stickso
Likes Dirt
Single ply Minion DHFs front & rear are probably a good place to start if you're just looking for cornering grip. Or an Ardent on the rear if you need to do a lot of pedaling.
All Mountain Tyres
- Thread starter tasty.dirt74
- Start date
Knuckles
Lives under a bridge
Digitalhippie was running a purg/butcher combo a while back on his ibis. Maybe give him a pm or look at his review on his www.
foxpuppet
Eats Squid
I can vouch for the spesh tyres. I was running the 2.1 captain control rear and 2.2 purgatory front for a long time on my stumpy. For the first GE racing I did I put the 2.2 purg on the rear and a 2.3 ground control front. It was a bit back to front though as the purg is more front tyre tread style but it seemed to work. For the last GE is did which was a lot looser I changed the GC to the rear and put a 2.3 butcher up front. The butcher is more DH style like the minion. Super tacky, not the best rolling but grips like a mofo with aggressive knobs. I run mine tubeless at 20-25psi depending on the trail.
For Sydney trails the ground control is probably the better pick for an all round tyre.
I'll post some pics of the treads ASAP.
Sent by courier pigeon
I've had experience with a few tyres:
Continental Mountain King (I believe 2.3)- nice tyre, good grip, possibly needing a little more in the corners for aggressive riding.
Continental Cross King 2.25- an xc tyre, loss of traction on loose climbs and corners, worn out fairly quickly, a lot of noise on road, a basic xc tyre although.
Kenda Honey Badger 2.25- really light and less grip than the Cross Kings.
Maxxis High Roller 2 single compound 2.3- great tyre, my personal choice as there is no loss of grip, however a little chunky to push along sometimes.
Maxxis High Roller 2 Triple Compound 2.3- you can feel the difference from the single compound, they are just a bit softer in places which would probably help climbing. Worth the extra coin.
I generally run 30-40 psi as im not as experienced with running lower pressure and stick to the safe side as far as flats and buckled rims.
Continental Mountain King (I believe 2.3)- nice tyre, good grip, possibly needing a little more in the corners for aggressive riding.
Continental Cross King 2.25- an xc tyre, loss of traction on loose climbs and corners, worn out fairly quickly, a lot of noise on road, a basic xc tyre although.
Kenda Honey Badger 2.25- really light and less grip than the Cross Kings.
Maxxis High Roller 2 single compound 2.3- great tyre, my personal choice as there is no loss of grip, however a little chunky to push along sometimes.
Maxxis High Roller 2 Triple Compound 2.3- you can feel the difference from the single compound, they are just a bit softer in places which would probably help climbing. Worth the extra coin.
I generally run 30-40 psi as im not as experienced with running lower pressure and stick to the safe side as far as flats and buckled rims.
foxpuppet
Eats Squid
Yeah they have a few new ones coming out too, keen to see the slaughter but it probably won't be in 26".... Bummer for me.
Here's the tyres I've got
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bikeyoulongtime
Likes Dirt
Purgatory is a great front tyre, captain is a great rear tyre! Being a big bastard I managed to put holes in the sidewalls of the captain 2bliss pretty quick (in Adelaide, including one GE race at fox creek). Otherwise, its a fine combo (purgatory front, captain rear). The captain 2.2 is also big, for a 2.2.
If they had stronger sidewalls, they would be even better...
foxpuppet
Eats Squid
The GC is a newer tyre I think. They ran the purg front captain rear combo for a while but since 2013 bikes like the new stumpy fsr came with purg front GC rear both in 2.3 60Tpi. I've seen some running GC front and back.
The evo bikes run my old butcher/purg combo. But I like the newer butcher/GC combination. Get slightly better rolling from the GC over the purg or roughly the same with a 2.3 GC as I got with a 2.2 purg.
That being said I have more fun riding the bigger tyres but speed it definitely sacrificed over grip levels. Transition wise I've not noticed any issues from centre to side.... Has to be a good thing right?
Sent by courier pigeon
wavike
Likes Dirt
I've used the Ground control, captain and purgatory. I thought in relation to grip that's how they run too. GC rear / captain F on XC bike. Captain R / Purg F on trail bike. Have no desire to use the GC as a front tire. Being a lightweight, the control versions have been great as a rear tire, never had a cut in about 4yrs riding very rocky area. Sworks front work for me too. About to give a botty XR3 a try as i can't get the purg in 2.2 any more for trail work.
wavike
Likes Dirt
Purg 2.2 no longer available, think it's 2.3 now. The purg 2.2 was bigger than the 2.3 Ignitor, I've got both. Purg has much more rounded profile, rolls into corners as front tire really well. The Ignitor is flatter with more pronounced side knobs, but really clunky on hard pack. I wack in on the back after a week of rain for more grip on the slippery rocks/roots after the trails have dried out a bit. The 2.2 Captain was bigger than the 2.2 purg, that's probably why they went up in size as most run the Captain rear and Purg front. Looks weird with a bigger tire on the rear.
captainslamm
Squid
Maybe someone should summarise what everyone said and post the document somewhere. I dont think anyone has the time to sift thru 78 pages just to get the tyres they need.
teK--
Eats Squid
Change your preference settings. It can all fit onto 20 pages :first:
captainslamm
Squid
20 pages is still a lot, maybe 3 pages to state every opinion about the tyres max 5
ForkinGreat
Knows his Brassica oleracea
Specialized Butcher control 2.3 on front and Spesh Eskar 2.3 rear. Butcher has noticably more grip than the Eskar it replaced, especially riding off camber sections and skirting edges of deep ruts. :biggrin1:
stickso
Likes Dirt
There's so much good info in this thread which is getting buried. I don't want to come off as a spammer but I've been working on a site to rate and comment on tyres and filter them based on overall ratings, disciplines, available sizes etc. Don't have Spesh tyres in there but can add them easily (will do so now).
The site is www.mtbtyres.com.au.
stickso - that site seems ok but a couple of comments
- there is vastly different options within each tyre type, e.g. triple compound, tubeless ready, sizes, etc. A one size fits all is kind of difficult
- not sure the rating scale works that well - for instance i would only give a rolling rating of a minion DHR2 or high roller II a 3 or 4 as they are a pretty slow rolling tyre, but if i was rating the rolling considering the cornering grip the high roller would probably get 5/5
Maybe time to start a poll here?
- there is vastly different options within each tyre type, e.g. triple compound, tubeless ready, sizes, etc. A one size fits all is kind of difficult
- not sure the rating scale works that well - for instance i would only give a rolling rating of a minion DHR2 or high roller II a 3 or 4 as they are a pretty slow rolling tyre, but if i was rating the rolling considering the cornering grip the high roller would probably get 5/5
Maybe time to start a poll here?