Originally Posted by
JohnyW
Hi,
I was very disappointed on wet snow. For gravel the tyre works well. On mud to be honest I'm not sure.
Last weekend I had mud like clue and that worked with the XR but I think if the mud gets wet the tyre won't be so good.
Interesting - I used an XR [26 x 1.75"] on the back of my snow bike two winters ago and had a great time blasting through all the snow and slush up here in Canada. I did use a lightly studded Schwalbe winter tire on the front for traction on icy parts on the road. That was a good combo.
I recently rode a couple hundred kms of wet muddy roads and found the XRs [26 x 2.0"] to do well. I had very little mud build up on my tires as it was so wet, but that is just a factor of the specific surface you are riding. I'm not sure that any tire with tread would avoid picking up some mud when conditions are just right for that to occur.
I think you need to really keep an eye on your tire pressure when facing challenging terrain. A tire with too much pressure won't perform very well and too little pressure will be slow with a greater risk of pinch flats.