I've spent the summer on Trailstar Hans dampf front and Pacestar Nobby Nic rear and really liked them.
New bike means new tyres, need to balance getting to / from trails to outright traction so nothing daft, a middling robust winter combo. The Nobby Nic wasnt holding corners in the wet. Was thinking-
Hans Dampf both ends,
Muddy Mary / Hans
Maxxis Shorty / HR2
HR2 both ends.
How is the DHR2 in the wet?
Anything else?
Magic Mary both ends.
Magic Mary or Shorty on the front.
The back is pretty much up to you, I'd say the order from least to most grip is:
HR2
Hans Dampf
DHR 2
but obviously the more grip you have on the rear, the more effort it's going to be on the road. I really like my DHR 2 as an all-rounder on the back, but it's not a fast tyre by any means.
I'd go, and am going, 2.3" Shorty both ends (3C compound). Ran it all last winter and didn't feel ridiculously draggy getting to the trails. HR2 are my summer tyres.
New DHR2 better than HR 2 in the wet? I thought DHR were more for drier looser stuff.
Not much stock about for Magic Marys.
shorty front, hr2 rear for me when its muddy
having trouble finding 650b exo hr2 2.3 tho!
By DHR do you mean minion? In which case I thought
a) the high roller was the mixed conditions tyre and the minion the dry tyre
b) the DHR was rubbish and everyone used DHF's?
Either way, I'm going with "recommend what you use", Spesh Purgatory F&R. Grips well all year round, only swap it for something faster in summer whereas most 'winter' tyres I've had became unusable in the dry as they lost all their grip.
HR2 are a good all round choice IMO.
HR2 if it is not proper swamp like conditions.
Skip the 2.3 and go for the 2.4.
Either way, I'm going with "recommend what you use", Spesh Purgatory F&R. Grips well all year round, only swap it for something faster in summer whereas most 'winter' tyres I've had became unusable in the dry as they lost all their grip.
I found purgatorys absolutely awful in the wet, specially on the front.
I've fitted shorty 2.3 front and minion dhr2 rear, I was surprised by how well they rolled, fitted about 2 weeks ago and trails turned dryer so not tried them in the proper wet yet, however this weekend will test them for sure!
They performed well in the semi dry, I was expecting the shorty to be poor but seemed fine so it'll be staying on now.
The DHR2 is nothing like the DHR. It's basically a Minion DHF with better braking knobs down the middle (and slightly chunkier side knobs).
Magic Mary, Shorty or Baron Projekt would be my choice on the front, in order of increasing compound awesomeness.