Mountain Biking - tires

After taking a ride today on my new bike i figured that my tires $uck. It rained and they give me absolutely no traction on wet pavement. I bit it hard making a simple turn going fast on regular pavement. And it just doesnt feel stable on turns. Tires on this thing are Hutchinson Mosquitos.
What are some decent tires that are actually going to give me some traction?

XC-Either Michelin or Continental Explorer Pro's.

There are not many tires that will give you a lot of traction on wet pavement. On my mtb I like the WTB Nanoraptors. They have a short knob and a more rounded profile so you should have more rubber contact with the road when you are on pavement.

Like was said in the earlier post, MTB tires are inherently squirly on the pavement, especially when it is wet. You won't find many full-knobby MTB tires that will impress you on wet pavement very much. Do you commute or use your MTB on the pavement a lot? I would wonder if getting a set of slicks with some slight grooves for wet weather would be more in order for you. If not, slowing down a bit sooner for the corners on days when the pavement is wet might be the best bet. Letting some air out of the tires to give yourself more conact with the pavement might also help. Some people have a road wheelset for their MTB that just consists of a set of rims (could be an old set you can find) with the slicks I mentioned for when they will be road riding for a distance. This cuts down on the time it takes change tires because it is just a matter of switching wheelsets, and not acutally changing the tires. Make sure you run the same cassete to cut down on the chance that there will be derrailleur adjustment issues. FYI: I run a Michelin XL 2.1 on the rear and front specific version of the IRC Mythos 2.1 on the front. Good luck!

-Moab

Hutchinson Mosquitos SUCK! They came stock on my Jekyll... and that was the first thing I replaced. Crappy traction and unpredictable. On wet pavement anything is going to be slippery. You'd probably be better off with a semi-slick on wet pavement than anything else. I run a set of Michelin Jet S tires for the hardpack/pavement duties. If you want a good all around set of knobbies I'd get a set of Michelin XLS... great tires that perform EVERYWHERE.

And slow down in those corners man :)

any tire is gonna suck on wet pavement

I got this site off of MTBR. It has just about anything you would want to know about knobbies.

http://www.themudzone.com/tire/

Originally posted by avzay66
It rained and they give me absolutely no traction on wet pavement.


Thats like saying that a tire dosent give you traction on ice....

FWIW, I asked a similar question last week about replacing my knobby tires with ones more designed for pavement. After a few recommendations, I went with a set of continental town and countries. I may have been using them a total of 6 days now, but last night I got caught riding in the rain. I cant say that they are the best tires to use in foul conditions like that, but it was magnitudes better than the tires that originally came on my bike.

They would probably not be good for anything other than riding on pavement though.