My mtb build is coming along but one thing that’s surprised me is the lack of specific tyres for front and rear. I’m not saying that they don’t exist - they were around when I quit riding off road some 16 years go. I just sort of figured by now that they’d more or less dominate the market. Hell, Conti’s even pushing a front/rear specific tyre for the road now!
I’m still leaning towards going with Crossmarks but am just trying to find out as much as I can about modern rubber before making my decision…
My new wheels arrived today (well, Friday - but I picked them up today) and they look SICK!
Recommended and built by Dave Thomas (Mr. SpeedDream) I got a pair of ZTR 355’s laced with Sapim spokes (2.0/1.5 and 2.0/1.8) to White M16 hubs. Stans yellow tape & valves. Now I need some rubber!
<edited because I’m not quite as old as my initial post indicated…>
Very few companies offer front/rear specific tires anymore. What you choose to put on the front and rear depends on the type of riding you’re doing and the terrain. Since you’re going the Stan’s route, check out their website for recommended brands…some have stronger sidewalls for conversion. Maxxis and Kenda seem to be favorites for using Stan’s. I’ve never used a Stan’s rim, but I have used Stan’s with tubeless-ready tires from Specialized and regular tires from Schwalbe and Maxxis. I would look into some of the ‘tubeless-ready’ options out there from Specialized, Bontrager, and Geax. The have a UST bead with a normal non-UST sidewall, which makes them easier to mount on Stan’s rim but are still pretty lightweight.
Crows are good for flatter, drier, firmer conditions. Similar tyres to look at WTB Nanoraptors, Kenda Small Block 8 (also Schwalbe aRacing Ralphs have shown to have similarly low rolling resistance). Run something chunkier on the front for twistier, looser conditions.
I have used the Stan’s rims with both UST and non UST tires for a couple of years now. I have had fairly good results using a standad crossmax tire converted tubeless on the Stans rims, but on a couple of occasions I have popped a tire off the rim on rocky terrain running low pressure. I would avoid the Exception series of Maxxis tires, I find the sidewalls very fragile, unless you ride really smooth terrain.
I havent tried the new tire the Raven, but have tried the Crow. I find it works well in hardpack, but with any loose sand or dirt you are sliding everywhere. In the State MTB marathon series I was riding against another rider who was running a set of Crows on his bike. When we got to the top of the climb and started a fast fire road descent with switchback corners I could carve the corners, he would slide wide and I dropped him and never saw him again.
The Raven may be a little better, but I prefer a more continuous row of cornering knobs, particularly for the loose over hardpack we have commonly in Arizona.
Crossmark is a great tire for lots of terrain, I have raced in through slop and mud, sand, dust, pavement. It might not be the best race tire in one condition, but seems to work well in most. I sometimes run a Maxxis Monorail up front for a little more cornering bite.
Kenda Small Block 8 gets some good rep for a hardpack tire, but it doesnt like mud. Kenda tires Stans up well.
No idea if they’re still made (it’s been 3 years w/ no MTB), but I really liked the WTB Weirwolfs. I ran the rear tire backwards- worked great on loose over hardpack- and NoTubes sealant in both tires. Wore the tread off 2 sets w/ no flats. Each time I took the tires off, they were full of thorns from Dallas-area trails.
Perhaps the biggest challenge in MTBing is tire choice. With all the benefits of tubeless technology, you’re basically forced to have multiple wheelsets. Sounds like you’ve already made your decision on wheels…and my vote would be for Hutchinson Pythons tubeless ready for an all around/race tire.
As for wheelset, I probably would have steered you towards (2) sets for the price you paid for the one set you’re using. Nice wheelset, big price.
Dave’s SpeedDream wheels are a great choice! I bought a pair with Chris King disc hubs 4 years ago and have never had to tru them and I have ridden them hard. I run them with tubes, even though they have tubeless capability, just ahven’t tried the tubeless yet. I use Hutchison Python AirLite tires and have had no flats. You can usually find these on sale for 20 bucks.
Someone tell me if this is a dumb idea but I **SO **want to buy these tyres because they’re totally retro-awesome! These were the tyres I was riding when I quit mtb in ~1994 for road racing. (I had looked at the new umma gummas but didn’t have the cash to try them out) Hell - I even had a t-shirt with a dart tread pattern on the front and a smoke tread pattern on the back! (No, I didn’t really wonder why I never got any girls in highschool…)
Tell me oh learned mtb riders of ST, can I use these bad boys with my ZTR 355’s and yellow tape? Are the new offerings that much better? Am I just being stupid here? I want to run my Dart/Smokes!
Khai, I wouldnt suggest running them tubeless, in fact last week a customer had an old Dart/Smoke combo in his garage and for whatever reason he wanted us to Stans them up to his new Speed Dream ZTR 355 wheelset. The bead fit was very loose and even with the copious use of soapy water they proved very difficult to inflate, it eventually took two more pairs of hands to hold down the bead where it was losing air before they mounted. I warned him they probably wouldnt hold up, but he decided to try them anyway.
To cut a long story short he was about 5 minutes into the ride and the rear tire blew off the rim.
I know they were considered the bees knees back in the day, but the modern high volume tires have so much more grip and traction than the narrow casing, big squirmy knobs of the smoke and dart.
If you want front/rear combination run a Maxxis Crossmark rear and an Ignitor front, the Monorail is also a good front if the dirt isnt too loose.
Thanks Kevin, I ***knew ***I could count on ST! I wasn’t quite expecting to have someone relate my exact situation back to me, but that works too! Message rec’d, loud and clear. I’ll get new (modern) rubber.
Khai, I bought my first mountain bike in the late 80’s when suspension forks were an oddity I only saw in a magazine and thumbshifters ruled. I have no desire to go back to a fully rigid bike, embrace the future
I used Stan’s The Crow 29r tires most of last season and LOVED them!
Super light weigh (lighter than most 26" tires) with a nice low-pro fast tread design. Not the best for muddy conditions, but did much better than I expected. The key is to run the tires at the low end of the recommended PSI rating (20ish PSI) At that pressure the tire is able to wrap around objects very nicely and provide a huge amount of grip, even despite the seemingly small amount of tread. These tires EXCELLED in rolling, fast sections! On more than one occaision I was very pleasantly surprised at how they performed.
I would recommend that if you are going to run them at 20PSI you go with a tubeless set-up. It’s not as much of an issue with a 29r, but you will still get pinch flats at that low of a pressure. That leads me to another point I like about The Crows…
While racing Root’s, Rock’s and Ridges this past August (self proclaimed as NYS’s toughest MTB race, and I believe 'em!) I punctured twice badly enough that sealant wouldn’t do the trick. Luckily I had a tube to repair the first puncture… Unfortunately I had nothing to repair the second! I then rode for 12 miles on a front flat, without ever breaking the bead! I was very impressed. Had the bead popped off there is no way I would have been able to ride as fast or far as I did. 12 miles on a rigid SS with a front flat wasn’t much fun, but I was happy to be able to ride without too much problem!
In any event, tire choice on an MTB is very dependent on conditions, your riding style, and your personal preferences. Try out as many “modern” tires as you can. Front/Rear specific tires are rather rare now, cause there just isn’t a need for them. Newer tread designs work well in many conditions on either tire. Forget the Dart/Torch what-not. New tires perform much better and weigh much less!
Take a look at (these are mostly race oriented):
Stan’s The Crow
Stan’s The Raven
Specialized Fast Trak
Specialized The Captain
Maxxis CrossMark
Maxxis Orriflamme
Continental SpeedKing
Continental Twister SuperSonic
