Tyres; Someone help demystify the bullshit of DH

[Ridenparadise]

Got about 300km up on my new Maxxis tyres. Pretty good in the dry, great braking in the wet and a lot quieter, plus I get better fuel economy

Sorry, wrong forum (but I do have new Maxxis on my car)

 

[Archi]

Minion DHF's front and rear..

Are there any places you can still get Slow Reezay/40a's?

 

[nskz]

I might add that the other benefit of running Minion DHF's (or any tyre for that matter) front and rear is that you can just buy a new front and rotate the old front to the back; can't do this if you run 'end specific' tyres. This means you always have a really fresh front tyre, which lets be honest is the most important one.

 

[needaride]

Ideally we would all have 10 sets of rims with every type of cut non cut, mud loam dry sand tire so we can change when we need. but we dont get that luxury.
It is so dependent on terrain, wider will give more grip, but there is also rolling resistance, there argument between thiner tires for less resistance but also studies point towards bigger tyres roll faster due to more volume. I stick with 2.5 if the track is very very muddy like slop, then running a thinner tire can help cut through the mud rather than going thicker.

Too many variables. Cant we just do what f1 do and be provided with 4 tires option, prime, wet, intermediate, let someone else do the work.

needaride : Is that the new DHR II, I was checking that out the other day wondering how it will run compared to the popular DHF on the rear.

Yep the DHR II - looks sick, has wider set side nobs and a new pattern through the middle. have seen them being run both front and rear - getting good feedback... thinking I might try them out next time the rubber wears out.

 

[NEEDA(nother)BIKE!]

yet another for minions

I have a 2.7 on the front (only 'cause it was cheaper but seems to perform just as good) and 2.5 on the back. Both DHF's.
I always thought there wouldn't be much of a difference, and I could never tell with moto tyres (a lot bigger I guess), but when I bought a DH bike which already had a Kenda Nevegal on the front, I really noticed the difference. It had about 90% tread, but I still washed out around so many corners!
So then I bought myself some minions again and I was happy again!

Thats my story..

 

[Nautonier]

Minion DHF's front and rear..

Are there any places you can still get Slow Reezay/40a's?

I've been having trouble finding them as well. I find they grip ever so slightly better than STs on rocks and they last a bit longer as the softer compound wears down evenly rather than bits of the knobs tearing off like with STs.

Rich - if you took a summary of the results here it's pretty clear that the unanimous riders choice is 2.5 F Minions for a broad range of riding conditions. I'm sure there are other good tires out there, I just can't see any reason to try them when they're more expensive than Minions.

 

[youngi]

I find with my minions they grip best when off the breaks and they suck when they're worn about 50%.

 

[heavyp]

Michelin comp 16's or 24's but there hard to find these days, so Maxxis high roller on the back and a minion on the front

 

[driftking]

I find with my minions they grip best when off the breaks and they suck when they're worn about 50%.

Are you braking efficiently?
All tires are going to perform better when off the brakes, tires like to only deal with one force at a time so when we are braking you are trying to grip and slow down at the same time where as when you are off the brakes all they need to do is grip, this is also why you should get braking done before corners as braking in corners reduces traction and tends to wash the bike out and also stands the bike up. Another way to look at it is, off the brakes 100% of the tire is committed to traction. On the brakes you have 50% traction and 50% braking (obviously this is a very basic way to look at it)

Also with the wear, what are you comparing them too? most tires will suck to a extent when worn but to conclude that minions suck when worn 50% needs to be compared to other tires worn 50%. Also which minion are you running?

 

[cruxpitch]

Holy CRAP ! I'm glad i started this one rolling ( No Pun Intended ). Interesting stats being shown here on the thread. Various Combinations, Sizes, Models, but the common denominator here is MAXXIS.
My original Maxxis did feel great when they were new, but after a few races and some riding in between, i really started to notice the rapid decrease in its grip.
I might just kill the old Specilaized Chunders i have on the Shed Floor, then probs look at some Muddy Marys.

