I've recently put a pair or IRC Mythos tyres on my East Peak to replace the Notos that it came with.
they are a narrower tyre, 1.95 compared with 2.1 plus the rear tyre is nearer to a semi slick.
They are great through the mud, but on hardpack, especially with a loose surface the rear slides out too much for my liking.
I'm looking for any ideas on alternatives, most of my riding is on singletrack (Thetford), local bridleways and roads. And if such a tyre exists that can do mud and hardpack with a loose surface- which is probably impossible, i'll fit em immediatley.
Any views on Michellin Wildgrippers to do the job?
Steve, I'm no expert, perhaps It's just that I find it scary when the back end wipes out at medium speed on a fairly gentle corner, any hints on tyres for the shortlist?
I don't like the Michellins much Continental Vertical Pro are good Panaracers of various flavours always get top marks, it'll really depend on how and where you ride.
Steve, tend to ride in east anglia, where it's flat and the land tends to dry out and pack hard. Singletrack around Thetford forest and local routes of bridleways and would be typiocal. 90% is hard and dry with lots of loose surfaces, with the occasional mud patch.
Gerts wet in winter of course, maybe I need a tyre for winter and another for the rest of the year?
Timely point for me. Shredded my rear Panaracer Trailblaster 1.8 at Saab Salomen, so had to ride Beastway on my usual all round tyres, IRC Mythos 1.95. Beastway is very dry, dusty, and fast, and found myself sliding more than normal, whereas I'd previously thought the thin Trailblasters were trading grip for speed. The Trailblasters are my summer race tyres, and although they cut through mud, they're sketchy once it get's slippy. I switch to Mythos for the rest of the year, and while a specific mud tyre is good to have, I find they just have too much rolling resistance, so I make do with the available grip of the Mythos.
Just read original post again. Do your tyres say Mythos XC or Mythos Slick on them? That might explain the semi-slick rear slidiness you're experiencing.
thanks for your help,I'm offline at home (19 june to 5 july thanks to BT !!!)so only back online at work now.
My tyres are Mythos XC, it's the back one that's the slipperyone.
Looks like the Trailblaster could be the answer for the dry stuff. No one seems to have an opinion on the Mitchelin Wildgripper, though MBR rated them a good all round tyre - any views ? cheers Rich
With tyres you've got to ask yourself what kind of performance you're looking for and be realistic about their performance in other areas.
For example, you probably find the narrower Mythos reasonable in mud because you're used to wider tyres which tend to float over it. For fast railing singletrack like Thetford, wide and round semi-treads like the Trailblaster 2.1 or Hutchinson Python (2.1) give greater cornering hold but increased rolling resistance and weight against say the Trailblaster 1.8. Which is more important to you? How do you ride? Do you carve the turns hard, or ride them conservatively?
As a racer I'm prepared to put up with sketchier handling for a lighter and faster tyre, particularly as I'm stronger at climbing and flat speed than singletrack. I find the Mythos XC 1.95 to be a good compromise at about 520g average tyre weight. Reasonable grip particularly on rear, although many complain the front wanders, quite fast rolling considering proper tread, good puncture resistance, predictable handling, reasonably long lasting. Trailblaster 1.8 at about 440g is one of the lightest tyres around, yet still has some tread and doesn't wear out as madly fast as the soft rubber lightweights from Tioga and Specialized, or puncture as easily as the glorified inner tube Continental Supersonics.
Standard 2.1 tyres tend to weigh in the high 500's and many are 600g plus. This means that I save about at least 100g with a pair of Mythos, and at least 200g with the Trailblasters. Combined with light 100g inner tubes, my race setup saves about a pound against a standard trail setup, with the added benefit of that weight being saved on rotating mass. You may well not be a racer, but a lighter, faster accelerating bike is hard to sneeze at, particularly at the relatively low cost of careful tyre and inner tube choice compared to other component upgrades. If grip is your prerequisite, you couldn't beat a downhilling tyre, but no-one in their right mind is going to lug around such weight on an XC bike, so you see you're already making performance compromises before you even start. As I said at the start of this ramble, what kind of performance are you looking for, and what compromises are you willing to accept?
thanks for such useful input, greatly appreciated. I'm not a racer, slog round a few trailquests but never troubling the leaders !
However, I do know Thetford like the proverbial back of my hand now and like to take on the singletrack at ( for me) a reasonable pace. I was spooked the other evening , actually on a local bridleway not Thetford, when the back end stepped out at a sensible speed. I had already noticed at Thetford that the Mythos were more twitchy, but better in mud than the standard Notos fitted, but not enough to make me consider changing, until the near wipe out the other evening on similar terrian to Thetford. Your comments on saving weight by light tyres and tubes - ( are light tubes readily available,I've never noticed them in my local specialist shop, though never asked either,) - are useful- saving one pound by upgarding my East Peak would probably cost 100-200 + I guess. thanks again Rich
Inner tubes. I think my personal favourites are called Specialized Turbo Ultras 1.5-1.7, which come in a red rather than a black box, and usually only cost an extra pound, although you may have to get your Specialized dealer to order them. They weigh about 115g, which seems sensible, since the lighter Continental and Maxxis seem to perforate quite easily, and I seem to get away running them in wider tyres. Standard tubes can be over 200g, especially as they'll usually be 1.8-2.3. Of course, Stan's No Tubes (tubeless) works out less than 100g, and is the way I'll be going once I wear out my rims and can finally be bothered to fit the system I bought a year ago!
Thinking about it, your Notos would have had more grip for Thetford than the Mythos because of the regular block pattern, and bigger air chamber if you they were 2.1's (but they are heavier). Still can't quite imagine someone calling a rear mythos XC almost semi-slick, are you sure it doesn't have semi-slick written somewhere as well as Mythos XC as there is a semi-slick version?
Also, just had a thought. Used to have a Rift Zone myself several years ago, and wonder if maybe the weight transfer during cornering because of the suspension action may make some tyres more appropiate than others. Railing undulating and swoopy Thetford singletrack must cause considerable weighting and unweighting of the suspension. It may be that you may need less rather than more grip so as not to experience breakaways as the tyre suddenly loses masses of grip as it's unweighted.
I had Mythos on my bike and I remember that, when cornering, there was a pronounced transfer between the centre knobblies and the edge knobblies. Once used to it, it was ok but -it did spook me at first and it did feel like the rear end had slid out. Once I was able to manipulate this feature, it helped when getting out of ruts brilliantly.
