[Closed] tacky tyres

NO - i had a sticke nevegal and it was fine

Maxxis High Roller 2.35 60a rear/2.35 Super Tacky front. No appreciable difference than 60a's front and rear for cruising but sticky front feels miles better when tech or gravity enters the equation.

To me significantly. I have a couple of sticky tyres - one where I have identical tyres in sticky and non sticky - the difference is obvious to me

but you are jesus

Best place for Maxxis High Roller 2.35 Super Tacky then?

I've got maxxis advantage 2.? back and front and they have been great in the dry but on the slightly damper conditions and routes today they weren't the best.

was is the difference then tandemjeremy???

"racing_ralph - Member

NO - i had a sticke nevegal and it was fine"

You can't have compared like with like surely 😐 The 2.1 stick-e Nevegal is pretty much exactly as draggy as the 2.35 DTC. The 2.35 stick-e is pretty slow. It's my front tyre of choice and I think the drag's worth it for the grip, but it's slow. I just switched back to stick-es from DTC on both my bikes and it's very noticable.

That said, the 2.1 stick-e is probably a better front tyre than the 2.35 DTC, less pingy, finds more grip on rock and roots.

I am going to agree with TandemJeremy - I rode out for the first time yesterday on a set of Maxxis Minion Super-Tacky and before I was riding on Maxxis Advantage. The difference was noticeable on the ups, on the road & on the downs.....

Ups = harder pedaling
Road = Roll Resistance was MUCH higher
Downs = Roll resistance higher, but MUCH more planted!

I am going to put up with the ups & road due to its MUCH better performance down and lets face it 'most' of us MTB for the downs anyway!

course i compared like for like but i don't pretend that i am a cycling god who can feel difference in crank length, tacky tyres, carbon/steel frames wtc.

The grip is better and drag won't really occur on the front as you are pushing the tyre rather than driving it.

When I first put super tacky tyres on my LTc I swore that it made a difference to rolling resistance/up-hill speed etc. After riding on super tackies F&R now for the last 3 months I can safely say that I wont be using anything else. It think the extra drag was just placebo.

I feel so much more confident with a softer compound tyre - I tried some UST Nobby Nics on a mid week ride and it felt sketchy and pretty much ruined that ride.

I think if your a general XC rider who doesn't really push your bike/tyre limits you may not see the benefit.

You don't have to be a riding god 😆 I'm certainly not, I'm rising to the dizzying heights of "not bad". But some things are just immediately obvious, you can just do a roll-down test and see what the difference is. ( I have no idea which of my cranks are the 170mms and which are the 175s though 😉 )

"drag won't really occur on the front as you are pushing the tyre rather than driving it."

I can't make any sense of that. Drag is drag, regardless of what end it's on. Stick a slick on the front and a knobby tyre, do you not think there's a difference?

The grip is definately better, which is why I use 'em, I think the drag of the 2.35 is a price worth paying.

I think the extra drag was just placebo.

I agree 100% - people think they are sensitive enough to feel marginal differences - in a blind test they would be none the wiser imo

oxnop's description doesn't sound like placebo at all does it? It sounds like he just got used to it, like everyone else does. Just like any change, it feels huge on the first ride but you soon get used to it.

I couldn't ride a bike now and tell you what tyres it has but do it back to back and I'll be you money that I could. It's very easily tested like I say, I'm not depending on feel, just on observation.

Maybe I'm not explaining well. If I take one of my bikes out now, it doesn't feel like the tyres are slow, it just feels like a bike. But if I was to change the amount of drag significantly, I'd notice. And I did. You feel differences not absolutes.

My basic ride involves ten miles on tarmac / flat gravel. The sticky tyre felt noticably slower. Purely subjective but the sound of it on the track was louder and it appeared to be more draggy. What yo would excpect from sticky rubber.

oxnop's description doesn't sound like placebo at all does it?

I went from 2.3 non UST Hutchinson El Torro's which I believe are around 65d, I then changed to 2.3 UST Hutchinson Barracuda DH with a super soft compound which I think are 45d.

On the friday I had done a local loop which includes around 1m of flat road back to my house - using the standard compound tyres putting normal effort in I average 17mph along this road.

On the Saturday I had been to pick the tyres up from LBS and did the same ride. When I had ordered the tyres I was nervous about my decision as they cost a fair bit of money & I instantly though they would ruin my future 'normal' rides; I live in the bottom of a valley and need to climb at least 990 feet to start any local ride worth doing - I thought I had made a mistake.

First 10 mins of the ride (all uphill) I was at the back of the group and was blaming the tyres (not thinking that I was the only person in the group who had done a 25mile loop only 18 hrs earlier) As the ride went on I started to warm up I started to realise that I couldn't tell the difference on any road climb or flat section, but I felt the difference when pinning it at speed over damp roots and near vertical mossy slabs.

The road section back to my house felt exactly the same and logged a 17mph average for the final mile, I haven't looked back since.

Oh and the GF didn't know that her WTB tyres were 'freeride compound' until the LBS asked how she got on with them, ever since its been mentioned the moans that the tyres are making it harder - They didnt bother her for the 4mts prior to finding out! 😀

All placebo IMO when your comparing tyres 2.3 and above - course you'd feel a difference when comparing some slicks to a 2.35 tyre!

Best place for Maxxis High Roller 2.35 Super Tacky then?

DH bike.

I changed my tyres for a pair of Highroller Super Tackys.

MASSIVE difference. I could feel myself slowing as soon as i stopped pedaling.
Downhill the grip was great, but as that is only a part of my ride the trade-off was too great.
The back tyre was changed back after the first ride. I like the extra grip on the front though. The back IMHO is too much though for general use.

oxnop, so what you're saying is you had a load of variables so there's no way you could compare? Fair enough.

Whether it matters or not is another thing of course - I was probably a couple of minutes slower over the ten miles out to the hills. I don't care. The extra grip in the hills was worth it but I am convinced I could feel the difference - the whirring of the tread on the ground was more pronounced as well and the wear rates are obviously higher. I might save them for front tyre use only.

Conti mountain kings - one pair black chilli the other ordinary

oxnop, so what you're saying is you had a load of variables so there's no way you could compare? Fair enough

Maybe.

If it was a scientific experiment that was designed to test the kinetic coefficient of friction between two compounds then my data would be unusable. so yes you are correct - too many variables. But a good comparison for myself to use when choosing my future tyre purchases & to get my point that alot of this is placebo.

I've gotta say that it sounds like oxnop's riding isn't the sort of riding where you'd notice drag much. I have some DH dual plys, one of which is ST, and I very much notice the extra drag compared with any similarly sized "normal" tyre. It's barely noticeable on a steep ride though - despite there being a 3-4lb or so total weight difference.

Start doing much on road, or on flatish hardpack, and you notice the difference straight away. Of course this is more pronounced than just running one ST non-DH tyre, but FWIW the adding the front one (the ST) seems to be what makes the bike super slow (sometimes run with just the back dual ply on in order to get a few less pinch flats) rather than princess and the pea sort of differences.

I would think cos the sidewall on an XC ST tyre would be thinner, the difference in drag would be less pronounced though still noticeable.

oxnop - did you have exactly the same winds both times with the 17mph road section? Were you pedalling exactly as hard or do you just know that you "should" be going a certain speed at a certain point so maybe correct for this by pedalling harder (certainly possible over 1m)?

i have a set of super tacky tyres and only use them when i go to the Alps. They are just too much work for general UK riding.

As said above i find the difference easily noticeable and cycling on tarmac you can literally hear the rubber sticking to the road!!