Mountain Biking - Opinions on tires/tire sizes

Howdy,

I've had a freeride bike for a long time. I've never done any extreme freeriding with it and probably used it more for urban stuff than in the woods. I've always had fairly knobby 26" x 2.5" tires. I'm pretty sure it's a waste to have these tires unless I'm doing some serious falling. I need to replace my tires and thought I'd check in here before doing so.

I may be doing some more mountain biking stuff here soon so I still want something knobby and I'm thinking around the 2.3" width. I'm also interested in sturdiness. It seems no tires are advertised by how tough they are. I'd rather compensate for poor traction with skill and have tires that last longer.

Any tips or specific suggestions?

I'm also thinking of getting a second, cheaper, pair for having fun in the cities. Something I can skid around on and not feel like I'm wasting valuable tread.

I want to take my old, and fairly used, tires and stud them for snow riding. I saw some article where they suggest using little screws. Has anyone tried something like this. I'm afraid that once I leave the snow the screws (and my tires/inner tubes) might not be so happy on the pavement.

Howdy,

I've had a freeride bike for a long time. I've never done any extreme freeriding with it and probably used it more for urban stuff than in the woods. I've always had fairly knobby 26" x 2.5" tires. I'm pretty sure it's a waste to have these tires unless I'm doing some serious falling. I need to replace my tires and thought I'd check in here before doing so.

I may be doing some more mountain biking stuff here soon so I still want something knobby and I'm thinking around the 2.3" width. I'm also interested in sturdiness. It seems no tires are advertised by how tough they are. I'd rather compensate for poor traction with skill and have tires that last longer.

Any tips or specific suggestions?

I'm also thinking of getting a second, cheaper, pair for having fun in the cities. Something I can skid around on and not feel like I'm wasting valuable tread.

I want to take my old, and fairly used, tires and stud them for snow riding. I saw some article where they suggest using little screws. Has anyone tried something like this. I'm afraid that once I leave the snow the screws (and my tires/inner tubes) might not be so happy on the pavement.

Schwalbe Big Betty 2.4 front/Fat Albert 2.35 rear...you will never ride anything else

Maxxis Holy Rollers. I got to ride a bike a while ago and they rolled really well.

Cheapie-cheap tires for skidding in urban pavement? Kenda Kinetics 2.2 Excellent in the wet, long-wearing compound, actually... pretty good in the dirt too... not light, but not heavy either... and really cheap! Not a bad all-rounder funny enough.

For a narrow-ish good performer... Maxxis HighRoller 2.35 for me. Make sure you get the normal compound, not the super-tacky otherwise it'll get chewed-up in the street real fast.

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Get a set of cheap 1 1/2 city tires & wheels & swap to these when city riding. You won't believe how much easier it will be to pedal.

Use a tiny screw, you won't need very much sticking out. Nor do you need to do every single thread block. Google snow tires and you'll find some factory made ones to give you an idea of finished product. There are several different ways to make an interior liner to protect the tube from the screw heads. They range from duct tape to old tubes. There are several threads on here, one in paticular shows how not to make a snow tire with billions of long screws jutting out everywhere.

Schwalbe Big Betty 2.4 front/Fat Albert 2.35 rear...you will never ride anything else

The look nice but do you know anything about their durability?


Cheapie-cheap tires for skidding in urban pavement? Kenda Kinetics 2.2 Excellent in the wet, long-wearing compound, actually... pretty good in the dirt too... not light, but not heavy either... and really cheap! Not a bad all-rounder funny enough.

For a narrow-ish good performer... Maxxis HighRoller 2.35 for me. Make sure you get the normal compound, not the super-tacky otherwise it'll get chewed-up in the street real fast.


Kenda Kinetics seem to be tubeless. Now I've never had tubeless tires, does that mean their solid all the way through? I would think that would be pretty heavy. How exactly do you know what compound a tire is made out of?


Get a set of cheap 1 1/2 city tires & wheels & swap to these when city riding. You won't believe how much easier it will be to pedal.
It's a cool idea but I don't think I have enough money to buy new tires, wheels, and discs. I have a road bike which holds up pretty well in the city. I just like to do some urban freeriding now and then because I don't have many good wooded areas near by.

Kenda Kinetics seem to be tubeless. Now I've never had tubeless tires, does that mean their solid all the way through? I would think that would be pretty heavy. How exactly do you know what compound a tire is made out of?...

There must be another "Kinetics" tire model in your area. Over here, the Kenda Kinetics is just a cheap tire often spec'd on entry level bikes and department store bikes. They need inner tubes. It doesn't say what compound it is, but I know for a fact that they're the best wearing knobbly tire I've ever used. I do rear wheel brake skid-drifts on them all the time. I only ever buy one replacement tire at a time for those when the rear gets bald. I always put the new tire on the front, and put what was on the front on the rear. I've gone through a lot of them over the years.

As far as the upper market tires are concerned, the rubber compound is usually marked or written on the side, near the brand logo. There's all sorts of designations and you'll only really know what they mean when you look them up on the brand's website or brochure. Maxxis "super-tacky" for example is their racing compound... very soft and yep, tacky to the touch on a hot day... with a slow memory. By that I mean, if you pinch a knob and twist it then let go, you can see the knob very slowly go back into shape. They wear out quick, but they win races - which is what they're made for.

From memory (which isn't too good these days) the normal compound Maxxis 2.35 HighRollers have an ugly orange stripe on both sides of the sidewall and is a lot cheaper. As a general rule, a cheap tire usually has all-round hard wearing rubber compound. The exotic compounds are more expensive, and more often than not, wear out a lot quicker.

The Triple Compound in the BigBettys for example is a hybrid, and has three different sorts of rubber compounds going along the diameter of the tire. I think it's got medium compound on the side walls for ideal rebound response, the outer row of knobs on either side of the tread pattern are soft compound for cornering grip, then the middle group of knobs are hard compound for better braking bite and longer wear. That's why the Schwalbes are so expensive, I guess...

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Originally Posted by Esteban32696 Get a set of cheap 1 1/2 city tires & wheels & swap to these when city riding. You won't believe how much easier it will be to pedal.


It's a cool idea but I don't think I have enough money to buy new tires, wheels, and discs. I have a road bike which holds up pretty well in the city. I just like to do some urban freeriding now and then because I don't have many good wooded areas near by.

Look for used . $25 should buy a cheap set of wheels with tires. I got my set from a junker.