[Closed] Recommend me a 4" fat tyre please.

Jumbo Jims. Fastest out there, and pretty light. If that's your bag, and you're happy to sacrifice some grip in mud (and some money), you can't go wrong.

Jumbo Jim snakeskin for at least 3 season all rounders. £50 per tyre is normally best deal (Charlie the bike monger).

Not tried Floaters myself, but pretty good for money when £20, despite their weight.

Only ever ridden Jumbo Jim Snakeskin TLE's in 4.0" but they're ace. They work on rock, trail type rubble, hardpack, sand, heath grass and natural forest trails.

Go up dead easy tubeless and mine haven't lost any air in a month since I set them up with Gorilla Tape and 6oz of Stans in each one.

Jims are fantastic, for what they can do but they do run out of grip pretty fast when it's wet. Good value too.

Something else, if you want good wet weather grip. Nates? Can you squeeze a bigger tyre in the fork or is it definitely 4.0?

Was not impressed by Nates. Floaters can't be beat for the money.
Bontrager Hodag is lighter and quieter than a Floater .Will get another when one turns up cheap.
If anyone can recommend something that doesn't wash out entering mud patches please share.

I don't get the JJ love. Awful tyres although I have some 4.8s to try at some point. Apparently they're better than their 4.0 brothers. Husker Du is the best compromise of grip and rolling resistance for me but they are a bit pricier. I wouldn't use floaters purely because I know too many people who have had seating issues and also them blowing off the rim. Nates are great for winter. You should be able to get a 4.8 up front unless you have an unusual fork. Best combi I have found is Hudu at the back and a Bud up front. Rode it all year round on my mukluk.

Floaters are fine on the back, average but quite predicable. I didn't like it on the front though as they just push wide all the time, swapped for a Nate and was much happier, Bud even better, Minion FBF better again (but those last 2 are 4.8).

Have a few 120tpi Nate I need to sell, if anyone wants one email me.

JJs for me (4.8s though). The only thing they don't like is sloppy slimy mud as they float but don't grip. Everything else is great.

It all depends where you ride and on what.

To me Nates are the best 4" winter tyre.

Summer you can run just about anything, tyre pressure makes the biggest difference.

I run either Black Floyds or Floaters for summer.

I went from floaters to jumbo jims. Jims are noticeably quicker in the dry. I kept my floaters for the winter.
Depends if you just want to get rolling cheaply or want the better tyre.

on and on - Member
I went from floaters to jumbo jims. Jims are noticeably quicker in the dry. I kept my floaters for the winter...

I regard Floaters as lethal in winter. 🙂

FWIW the stated weight of floaters on O-O website at 1.8kg is way wrong they're 'only' 1.4kg which is same as most tyres that size, but much less dosh

Do JJs lack traction in mud or slide out?
Thinking I might try one on the back for summer use.

Lacking in traction is something of an understatment. The phrase cow on ice springs to mind

Not only do the low profile lugs lack any kind of bite the sheer size of the tyre prevents it digging in

JJs on mud is something we all need to experience

I don't really have the words for how bad a JJ is in soft, wet mud. The 4.8 is better, still bad, but the 4.0 is like replacing your tyre with a ski 😆

But, that's because they're essentially a fat rocket ron, they're not supposed to do mud.

I guess there's a reason they are cheap.

So I like the 4.0 Jim as a rear tyre (wouldn't want one as a front) find it pretty predictable. It's at its worse in sloppy crap where you will struggle for traction. But I have had similar with the Nate in terms of traction . I run a Nate upfront and found it OK so far, but I find it pretty shocking on wet roots or slabs. I will revert back to double Nate for winter riding. As the extra traction is handy. But I do find double Nate draggy. I am a bit of a tyre whore and my OCD of running different tyre manufacturers front and rear drives me crackers. Would love something slightly more grippy on the damp foots we have around the FOD, cranham etc. Appreciate my hamfistedness account for front wheel washouts

FWIW the stated weight of floaters on O-O website at 1.8kg is way wrong they're 'only' 1.4kg which is same as most tyres that size, but much less dosh

It depends on which batch you got them from I think. I've some white ones that are 1.8kg and some black ones that are 1.4kg. I presume if you order black ones now they'd be the lighter ones.

I've only had long term use of floaters but TBH something else would have to be really good to be better value for money.

I've only had long term use of floaters but TBH something else would have to be really good to be better value for money.

You wouldn't spend £1k on a DH bike and then fit £5 plastic single-ply tires, defeats the entire point of the bike.

FWIW, as a front tire I've found the 4.8 JJs to be a twitchy, self steering horror show. Horrible tire.

