[Closed] Anyone use specialized tyres ?

I’m a huge fan of Spesh tyres , they work well and I think are much better value than most.

I.D leave the slaughter for the summer

Some people have issues with the sworks casing as it’s very light but guess that depends on you and how you ride

Slaughter is not good in the slop. Ouchies.

I like them, but only a few - Butcher, Slaughters & Hillbilly are great.

I've been running a Slaughter on the back of my hardtail all winter - it's surprisingly good actually.

I've go a Butcher on the front of my SS for the winter slop. I can't remember it being as muddy as this year round here (it's been unusually wet and mild) but the Butcher has been great as a front tyre in it.

I was talking to someone at my LBS which is also a Spesh specialist store and he was telling me that Spesh have now opened their own tyre production factory in Asia and there have been some major problems with quantities and quality. This conversation came about because all of Spesh's cyclo cross range of tyres had sold out by the beginning of January.

Captain Control 26x2.3 is the most succesful-at-its-job tyre ever imo, just bloody awesome. And I used to love the 26 inch Butcher Control as a rear, never had a tyre that slides as nicely, it turned me Awesome. But I don't like how they do compounds- I wanted a sticky Butcher for the front but the only way to get stickier, was to go heavier duty. So you end up with the tough sticky tyre on the front and the flimsy tyre on the rear, that's daft. Maxxis have this nailed.

Had Purgatory’s and the captain’s in the past and was very impressed with the quality for the money. Would defo use Specialized tyres again.

Excellent tyres for the money, Purgatory grid on the rear all the year round...does a pretty good job. I'm not paying Maxxis prices.

I run spesh tyres on the rear, a slaughter grid until conditions get too muddy, then change to a butcher grid. The Slaughter can be exciting under braking if you're riding wet grassy trails !

Use butcher in the front, slaughter on the rear all year round.

Theyre very good,really tough in grid format.

Most of my riding is on rocky stuff,so the slaughter is fine all year round,but if i rode in mud, the slaughter wouldnt be my first choice

Another Butcher/Slaughter user, don't ride too much in proper muddy stuff and can't be bothered changing.  Pretty easy to go tubeless and Northwind was right about the Captain, awesome tyre.

Have Spesh tyres on all of my bikes except the tourer. MTB currently has Butcher Grid front, Ground Control Grid rear (both 29x2.35) though fancy giving the Slaughter a go on the rear if we have a nice spring / summer.

Yeah I like them. Butcher, Purgatory, Ground Control, Fast trak. All good imo.

I use a storm control on the rear over winter. Best mud/foul weather tyre I’ve ever used. Great value as others have said

Specialized make great tyres at a reasonable price, although their prices have been creeping up over the last year or so.

Go for Control or Grid if you want to run them tubeless.

Purgatory front and Ground Control or The Captain rear has been my standard set up for years.

Keep an eye on the Sigma Sports website. They regularly have good reductions on Specialized tyres.

The sworks ones work perfectly fine tubless just are less tough that’s all. So fine if your light or don’t ride on sharp rock

Spesh Butcher grid on the front and Purgatory grid on the rear were my go to tyres for a long time, although I've moved on to Maxcis now.

FS bike Butcher up front all year, Captain Control rear (summer), Storm Control (once winter clag sets in)

Hardtail Purgatory up front (prefer the Butcher for front), either Captain Control or Fast Track (summer) and storm control again for the winter.

All set up tubeless.

Liking the look of the Slaughter as a summer rear for the FS when the Captain gives up.

I've buckled a couple of casings but when I think about how many of their tyres I've had and my un-svelte physique it's not too bad a break rate.

What's wear rate like? And how flimsy is the general construction?

I used to ride Specialized Enduro tyres exclusively many years ago as they were really good value at purchase time but, in retrospect, they wore out pretty quickly compared to Maxxis Minions I now use....

I've not tried Specialized tyres for along time so curious whether to swap out when current Maxxis wear out...

SCREAM LIKE A GIRL! The 29x2.6 Butcher is finally on sale. I wants it

Butcher front, purgatory rear all year round. Great tyres and more realistically priced than others.

Wear very well IME.

I run a Purgatory in the front, Ground Control in the rear...

Great for most winter trails here in Denmark, as long as it is not too frosty.

All my tyres are Specialized now. The range is small and easy to understand, I've never had a bad one and the price is right.

I used a Butcher and Slaughter for over a year on a hardtail in conditions where you wouldn't want a semi slick rear tyre but it still kind of worked. Purgatories are an excellent all rounder.

