[Closed] Larger contact patch and wider spacing versus cutting into the mud?

Well, my fat bike was crap in slippy mud

mine too ... i still default to 1.8s when its gloop season.

i suspect the 2.6 vs 2.8 decision will come down to which you like the best as itll have minimal effect either way really.

It depends on the mud. Sometimes you want to cut through to a harder layer below - if the mud isn't too deep. Sometimes it's better to float across rather than sink into it and come to a halt.

to an extent. Still find lack of traction gets you even when floating with nates.

if you can carry a decent chunk of speed over it your right its better to float than to get hub dumped but i find that most of the winter its the 2/3 inches of gloop im riding in on established trails as i avoid the boggy mess for enviromental scarring* reasons ....

*sorry i mean mental scarring reasons.... i just dont enjoy riding through bogs regardless of bike.

What Scotroutes said. Fat bikes work brilliantly in mud with a mud tyre as they put less pressure and shear stress on the mud underneath the tread so as long as they don't skate across the surface it's fine.

Conversely skinny treads work just as well by digging in and finding something solid.

Both are probably optimal for different types of mud.

2.6/2.8 will probably be optimal somewhere, but like fat bikes and 1.8 Bontranger Mud-X's they'll still be shit in a lot of other places!

Skinny tyres only work if there's a solid underneath - IME once you get beyond about 6" the drag on the tyre can be too much. Around these parts, I regularly encounter 'bottomless' mud created by frequent horse traffic in winter - it can be 12-18" deep and experience tells me impassible and not pleasant to walk through. With a fat or plus bike there's a chance I can 'float' across - don't expect to 'carve' your way though, get in a low gear and spin.

Luckily it will be sandy soil, so never that bad.

The wet sloppy mud will make all of the difference, not the 5mm difference in tyre width.

no help, but I always giggle when I recall a mate's first experience of fat bike tyres on sloppy surrey loam downhills at Porridge Pot (RIP); they were super round profiled with relatively little tread, and the look of surprise and alarm on his face as his rear end overtook him was priceless. Like trying to carve turns using gutters instead of skis.

Every winter I ask STW to so a cx v fatty v mud tyred mtb test. As yet it hasn't happened.

I ran cx wheels on a 26 full sus bike one winter. There's a 30 mph downhill near me and unknowingly the bottom has been turned into a quagmire. I honestly thought I was a gonna. Cut straight through it with 1.35 tyres. On a fatty I'd still be in traction.

With a fat bike you just don't know when it's going to let go. Nates were as rubbish as anything else.

My fatbike won't get a look in unless it snows this winter. I've bought a 29 hardtail and put bontrager muds on it.

Just bought some Maxxis FBF 4.8's of wiggle to see if they'll fit in my Fatty, tech docs say no, Brant says a Lou fits just and I'm sure I've seen the Minion is smaller so we'll find out.

C'mon traction!

With a fat bike you just don’t know when it’s going to let go. Nates were as rubbish as anything else.

Depends how you like to ride, I find that floaters tend to break away fairly early, but after that slide really predictably which suits most of my riding really well as it's natural loamy trails but not too much traffic so they don't get cut up into deep mud and that sort of cornering works well.  They don't seem to like wet roots though! I managed to crash (properly, not just an unscheduled dismount) 3x in 2 hours a couple of weeks ago!

I'll admit I do judge it based on my CX/Gravel bike a bit now, I fit 32mm tyres in winter which definitely give grip/traction in mud and clear mud better than anything else, but are nothing like as comfortable, so thats a bit extreme...

As a general compromise the MTB stays on ~2.3" tyres year round now, accepting that narrower tyres would yield marginally better grip, but I'm certainly not keen to go under 2" on an MTB (it's not 1995 any more) and fatter tyres, while comfy and grippier during summer, would need to be swapped every winter...

An open spikey tread pattern will always be better too, but that comes down to whether or not you're a seasonal/conditional tyre swapper or (as I now am) a "Keep the same tyres on all year" type... MTB is on Butcher Grids and will probably stay that way for winter now...