Been running a bud for three years on the front, maybe I just can't get used to other tire's 'characteristics'.

As a fast summer rear tire, JJs are fine, but a Bud (fast rolling and superb directional & braking traction) or 120tp Nate as a front to be best.

Don't even get me started on 3.8+ or bigger knards - worst tires I've ever used!

Anyone sharing the elusive mud patch non wash out front tyre?
I tried a Nate and that was worse than a floater.
Yes I do have a high speed test mud patch!

Anybody used both a bud and a minion fbf on the front? Interested to know the differences, which is faster etc.

Anyone sharing the elusive mud patch non wash out front tyre?
I tried a Nate and that was worse than a floater.

Doesn't exist, the float on slippy mud means you will fall regardless. My big crashes last year were all due to high speed wash outs in slimy mud. Ive tried Floater, Nate, Bud and Minion, on deep slippy mud it doesn't matter how much tread you have if your contact patch is 4+" wide. The only option to get through is to get the cross bike out the shed and cut to the bottom of the slime with your 30mm wide tyre.

Anybody used both a bud and a minion fbf on the front? Interested to know the differences, which is faster etc.

Yes me! Had a bud on the front, now running it on the back with Minion FBF on the front.

IMO the Minion is a better tyre for general use IMO, has better cornering but it also has better feel so gives more confidence as you can tell whats its doing (the Bud tends to feel dead, killing any feel for grip you might get, grips like shit to a blanket though). Bud better for when conditions are horrible.

Depends on the bike, £500 bike then maybe not, but if you've spent £1k to get a fatbike and restrict yourself to only floaters or Vee then (IMO) your potentially losing a lot of the capability of the bike for sake of an extra £50. The Floater is a good tire, Id happily run a Floater on the rear again, but id find the extra money for a Nate (or something with lateral grip) on the front.
You wouldn't spend £1k on a DH bike and then fit £5 plastic single-ply tires, defeats the entire point of the bike.

TBH I didn't find any difference between a floater and a Nate on a short ride. The centre tread of the floater is a bit 'paddle steamer' which probably doesn't do it's rolling resistance any favours, but it rolls well enough and there's more than enough tread on the shoulders to stop it sliding once lent over.

I have some Vee's (the bike came with them) an the floaters are streets ahead in terms of grip.

I have ridden a fair few demo bikes with different tyres. The floater isn't the best at anything, not as fast rolling as a JJ, gripy as a Bud, light as a Juggernaught, but it holds it's own in a middle of the road way. It's not bad in mud like a JJ, or dead feeling/draggy as a Bud etc, and I couldn't pick a favourite between it and a Nate, I preferred the Floater, but that may be a familiarity thing, if you've ridden Nates a lot an jumped on a floater it probably has it's own idiosyncrasies.

I think a lot of it is people look at the price and think it must be bad, how can a £17 tyre be as good as an £85 one?

My experience: on this sort of stuff a Larry slips sideways, a Nate grips, and a Bud slides. I haven't tried a Floater on mud that deep, but it's not confidence inspiring on the second pic mud, so I wouldn't be fitting it for those conditions.

With the big knobs on the Bud you would think it would be better, but it may simply have too much float. I wouldn't be surprised if the ideal isn't a plus size tyre with big knobs.

Tyre pressure is key. Just one psi can make a huge difference.

Also I suspect a steep HA helps with slide control (and slide you will), which may be why I prefer the Pugsley to 'modern trail geometry' bikes.

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Bud for winter and 4.8 JJ for spring summer and autumn - no other tyres needed (front only)

andyflaw - Member

Anybody used both a bud and a minion fbf on the front? Interested to know the differences, which is faster etc.

I'd pretty much exactly agree with Stato. They're both great tyres but they have a big difference in feel. And you probably use different words to describe it, based on which you like. I say the minion is responsive, full of feedback, lively. If you don't like that you'd say it's bouncy and less controlled. I found the Bud basically dead and uncommunicative, it might very well have more grip but it's harder to get at it, it inspires less confidence, and it feels sluggish (even though it's about as fast). Riding fast, I just didn't know what it was doing. But if you like it you'd call it damped, controlled, that sort of thing.

For crawling, the Bud is definitely better imo, it holds shape around roots and that, and holds lines a little better- less recoil when you bump things. As soon as speed comes up, I prefer the Minion. Mostly I just like how it feels though, it's just livelier and more fun, far easier to get off the ground (which isn't just about playing- I tried to gap an ugly root section with the Bud, it just ate the lip instead and I chattered all the way through the roots! Admittedly, it did the roots better than the Minion would have, but the Minion would have done what I told it and I'd have landed on the other side)

Oh, the only other big difference is in sloppy mud, the Bud does seem to drift more. Unintuitive, because of all those long blocks but I think it's just how it blocks/floats, minion has more conventional blocks. Neither is great at this- they're fighting their own size.

