Mountain Biking - Couple of questions about mud and tires

I saw that in the market there are a lot of options for tires with patterns from the most simple to the most exotic. But what's the idea of this? The mud sticks to your tires and they pick so much mud that at the end what you got is a slick tire!

My current tires are the IRC Mythos XC but my friends run their bikes with mud-specific tires from Kenda, WTB and Maxxis, and they basically have the same problem. Is not only that you pick a lot of mud, is also that you have to run lot of mud-free terrain in order to get it off your tires.

Perhaps I should not call it mud but some kind of sandy-clay soil. What’s the best tire to run on that kind of terrain?



P.D.: Funny, a couple of weeks ago I was scare running my bike and now I can not get off it!

Nah, a good mud tire will clear the nastiest and stickiest of mud. I have some Michelins that use the silicium compound that clears mud better than anything I've ever seen. Not to mention mud tires have deeper lugs for really digging in and giving better traction in the nasty stuff.

yeah my tires were packed with mud today. it was so thick i could feel the additional rotational mass, but hey, natural thorn-resistant too =]. running onzas in the front and panaracer smokes in the rear, traction okay but mudshedding is poor. might give the Si compound tires a try.

A lot of people think they should run wider tires in the mud, thinking they need more traction so they need wider tires. In my experience narrow tires work much better, the best mud tire I have ever used is the Hutchison Alligator (it's a 2.0 or a 2.1). I'm a terrible climber but in the mud running those tires I outclimb people I have never beat before just do to the traction advantage.

A friend of mine who has been riding for 15 years in the northwest mud and whose opinion I trust told me that the Geax Blades 1.8 are even better than the Alligators.

Something I have noticed is that effective rear mud tires tend to look a lot like farm tractor tires, skinny with widely spaces angled rear lugs. Looks like somebody got smart and realized that tractor tire makers have had the past 100 years to come up with good mud tire designs.

I will have to try that. I have a 1.9 panaracer and a spare rear wheel. I might try that out on the bighit and see what it is like.

I like the 1.5" continental cross country tires. They're SKINNY, but they're almost all deep, angled knobs and clear mud like there's no tomorrow.

The best tyres I have ever used in muddy conditions is Michelins WildGripper CompS (with Silicium)
They clear mud faster than a mud clearing thing.
Bewarned though. They are not the easiest tyres to ride on wet root or rock but in mud there is nothing touches them.
Hutchinson's Alligator is the next best thing IMO.

Mud specific tyres are a marketing gimmick IMO. They tend toclogg anyway and because the blocksare depper they hold more mud making the tyre heavier nd you just get bogged down.

I think I'm gonna try some of those CompS tires, Tim. I've had my eye on a pair, and I've been looking for a good fast XC light knobbie.

Hi Jim,

they are great tyres but just be careful with them in slightly damp conditions. they have a very vague feeling although the grip is not any worse than others. Thy do tend to be a bit slippy on wet roots and rock as well but once in the mud nothing can touch them.

I was out last night in the LLandegla forest in Wales and at the regroup point the guys I was riding with all commented on how 'clean' my tyres were.
They also said that the bike looked a right handful on the decent - which it was! - but the drive through the mud was phenomenal. One of the other riders was using IRC mud Mads and they were just clogged ith huge lumps of sh*te.

Incidentally, I'm on an F3000SL Caad4 hardtail ( so handling and responces should be similar) but with a Shimano groupset. Rims and pedals are similar though. Will be interested to hear how you get on with the Wildgrippers.

I mostly ride lots of hard, dusty singletrack with lots of sand and patches of mud.

For xc if you have enough skill you can get through the nastiest of mud with any tire, you just have to have good balance, know when to pedal, and use momentum.

There are some muddy conditions that NO tire will work in. My local trails are a perfect example. The soil around here has what seems to be clay in it as you described and after a good rain it will stick to anything. Enough that it will actually get cloged between the chan stays and fork tubes and they only way to get it off is with a high pressure hose or an hour or so by hand.

If you have trails like that the best thing to do is not ride them. Find different trails for when it rains.

If the mud is not as thick as that then Michelin, Nokian (my fav.), and Maxxis make very good mud tires.

:beer:

Usually, what determines if a tire will perform well in mud is its mud shedding ability (usually knobs spaced far apart). That is its ability to fling mud off and not turn into a slick. I have used two different tires that have worked well in mud (I haven't done a lot of riding in clay though). I have used the WTB Velocoraptor front and rear. I have also used a Continental Traction Pro on the rear with the WTB up front. The Conti was a little better for speed because the knobs are not as aggressive. The WTB was better in pure mud.

I've used Velociraptors as well and can confirm they are good but I think the Wildgrippers are still better than they are.
I hear only good things about the Conti's though and wouldn't mind trying them out

I Have A Set Of Kenda's (I just ordered a set of Maxxis) and holy crow!!! These Kenda's i have stick mud BIGTIME! i got so much mud on them the other day, my brakes became useless. NEVER BUY KENDA!!!

i am surprised no one has mentioned panaracer trailblaster 2.1.they work great in mud, clay, sand, pinetags,and good terrain too.here in va. we rae over 20" above normal rainfall wise so i have ridden some horrible stuff this year.only problem i had was only got 500 miles before they wore out.we have that orange sticky like velcro mud and they throw it off like water.ive tried tioga factory,velociraptors,endororaptors,and vittorrias also and the trailblasters were the best BY FAR in poor conditions.ive ridden in snow this year,mud(up to your hubs mud),leaves, pine tags,sand,dirt,pavement,creeks,you name it in va.ive rode it this year on these tires and have been really happy.just got another set from cambria bikes for ONLY22 ea!the mud shedding was the most surprising cuz that orange crap usually only comes off with a stick or at 15mph or higher in your face.they are very predictable too as far as cornering and braking.if yoor used to being out of control on sand and loose stuff while cornering they will take some getting used to though(thought i was gonna slide,did not,wrenched my back)others may disagree but im staying with thes tires!

I rode those trailblasters and hated them. To each his own I guess.

its weird but the downside i hear about did not seem to happen to me.some people found cornering and braking to be sketchy but maybe its the 40-45psi or maybe it could be anything,ive been real happy with them.i can go thru stuff i used to have to go around before.

I used Trailblasters for about 4months.
one bruised elbow bone and aset of bars later i tossed them in the bin. Postie can have em for his rounds.
Worst tyre I've ever had on my bike.
no cornering grip, and mud sticks to them like a fly sticks to sh*t

I used Trailblasters for about 4months.
one bruised elbow bone and aset of bars later i tossed them in the bin. Postie can have em for his rounds.
Worst tyre I've ever had on my bike.
no cornering grip, and mud sticks to them like a fly sticks to sh*t


No joke. I hated them. The only thing they had going was that they rolled pretty fast.

Yep thats about it, but the Michelins roll faster still for for cornering grip.