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I've got 1000 miles on my tyres - and the rear is losing its tread.
Front: Ground Control T5 (Control casing) 29x2.35 - seems to have lots of meat on it.
Rear: Fast Track T5 (Control casing) 29x2.35 - losing what little centre tread it had in the first place. The sides are fine.
Dilemma - replace with the same and call it a day, or try something else?
Suggestions please: I don't want to lose any rolling or weight advantage, but any additional bite (when upright) on the rear would be very welcome. Cornering seems fine for my muggle skills.
Couple of thoughts from someone who has same tyres, 4500k on the GC, probs 3500k on the Fastrak (sometimes use a nobby nic in the winter).
- You might be riding on more road than I am to get that much wear.....
- If you're not running tubeless, do that, and run it at 20psi max and you'll be astonished how much grip you do have
Couple of thoughts from someone who has same tyres, 4500k on the GC, probs 3500k on the Fastrak (sometimes use a nobby nic in the winter).
- You might be riding on more road than I am to get that much wear.....
- If you're not running tubeless, do that, and run it at 20psi max and you'll be astonished how much grip you do have
Hiya - well, the bike has done zero road miles, but at least 50% hard pack at trail centres. They were set up tubeless within a few weeks of getting the bike.
I do run 22-23psi in the rear (67kg rider) - I've tried lower pressures but I just don't like the amount of squish I get in the rear. 26mm ID rear rim.
Not sure if that puts extra load on the centre. I'd say that for the first 600 miles, I was rather biased towards the rear brake... but I'm a lot more balanced with both now.
I think the issue is that the centre knobs (which were already small) have a rather ramped edge now - no longer square.
For winter, I do intend to run something gripper on the front and rear - so both will get changed.
Depends where you ride, how hard you brake etc. I'm on the same setup but using the Grid T7 versions which should technically wear quicker but I'm 1000 miles in and still tons of tread left.
1000 miles seems pretty decent for a rear mtb tire.
How far have you got on previous tires?
I like two the same and swapping the front to the rear when the previous rear gives up.
There are a load of bike checks for the tour divide race on bikepacking.com. lots of them seem to be running Vittoria Mezcals 15/140. It's 2700 miles so I assume they last at least the race.
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2025-tour-divide-rigs-part-1/
They have also done an analysis.
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/rigs-of-the-2025-tour-divide-stats/
Of the 59 Vittoria users, 56 were running the Mezcal, which continues to be a go-to for its fast-rolling tread. As for Continental, their growth was thanks to the soon-to-be-defunct Race King, which is set to be replaced by the Dubnital. I’m not certain why they saw a big increase; maybe they were on sale? Regardless, after the Race King, a mix of Maxxis tires and the Fleecer Ridge round out the top choices, followed by various others.
That generation of Fast Trak wears fairly quickly on the rear due to the small flexible spaced out knobs.
Vittoria are quite good for wear. They use graphene in the rubber compound, which does help. But as with the Fast Trak, a Mezcal will last a whole lot longer than a Barzo on the rear just because of the tread design.
I find the FT wears on the rear quite quickly (same compound) as once the knobs start to crumble, it’s game over. I mostly use mine for trail riding, so maybe more braking & skidding on steeper stuff than outright XC, but I do find the Renegade is a great rear tyre when it dries out. Even faster, no noticeable grip loss & lasts a lot longer.