[Closed] Winter Slop - Tyres

If you want tyres for winter slop then 1.9" is where to look not chunky 2.6 beasts. Grip doesn't help in mud, it just acts as a crappy paddle wheel on the surface until it clogs. Thin tyres cut through and grip on solid ground. Ask any cyclocross or cross country rider. Fat bikes are particularly hopeless in mud...

Shorty's, just make the effort to find some

If you want tyres for winter slop then 1.9″ is where to look not chunky 2.6 beasts. Grip doesn’t help in mud, it just acts as a crappy paddle wheel on the surface until it clogs. Thin tyres cut through and grip on solid ground. Ask any cyclocross or cross country rider. Fat bikes are particularly hopeless in mud…

Sometimes that's true but sometimes it isn't. It depends what sort of slop it is, and what sort of riding.

I have Hill Billys Grid - they are okay - but I am not sure that there is really a tyre that works well in mud.
You could just use lower pressures ...

I've bought a max grip shorty in 29" 2.4.

My god the grip is amazing🙂

My god it's an absolute beast peadaling it up hill😢

It's not quite slippy enough for it yet as I was resenting it up hill the other week.

Perhaps I should just find sloppier trails to make it worth while

You’ve listed some of the best ones. Hillbilly for me is the best front tyre I’ve used in minging slop and steep slimey slippery stuff. Better than the Mary at the extremes but less good on trail centres.

Maybe a Wild Enduro?

Sometimes that’s true but sometimes it isn’t. It depends what sort of slop it is, and what sort of riding.

Yes, but either way it's a lot more useful than randoms on the internet shouting out names of tyres. If you understand how grip actually works outside of marketing then it's much easier to choose tyres. Wider is literally never better in mud if the mud is even slightly deeper than the tread reaches because the mud slides about underneath your tyre. Thinner tyres get over this by cutting through the mud. If the mud is thick enough that it doesn't slip then it's not really winter slop so the question is irrelevant, just wear summer tyres that clear well.

I agree with lustyd.
Fat bikes are lethal, cx bikes slice through the mud.
Bonty muds are my go to winter tyre. I refuse to have a bike where the front wheel washes out when entering mud patches.

I like my 2.25" Beavers TBH

33mm X One Bite.

“I refuse to have a bike where the front wheel washes out when entering mud patches.”

Mud patches? Patches?! This is not proper mud tyre conditions! 😉

The thing about skinny XC mud tyres is that although they’re good in mud, they’re not good on wet roots or rocks.

Around here, once it gets muddy you learn to go with tyres that drift a bit in the mud but don’t immediately throw you on the ground when you hit wet tree roots - and nowadays some of our more popular trails are almost more root than dirt!

I’ve been with people on these trails on fat bikes and CX bikes. I’ve ridden 1.8” - 2.6” mud tyres here. In the mud the CX bikes are pretty disastrous whilst the fat bikes are pretty awesome. I’ve no intention of ever again riding narrower than 2.3” tyres here, however muddy it gets!

Can’t put skinny tires on 30mm rims.

XC muds and enduro muds just don't do the same job. It makes no sense to say one is better than the other, there's really little overlap and they're both pretty bad for the job the other one does. So yes of course if you "ask any cyclocross or cross country rider" then they'll say narrow because that's what works best for that, and if you ask any enduro or dh rider they'll give a totally different answer.

I'm going to give the OP a bit of credit and assume he knows what sort of riding he does though...

I really like the shorty 2.5, I wish there was an exo maxxgrip as there is with the dhr2, but the maxxterra is still good and the dh isn't insanely heavy if you want more. Hollandbikeshop have the exo in stock, looks like, for about £50 and I'm sure they ship to the UK.

Eh, I might well have a magic mary 2.6 in the garage that I'm not using?

I’m going to give the OP a bit of credit and assume he knows what sort of riding he does though…

Thanks, that's very un-STW-esque of you. 😀

Eh, I might well have a magic mary 2.6 in the garage that I’m not using?

29er?

I've found a Maxxis Shorty 2.40 3CG/DH/TR 60 TPI in Spain, how stiff is the DH carcass?

Yeah, 29er. Not sure exactly what variant it is, I can dig it out tomorrow if you like and check?

Never used the shorty 2, if it's any use I've got dh carcass 29er minions and assegais. They're less stiff/solid sidewalled than most dh tyres, actually not that much heavier duty than a doubledown I reckon. Still quite a lot of carcass for an everyday tyre though.

Looks like Deporvillage have the Shorty 2 in Exo, for about £60? But the listing's a mess, the title says exo, the listing says DH and the picture is DD 🙂

The usual suspects (Shorty, Mary, Hillbilly, Verdict) are hard to find in 29er 2.5/2.6

Are you looking online or have you been into any stores? I've been into a few diff stores recently and all had a good stock of tyres, but these stores have no online presence.