I've settled on the Grid casing. I tried to save weight but for my style of riding it's not worth it. I prefer the extra rigidity of the tougher sidewall.

Currently got the new 2.6 Butcher and Hillbilly on my main bike but haven't used them yet.

Purgatory front and Ground control rear running tubeless on my full susser.

I love specialized tyres, my fave was the Eskar!

I've had Butcher / Purgatory Grids before which had great casings but not my ideal tread, but not bad either.

After those I got some WTB Vigilante / Trail Boss Light/Grippy, which I really liked, but should have gone tough on the rear for my HT.

Just brought Hillbilly (how long did we have to wait for a 650b Grid!!!!) and Ground Control Grids, fast rolling with enough grip at the rear, spikey as hell on the front.

Specialized and WTB have it right for me, reasonable pricing, easy to understand the range, a tyre for all conditions.

Running Hillbilly front and Purgatory rear as a winter combo on my 29er hardtail, both in Grid.  Purgatory seems to work well enough on the rear as a winter tyre.

Just put the same Combo on Katies 650b bike and the Hillbilly tread is different - siped blocks rather than the hollow indent on the 29 tyres.

I had a set of Purgatory Controls but the sidewalls were so fragile they collapsed unless you ran them at fairly high pressures and they never stopped weeping sealant through the sidewalls (and lost air over the course of a week or so).

Can’t fault them for value compared to Maxxis/Conti/et al.

Hillbilly front, butcher rear on the bike bike. Very impressed, the hillbilly copes better with harder surfaces than the shorty, more like a magic mary tbh. Plenty grippy enough, the sizing is spot on and they are a fair bit knobblier than the equivalent maxxis.

Have ground controls on the hardtail for local riding, much better than the forekaster that I had on the front previously. Will be swapping the rear for a fasktrak once the mud clears off.

Very happy with my Purgatory Grids after a year or two running them, apart from the never-ending seepage through the sidewalls. Just looks untidy.

Spesh tyres are very good value, especially the Grid casing versions which are acceptably tough and easy to set up tubeless.

Avoid S-Works tyres. It took me far too long to discover that they'll tear at the slightest excuse. Control casings are better, but definitely not up to coping with flint-riddled chalky soil.

As most people have said they're great tyres, but unless you're full on weight weeny xc racer I wouldn't have anything less than GRID casing on the rear - I don't weigh a lot and try and ride pretty smooth and have burst sidewalls on purg controls.

Really great value for money, and very durable if GRID, won't be going to Schwalbe/Maxxis anytime soon.

Butcher/purgatory came on a bike, they were grippy enough with the obvious exception that the purgatory is not good in slop, and they are a little draggy compared to the Schwalbes I replaced them with (MM/NN).

Didn't run them long enough to get much opinion on the sidewalls, but they didn't look too flimsy, and the speed alone wouldn't have convinced me to change them although it's a bit disappointing that the Purgatory felt slower than a full knobbly from another brand.

I seem to be about the only person on this forum who doesn't really think about tyres.  My bike is a Specialized so I assume it has Specialized tyres but I've never really bothered to look.  At some point they will wear down and need replacing but, until then, they don't get any attention.

I use ground control on the rear and purgatory or butcher on the front on my winter bike and my local woods bike mainly because of the price. They set up easily tubeless and wear well but I'm a bit iffy about the compound. While it's ok generally in slop I find them sketchy at times on roots, some rocks etc so I wouldn't use them for my gnarpoon where my teeth depend on grip

I run the butcher/purgatory combo on my bikes in the summer/middling months around England and rate them for their wear and price. Took the hardtail out locally at the weekend and both tyres were useless in the mulch of late and actually meant that because they clagged up so much i end up bailing quite harsh just because I had no way of getting any grip to slow down.

Went out the next day on a Magic Mary/HR2 combo to the same trails and felt much more confident and in control. Equally if I were going away to a rocky/dry climate like Italy etc. as I did last year I would opt for a Maxxis combo (which I did) because I dont rate the spcialized casing as being tough enough. I did still split a HR but thats besides the point!

Basically if I want a tyre for most English weather and for most of the year, I opt for the Butcher/Purgatory combo. It's only rare occasions when I opt for something else! Ran a pair of ground controls for a winter season before on the Hardtail, only reason I havent reinstalled is the massive stick hole I need to fix. I wouldn't stick a pair on the Bronson though just because of the narrow profile of them.