Thanks to all who have contributed to my even more dazed and confused look.

Rich

 

[youngi]

Are you braking efficiently?
All tires are going to perform better when off the brakes, tires like to only deal with one force at a time so when we are braking you are trying to grip and slow down at the same time where as when you are off the brakes all they need to do is grip, this is also why you should get braking done before corners as braking in corners reduces traction and tends to wash the bike out and also stands the bike up. Another way to look at it is, off the brakes 100% of the tire is committed to traction. On the brakes you have 50% traction and 50% braking (obviously this is a very basic way to look at it)

Also with the wear, what are you comparing them too? most tires will suck to a extent when worn but to conclude that minions suck when worn 50% needs to be compared to other tires worn 50%. Also which minion are you running?

Yeah, I was just saying that I have a tendency to break during corners which causes traction issues, even a less grippy tire will do a better job if your off the breaks, something I have to keep telling myself.
And that new tires grip better and if mine are about 50% worn and I have a race coming up, I get new ones ( I've been caught out before ).
I ride minions 2.5 40-42a love em.

 

[T-Rex]

My original Maxxis did feel great when they were new, but after a few races and some riding in between, i really started to notice the rapid decrease in its grip.

This sounds perfectly reasonable. Have a look at the tyre below. I estimate this has done about 5 days hard work on the back of T-Rex Junior's bike, and is now only good for a hand-me-down to old T-Rex.

Notice how there is still plenty of knob depth, but the side knobs are undercut from the inside, from the cornering load. When they get like this, a fast rider will notice them starting to slide around on most surfaces apart from solid rock. Slower riders and hacks like T-Rex tend to wear the middle knobs down from dragging the brakes everywhere, and can't really corner fast enough to get the side knobs to really bite.

 

[Ruys]

I ran Schwalbe Wicked Will's last season and liked them heaps more than the minions I had before. You don't see many people running them though for some reason.

 

[MtbDjRidaSachaz66]

I have ridden Minion DHF 2.5's for the past 3 years on my DH bikes, all in Super Tacky. Never really had any complaints.

Then, I switched them out for 2.4 Big Bettys, which I swapped a pair of SLX cranks for. They felt a little better in the mega loose loamy stuff (which most of my local trails are, and what I ride best) but I felt they were not as good on real hardpacked stuff.

So yeah, probably Big Bettys on the DH rig for me from now on.

Mate, having no avatar makes your posts invalid. Get another funny avatar!

Back on topic, I just run minions on both the rear and front. Not fussy at all with tyres to be honest. Don't screw around with the brand, the majority are the same tyre for performance, but just different brand names and gloss about them. I just went with the minions because I hear the majority prefer it, so I did too. I got them as a hard compound (60a I think) and wow they last forever, and have been going for about 2 years! Having said that, I usually ride at least once or twice every month. However, I sometimes don't feel 100% on the front tyre and feel they would slip out underneath me when doing corners... But that's probably just me needing to work on my confidence.

 

[4dabush]

+1 more for Minion DHF's, but with a caveat.

I've just put a 2.35 DHF on my 6 inch bike which is my XC bike, and its a shocking tyre for XC duties...it is skittery and unpredictable, especially on roots and off cambers...which is probably opposite to what I would say the 2.5s are like on the DH bike.

The pressures I use for XC are probably 10psi or more than on the DH bike, and I reckon that plays a huge part. So, that has made me think more about my tyre pressures and how that might affect the performance of any tyre.

Back to the minions, I have a new set I keep for race weekends and old ones for the rest of the time...the old ones are getting to the point of being completely slick. Fr and R look like T Rex's photo - but with less side knobs left (and I'm not fast either!!!)...so I'll by some new super tacky's for race days and the current race set will be the weekend thrashers... best i can come up with and cheaper than the 10 wheelset option