I put Specialized Storm 2.0 mud tyres on 30mm rims.

It's sort of irrelevant how well the bigger tyres grip on rocks and roots, as I'd run out of energy before ever getting there with the amount of claggy south downs mud they pick up, often they just jam in the frame and stop the wheels turning!

If you're feeling strong, and can find a WTB Verdict Wet, it's a phenomenal mud tyre that still works OK on mixed trails - and an absolute pig to pedal about with.

@Northwind

Yeah, 29er. Not sure exactly what variant it is, I can dig it out tomorrow if you like and check?

Yes please.

Are you looking online or have you been into any stores?

Only online at the moment. There aren't any good bike shops in my town.

If you’re feeling strong, and can find a WTB Verdict Wet,

I can't find one anywhere on line.

WTB Verdict Wet,

I can’t find one anywhere on line.

Probably for the best TBH.

The standard Verdict (light, high grip) is also bloody great - I've just fitted one and it's exceeded expectations so far but still need to try in proper slop.

Got it from Bikediscount IIRC

LOL at the thought of running 1.9 tyres on a modern mountain bike on gnarly trails. Not since 98 mate.

How are you supposed to slash the cutties and blow up the gram when your rims are in pieces after the first rock garden?

does anyone know where i can get a 29 2.4 shorty gen 2 ????? cant seem to find stock absolutely anywhere

@oscillate, try deporvillage- but like I say the listing's a total mess as it often is with depor

@Northwind, did you get a chance to check that Magic Mary?

Verdict wet is awesome in the slop
I ride in some right greasy peaty
Mud and it’s been great
I ride one front and rear on my Ebike

YGM Doomanic

One of the issues with skinny tyres is compound.

The king of mud tyres is the wet scream. These are narrower than other DH tyres for a reason. But if it's wet enough for those you are basically in a swamp. These are soft compound and will track on muddy wet turns. I cut mine down as they were bonkers. Amazing for the 2weeks a year the local is proper minging but useless for the rest of the year.

Anything else is basically an intermediate tyre.

I've tried hillbillies but they are ok. Nothing more. Not great.

Got a magic Mary on the eeb at the mo as this seems a decent compromise between harder areas and a bit of squidge. I might put a hillbilly back on the the middle of winter on the eeb.

Normally I just run a minion/butcher all year around and just embrace the slide as its more fun.

Wide tyres are useless in the mud. But are fun as you have to embrace the slide. My 2.8 butchers did try and kill me on the eeb though as they literally aquaplane on slop! Hence the hillbilly.

I love muddy winter riding - it's my fave season by far.

Personally I find a Mud King or a Dirty Dan to be far superior to a shorty or mary in the slop

Have been thinking about this recently my local tracks are more wet rather than muddy with a lot of standing water and roots, double magic Mary's are my tyre of choice have used double front wild enduros but they arnt beefy enough.

Anyway i need a new tyre on the front and have a disused dirty dan so im thinking of cutting it. Ehats the best way to do it just a pair of snips? Hoe short and do you trim the shoulders as well

jk1980
Free Member

Personally I find a Mud King or a Dirty Dan to be far superior to a shorty or mary in the slop

I love my Dirty Dan when it's really working but it's so much more specific- I think the only time I've ever really felt like it was definitely the right tyre was a really wet innerleithen race that also happened to be almost all dirt, very little rock or roots. It wouldn't have taken much change in any direction- more technical roots, a little bit less swamps- for a Shorty to have been better for me.

I say "for me" especially because I don't think any of the faster riders would necessarily agree, but they were going through the mud like I'd ride in the dry so it's just not that relevant to me 🙂 Getting the most out of a full spike is definitely beyond me while I can probably make more use of the more confidence-inspiring feel of a cut spike on the harder stuff.

I wouldn't bother trimming the shoulders (unless you want some extra forearm gains!). Cut a few mm off the main tread with some snips, they do work well cut down. I ran a Magic Mary/Big Betty through last winter on my hardtail, resorting to a Dirty Dan/Big Betty when it got truly minging. The Dan was class when i needed that extra assistance pointing and shooting in the steeps when it was really sloppy.
I've got a Shorty 2/Assegai combo to try out on the full suss this winter, steep tech, dh tracks so happy to pay the price in rolling resistance on the fireroad climbs/pushes back up.
And FWIW i wouldn't dream of running a skinny set of 1.9" mud tyres as suggested above, maybe if i was cutting around some smooth, flat, muddy trails/fields but not for any sort of technical terrain. All the tyres available in a decent width are a compromise in pure ability to cut through mud....but there's good reason for that!