Mountain Biking - New England Tire Question

I need some tire help.

I ride in the mountains of central vermont/new hapmsire.

In a single ride (like this past weekend), the conditions vary from rock and root covered death descents to loamy single track to sopping wet snowmobile trails and logging roads. There are also killer climbs on every ride, so weight and climbing traction is a concern.

A friend gave me the hutchinson mosquitos I am currently running on my bike, but I am not really happy with their performance on a lot of the trails. They seem to spin out fairly early on the more rooted/rocky climbs, and don't really have a planted feel on some of the faster descents. THe nobs are also wearing off fairly fast. On the plus side, the mosquitos never get clogged with mud, and seem to perform well in the very wet and muddy conditions (don't worry I do not ride the single track when it is muddy).

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good northern New England tire selection.

Some of the guys I ride with run the old smoke/dart set up.

Others run WTB rear tires (velociraptor I think) with the dart up front.

I was thinking of Panaracer XC pros, but I have read they are bad in the mud. I was also thinking of a WTB set up, but which model. I could always go with the Dart/smoke set, but if there are better designs out there I would love to hear it.

Does anyone have any other recommendations?


Thanks,

By the way, my bike is an older steel framed hardtail if that matters.

Panaracer and wtb don't do too good up here. Michelin, Continental,maxxis seem to work the best up here.

Panaracer and wtb don't do too good up here. Michelin, Continental,maxxis seem to work the best up here.


Thanks Konarider.

Any recommendations on models? I clicked around the web pages, and the models I would chosse would be the tires with designations for loose soil. I do not recall what the model names were for each of the companies.

Have you ever come up to the Connecticut river to ride from Henniker?

Thanks Konarider.

Any recommendations on models? I clicked around the web pages, and the models I would chosse would be the tires with designations for loose soil. I do not recall what the model names were for each of the companies.

Have you ever come up to the Connecticut river to ride from Henniker?

Michelin XLS

Continental Verticals

Maxxis Ranchero's.

Once in a blue moon I do come up to the Connecticut river.

You may also want to try the Nokian NBX 2.0 lite. It is around the same weight as the Mosquitos but I find they have better traction. The Mosquitos roll just a bit better but you can make up that time by climbing and cornering better.

:beer:

I'll second the continentals. Both my bro and i have them, he has the verticals and i have explorers and they both work well. The best thing about Conti's is the HUGE verieity of tires that they offer to fit exactly what you're looking for. If you do go with them be sure to spend the extra money and get the "Protection" version. I pinch flatted all the time with the panaracers and havent had that problem with them in 7 months on the explorers