in the past and they are horrid. Only place the are marginally better is for very deep mud where clearance is important and the ability to cut down to a hard surface is helpful. For general XC they are terrible.

Follow this sage advice from njee20 To answer the question in the thread title – 2.25″ Rons/Ralphs, or Burts.

I think I’m happy to concede that ‘cross tyres or anything super skinny is not going to be the revelation I was hooping it was going to be, so thank you.
I’ll have an investigation in to local availabilty of the recommendations for mtb tyres noted above.

Don’t bother with local availability, just buy from Germany and save a fortune.

Ardent race, but Im an am/enduro/dh guy playing at this and I like to corner

Racing ralph/Saguaro/Ground Control/Mud x all tubeless- to answer the question.

None of these are the lightest, but I’m a bit clumsy so a bit of durability suits me.

Good thread this! I feel some experimentation coming on.

is not going to be the revelation I was hooping

I dont know what wheels / tyre combo your coming from.

But I went from some pretty average wheels/tyres, straight some really light stands rims, 2.1 racing ralphs and tubeless all in one go.

The combination of doing all 3 changes at once did make the the bike noticeably easier to pedal.

I have Specialized Ground Control 2bliss 2.1 front and rear. Hope Pro2 Evo hubs with Hope Tech XC rims and the spokes that they came with. Superlight Schwalbe tubes.
The wheels will be upgraded at a later date but they’ll have to do for now.
I’ll tubeless them this weekend on the current or replacement tyres.

Rocket ron on the front and racing ralph on the rear. Evo without snakeskin variant if there’s no rocks and you’re light otherwise get the snakeskin. bike-discount is probably the cheapest.

Ron front Ralph/Fred back sometimes Fastraks

Maxxis Crossmark here. Have used Schwalbe in the past but IME the sticky outer compound is so thin the performance drops pretty sharply after a short time of use. Maybe this has improved in recent years.

Ron/Ron now, Ron/Ralph later, and Ralph/Thunderburt if we have more than a 2 week summer.

All tubeless.

I just want some lightweight tyres with some off road capability
Er, do you actually want these for XC races? there’s normally a fair amount of offroad involved in them

I think it’s fair to say that most people will run the fastest/least knobbly tyres they can for an XC race, and for any long distance XC rides.

To the OP, as little tread as I dare, running tubeless as they roll faster and are a bit more puncture resistant than lightweight tubes (particularly with a bit of sealant, but this is negated in my case as they aren’t tubeless tyres). I run 2.15s which come up pretty big, but I am quite heavy (85kg) and running 26″ wheels still.

If you want to use 35c cross tyres then just get a cross bike. It will be faster than an MTB on bridleways and faster on some mild singletrack too.

“If you want to use 35c cross tyres…” Not really what I was exploring but thanks anyway.

I’m fairly new to XC racing, and not cash rich so I use the tyres I’ve got, which were bought to survive places like the Lake district and Wales (living in one of the flatter parts of Kent).

Kenda Nevegal 26×2.1 UST on the rear and Maxxis High Roller 26×2.35 on front, both tubeless obvs. Neither are lightweight, but are grippy enough and reliable and never had a puncture with Stans in them. They had no problems in the Lakes or Welsh trail centers.

Will probably look to get some faster rolling tyres towards Summer, but I wouldn’t go any slimmer than 2.1 for sure – have found fast rolling 2.1 tyres I’ve tried measure up under 2.0 anyway.

Keep the GC front, get 2.0 Fasttrack on the back, tubeless.

Controls fine, SWorks too weak sidewalls imo

Fast Trak Control F+R. If it gets too muddy for them, swap the front for a Maxxis Beaver 2.00 and put another Beaver on the back if it’s needed. All run tubeless.

I used a set of the maxzis maxlites back in the 26er days, raced the Plymouth national and got top 15. Sketchy would be a good description of my riding style that day.

Last year I based Ralph’s 2.1 (I think) for the whole year irrelevant of the weather. Basically I was too lazy to change tyres but the tyre coped very well but changing pressure and style to suit conditions.

I’m becoming a big fan of bontrager tyres, good range with the xr1 my choice. Good weight, seats really easily on the rim, not fragile, and plenty of grip with a nice profile. Worth looking at if you ask me.

I was going to ask about tyre combo’s a while ago and i never got round to it. Apart from Ron/Ralph, I though about a Vittoria Barzo/Mezcal mix. As they are about £12 cheaper for the pair on Mantel than Ron/Ralphs I thought they could be worth a try.

Rons 2.25 front and rear in winter TB 2.1 rear in summer