YMMV, I sold my Bud. I just stuck a FBR on mine to see what that's like. Horribly slow, I suspect! I think what it all adds up to is the Minion's probably a less good traditional fatbike tyre.

I'd pretty much exactly agree with Stato.

Well I bought my Minion FBF based on Northwinds comments when he first got his, which he has repeated above, so it no surprise I found it rides exactly how he says. Looking forward to the report on the FBR 😀

I don't know how many of you are on fat bike face book but over there I wanted to know how motocrossers overcome the wash out. Their tyres are wider than than ours. Is it purely that they have bigger knobs than us? ( 😯 )
When I feel it going I move my weight back, should I be putting more on the front to make it grip?

Motorbikes have much bigger tread, weigh hell of a lot more, and the wheels arnt actually bigger (at least the ones on my dads MX bike were smaller than my Bud). If you feel it going, the best bet is to get off quick! 😛

I think it is a testament to 4.0 JJs (and perhaps my low fitness levels) that having just completed the swap over to FatNotFat 29ers with 700x35c Randonneur Pros, I can just about push 6th gear in the 38T chainring on the flat road now outside my flat (with JJs 5th gear was comfortable, 6th not so).

Whats more, it's amazing how much road buzz the JJs absorb at ~28/30 PSI compared to the Randonneur Pros at ~60/68 PSI! The coarser bits of road were transmitting a lot more buzz to my hands with the slimmer setup.

It will be interesting to compare the road buzz factor once I fit the Corto stem and Knuckleball bars, if I'm brave I might tackle that swapover after my late munch has gone down! 😆

(with JJs 5th gear was comfortable, 6th not so).

Whats more, it's amazing how much road buzz the JJs absorb at ~28/30 PSI

Im not surprised JJ were fast at 30psi, thats practically solid for a fat bike!!! Youd probably bounce off into space if you jumped a curb 😯

My Cooker came with Maxxis Mammoths in 4.0 and they are ace. Admittedly my only fat bike tyres ever but tons of grip in dust, on gravelly climbs and in the patches of gloopy mud I've found in the last 3 weeks. I can see an reason to change them.

STATO - Member
(with JJs 5th gear was comfortable, 6th not so).
Whats more, it's amazing how much road buzz the JJs absorb at ~28/30 PSI

Im not surprised JJ were fast at 30psi, thats practically solid for a fat bike!!! Youd probably bounce off into space if you jumped a curb

No, no, you've got this all wrong. It is at low pressures that the undamped suspension would bounce me into space. 😉

For road commuting, ~28/30 works really well, it absorbs almost every pothole on Southampton badly maintained roads and I'm almost certain I set a new all-time PB for getting to work (~22mins) despite my current poor fitness levels.

Swear by a Nate up front and a Mammoth out back

Well over 3000 miles and only just replaced the Mammoth

A Mammoth on the front is just plain dangerous if muddy or wet whilst a Nate out back is just torture

interested to try the Minion though

Interesting that nobody has mentioned the 45Nrth Van Helgas. I've had them on my Surly Wednesday since I bought it in November. Running them tubeless on 100mm rims and can't fault them. Tread pattern is very like a huge Minion, they seem to roll as well as much smaller tyres, and have no problem when it gets wet and muddy. FWIW they also seem to work really well in snow and on sand. They have also had plenty of use on technical rocky terrain, and I sometimes wonder whether Sanny's proposition of using a fat bike for everything is no so far from being true

They are a bonkers price, but I only use the fat bike as my main bike during the winter, and with the amount of rubber on the knobs I reckon they will last me at least 3 years

Interesting that nobody has mentioned the 45Nrth Van Helgas...

They are a bonkers price

Indeed, £125 each (!!!!) and designed as snow specific, so no surprise no one has mentioned them, has them, or that you found they work on snow 😀

Interesting that nobody has mentioned the 45Nrth Van Helgas...

They are a bonkers price

Indeed, £125 each (!!!!) and designed as snow specific, so no surprise no one has mentioned them, has them, or that you found they work on snow

When I bought them I am sure they were around £80-90 but the price was all bundled in with the bike so can't remember for sure

Well I took the floater option after looking at my realistic budget. What a difference a tyre can make. I am sure they are nowhere near as refinedas the more expensive offerings out there but they are in a while different league as compared to the vee rubber missions.