Typical Scottish riding - a little glentress coupled with some Mabie forest - lots of general trail riding all year round mixed with some downhill (rocks, mud, dry, roots etc etc)

Im thinking Panaracer (2.1) - XC pro up front, trail blaster on the back.

What do think? - best combination for general trail riding in Scotland or do you have other suggestions?

In Scotland we can every type of ground condition there is, "all in one day"!! - I've used WTB-Velociraptors, IRC-Mythos, Michelin-Hot-s, Panaracer-xc pro's, and others over the years. Beleve me there is no one tyre that suits our ever changing conditions. Having said that I'm now on my third set of XC-Pro's... I've found them to be as "multi-purpose" as is posible, vgood traction, Good weight, reasonable price, choice of colour. My biking Buddy is into trailblasters - jury is still out.

IMO Trailbasters are the badgers nadgers and nothing can touch them until... there is a single drop of rain.

With trails that arent dry you do tend to just end up everywhere i find. This may be more due to my skills than anything else though :-).

Yeh - I would agree about the XC pro's - I ran them on my last bike and much preferred them over the Tiogas I use today (bit 'skitterish'in the wet!!).

However, this came up during a discussion last night, when I got together with some mates - including our old buddy 'Stella'.

Anyway, one thing led to another and come 1am we were in heated discussion over the best tyre combination to use in Scotland - hence the thread.

But, in the cold light of day (and with a need to replace my treads for the 'summer' ahead), I realise it wouldn't be a bad thing to base my choices on the experience within BM.

I have never ridden the trailblasters, but from what your saying James, your experience appears to agree with the reviews - until that is the going gets wet.

So I’m now thinking XC Pro front and rear (which I guess actually surprises me as I thought things may have moved on in the last 2 or 3 years!).

Im a man who likes his freeride - with a bit of XC added into the mix as well - and Im looking for a new set of rubbers.

Any recommendations out there?

Im currently tossing and turning between Fire XC Pros (2.1s) and WTBs WeirWolf (2.1s maybe 2.3). OH and my time is mainly spent in the south of the country (downs etc.)...altho I intend to go further afield!

Never ridden in Scotland,

but i'll still add my 2 pennies worth

Specialized Armadillo team control/master

I was running trailblasters in last year's hot, long summer (remember that?) and they were great.
How about Continental Vertical 2.3?

I've got XC Pro's and I dont find them to be excessively good int he mud and wet - I still find myslef having to trickle along in anything worse than surface mud. My IRC Serac XC's (or something) weren't bad.

Have been riding my mount vision around the peaks for the last 7 weeks on 2.3" factory downhills. one of the best all round tyres i have tried. 22 quid for a pair as well!

they handle wet or dry rocky/gravelly downhills with utter confidence and are very good in the mud too.

a little heavier than your average XC tyre but we have been doing 25 to 30 mile rides with plenty of technical climbs and they are just superb.

and when it comes to downhills [which after all is why we do the climbs in the first place] they inspire much more confidence than skinny xc tyres. i have found a noticable improvement in my downhilling since they were fitted.

and if you want light(er) weight you can get a kevlar version

Cheers for the feedback guys.

BTW just to clarify I was referring to south of England i.e. south downs etc.

I've been using Schwalbes in the Peak recently - 2.35s - nice and underrated all round tyre in an agricultural sort of way.

Schwalbe's are great, ditto conti Verts, ditto fires. But fires really don't cope will with soft conditions - I was riding behind a Fire user on Saturday, and you could see him riding sideways wherever the ground wasn't completely hard - which was most of the time. On the other hand, on Rocks I think they may be a little better than verts, where the knobbles are a bit too small and soft to hook well.

The new vapours should be good for that riding, but the same comments will apply to them as to fires I expect. It's really all a compromise - you just need to decide which areas you need more grip and which areas aren't so important.

There is no one good tyre for scotland, but I like my freeride (well a bit of hard XC with Jumps thrown in - i.e Glentress) I have found my new combo is pretty good -

A Panaracer Fire Freeride 2.4 (more like a 2.6!) up front for serious cornering grip, and a Fire XC Pro Kevlar out back for some mud room. I bought a Fire Freeride for the back to but it would even fit between the stays of my Norco!

As it is only a 2.1 up back I put a Nokian Gazzoldi DH tube (2.3-3) in - this is heavy but say goodbye to snakebites.

after suggestions from this board I have combination of continental verticals up front and survivals out back. I've been out twice in the last three days, and after holding on for dear life with my previous tyres. I ride in the Cotswolds and the trails morph very rapidly from rocky, sandy hardpack to clogging, clay-y mud, and these tyres eat them up. Come the summer I'll be changing back to my WTB Weirwolfs, but I'm loving the confidence these tryes have given me

Totaly agree james,At Afan the other week, day one tioga xc 1.95 on the front, conti survival on the rear,front washed out in gloopy to wet mud = 1 stack and several near misses. day two ,vert on the front, survival on the rear,( both at about 30-35 lbs) completely different ride, really able to let rip with complete confidence.= huge grin, no stacks.