More so than any other single component, the tires you put on a mountain bike can affect the ride, handling, and grip on the trail. Therefore choosing the right tire (or combination of tires) for your bike is important to getting everything out of your bike that you can and feeling confident on the trail. If you have ever walked into a bike store and looked at the selection of tires and been overwhelmed then you are not alone. A good idea at that point would be to ask the sales rep at the bike shop for advice but a better solution is to know what you want before you even go into the store. To get to that point you need to know a few things.
1: What type of riding do you frequently do?
2: What are the conditions on the trails you frequent?
3: Is speed more important or grip?
4: Will you ride these tires on the pavement more then on the trail?
So let’s get started. Do you more often ride on roller coaster type single track and fire roads or do you put your bike on a chair lift and take it down Mammoth? Maybe you race and you will be looking for a racing tire. The answer to these questions determines what kind of tire you will be looking for and what characteristics are important for that type of riding. DH or downhill tires are beefy and made to take a pounding. Racing tires are designed to roll fast and save weight. The last category is for the all around tire that is the most commonly used. These try to stay light but don’t sacrifice grip or durability.
The next thing to look at is how the dirt is where you ride. Is it moist hardpack or is it sand on top of hardpack? Or maybe it is muddy and wet all the time? Finally it could be basically described as a rock garden with rocks jutting out of the ground and smooth mesa like surfaces you have to ride over. First of all I do not advise riding in muddy conditions as it excessively wears on the trail and it is generally not so much fun. However if you cannot avoid it then you will need tires which shed mud well as opposed to holding onto it like some sort of mud magnet thus turning the tires into slicks that will not grip anything. Tires with widely spaced knobs will do best here. If you ride on moist hardpack all the time then you can opt for a tire with short knobs and low rolling resistance. That way you can make the most of the awesome trail conditions. If you find yourself in rock gardens then having a durable tire that has a compound with a lot of grip will help you overcome the challenges of rocky terrain. Finally if you ride in sand over hardpack then you will need tires with at the very least deep knobs on the shoulders of the tire.
Next you have to decide if you want to go faster or feel more confident. If you are lacking confidence then a tire with a lot of grip for the trail conditions will help you out. Otherwise you might be concerned about rolling resistance which is the tires tendency to slow down because of tall knobs down the center of the tire which effectively turn the tire into some weird geometric shape instead of a circle.
Lastly will you frequent the urban jungle more then the backwoods? If you ride on paved bike paths with your mountain bike then you want a tire which has low rolling resistance and also a harder compound so that the tire will last longer even though it is being ridden on the abrasive pavement. You can even go so far as to buy slicks for your mountain bike but just know that those slicks will be useless on anything besides a paved surface.
Now that you have narrowed down what you are looking for in a tire here are some other things to consider. No one tire is perfect for every part of a given ride. In fact you may want to use a different tire in the front then in the rear as cornering grip is important in the front but not as much in the rear. Things like the type of tire compound and the height of the knobs and the tire pressure you run can have great effects on your ride. It is generally the rule that on rough terrain you want lower tire pressure. This allows the tires to deform over the terrain. However as speed increases you actually get more grip with higher tire pressure. This is because with too low pressure your tire will wobble and deform strangely at speed. Lower pressure means less rebound and high pressure usually means more rebound. If your front tire keeps skipping off obstacles then look at your tire pressure before you blame your suspension fork. Lower pressure means more flats so there is a trade-off there. One solution to this is to go tubeless. You can buy UST rims and tires and run with no tubes. Then you can run lower air pressure more safely. This route is expensive though. The other option is to use one of the systems of glue/sealant to run tubeless. It is really a matter of preference and seeing if this works for you.
So now you know what to look for in a tire. The curve ball of the whole thing is that you may find the tire you think is best for you and then find out you just don’t like it. For instance I am running tires with short and fast knobs down the middle and tall knobs on the side with a dual tread compound of harder in the center and soft and sticky on the shoulder. I expected this to be the perfect tire for me but as with anything I found the tire, while great, has pros and cons. Just stick it out and you will find the right tire for you.
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