Tire for BigBear??

[scottay]

What was the best tire for BigBear last weekend?
Prolly ride a XC trail (Fawnskin open?) this friday and the lifts on Sat.
I know there where alot of flats, are DH casings/two ply the way to go? May hafta switch tires friday nite?


Lemme know what you think!


scott
,
,

[2wheel_lee]

I don't know how hard and fast you ride, nor do I know what kind of bike you ride. The need for big or DH casing tires depends on your speed, how fast you ride, how smoothly you ride, and how good you are at negotiating rocks.

Myself, I rode my Intense SlopeStyle with 2.5/2.35 singleply Nevegals for two days at Summit the week before without any flats. First of all, I'm fairly smooth, good at negotiating obstacles, but this again begins to vary with speed (at higher speeds, you tend to hit anything in your line). My setup was perfect for the conditions and the speed.

Fast forward to the STR BBQ...I was already familiar with some of the trails, and so I had the lines in memory. I cranked up the speed and hit the trails hard and fast...and I managed to get 5 pinch flats - two at one time. And this was at the end of the day when I was already running very high pressures.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend had 2.35/2.1 Nevegals and never flatted, even with significantly lower air pressure.

My point is that it is impossible to say what you need. You know your style better than we do. For most people, I'd probably still recommend 2.5/2.35 tires for most all-mountain bikes. You can error on the side of being conservative and run heavy DH tires and tubes and have your energy zapped by the extra weight, or try going light and see what happens. Worse thing that will likely happen is that you get a flat tire.

[dstepper]

Originally Posted by scottay

(Fawnskin open?)


scott
,
,

No Grey's Peak, Grout Bay, Hanna Flats yet. Cougar's Crest Trail and half of Holcomb Valley open.

What Lee said about the tires.

Dean

[scottay]

Thanks, just wondering if there was a Tire EVERYONE hated. I have Neve's and Bluegrooves in a coupla configurations, will stick with those. Altho I do have a 2.5 Continental Diesel and a 2.3 Vertical Pro on my Nomad right now.....
What is high pressure? I'm about 180ish and will run about 35 lbs in the tires, maybe less in the front. Not sure what you consider hi or low psi.
I'm better at hitting rocks fast in a straight line......
Got the low-down from a STR local on the XC trails......


Thanks, scott

[2wheel_lee]

For the previous weekend, I was running 30 in the rear and a little below that in the front. By the end of the STR BBQ ride I was running 45 rear and about 35 front (which too hard for good handling). Not that single-ply tires at low pressure really handle well in the first place.

[mfoga]

I had a 2.35 Negeval up front with a 2.0 Larsen TT in back, but I dropped them low, I would guess around 30. I was doing able to keep a good amount of traction most of the time. When I go back I an putting the 2.35 negeval in back and 2.5 up front for a little more traction since it was so loose.

[jcampbell]

I unfortunately grabbed a 29er version Nev out of the garage instead of a 26 so I ended up running a wide SmallBlock8 in the rear. It wasn't that bad to be honest, though I was sliding the rear into the berms mostly so I really didn't use my brakes much. The only time it was sketchy was when we ended up on a Fire Road and I wanted to be in Fast Gear.

[Happy_Gilmore]

For Summit I recommend downhill tubes front and back, they will save you down time fixing flats. Nev's work fine 2.35 min, Blue grooves upfront will skip on fast fire roads off chamber turns that are covered with a black fine gravel (similar to pumice), they adequate on most other trails.

[freekengo]

I rode the last weekend with a DH tubeless maxxis minions front and back and it was perfect. ran it at 20psi front and 25psi rear. Hooked up the whole time!

[Nagaredama]

2.5/2.3 Hutchinson Barracudas DH casing on both my Enduro and Wilson (DH bike) at SS and they rocked! They are my new favorite tires. Blows Nevegals out of the water.

[jcampbell]

Originally Posted by freekengo

I rode the last weekend with a DH tubeless maxxis minions front and back and it was perfect. ran it at 20psi front and 25psi rear. Hooked up the whole time!

How do you ride with only 20PSI in the front or only 25PSI in the rear? I would flat spot my rims in a heartbeat with that low of pressure. If I didn't flatten them, I would surely roll the tire off the rim at some point in the day... I did that once and just about lost my teeth so I sketch on running a low pressure.

[chongoblanco]

when in doubt go big, it is a mountain. there are also chair lifts so i would not worry about rolling resistance and weight.

[freekengo]

Originally Posted by jcampbell

How do you ride with only 20PSI in the front or only 25PSI in the rear? I would flat spot my rims in a heartbeat with that low of pressure. If I didn't flatten them, I would surely roll the tire off the rim at some point in the day... I did that once and just about lost my teeth so I sketch on running a low pressure.

I've had them as low as 17psi before. At 20 or above, the DH tires to me tracks well and I've never run into problems before(knocking on wood). It made the ride smooth over the rock gardens and over the last weekend, I was not kind to that bike either.
Heck you saw the bike at the taco tues ride. same bike, same set up. The DH casing seems to really help. On regular tires(I run ust tires on all my bikes) on xc bikes, I run 30 front and 32 rear pressres. It seems to be the best compromise between traction and rolling resistance. It's just been my experience so far. As a reference I run nothing but Schwalbe's on my xc bike and run Maxxis on my bigger bikes.

[art23rockpile]

Originally Posted by scottay

What was the best tire for BigBear last weekend?
Prolly ride a XC trail (Fawnskin open?) this friday and the lifts on Sat.
I know there where alot of flats, are DH casings/two ply the way to go? May hafta switch tires friday nite?


Lemme know what you think!


scott
,
,

Last weekend at BB I ran Schwalbes: Fat Albert in back, Big Betty in front... with about 35lbs pressure. This is the same set-up I used at Downieville, and I liked it so much, I never changed them back to my old set-up (2.24 Weirwolfs). With three days of riding in D-ville and 6 runs at BB, I never had a single flat.

[queenwilhelmina]

Ignitors front and rear worked great for me. Just be aware that in certain sections you will probably be sliding/drifting no matter what tire you're running.

[pitmang1]

I'll be in Big Bear on Sunday trying out the Schwalbe Fat Alberts front and rear.

[tkblazer]

i've run Big betty front ~30-35 psi and ignitor rear, pinch flatted the BB tire once... if you have them, DH tires are the way to roll.. you can run low pressure and not worry about pinch flatting

[CalEpic]

My new favorite loose conditions tire: Specialized Chunder 2Bliss

[Nagaredama]

Originally Posted by CalEpic

My new favorite loose conditions tire: Specialized Chunder 2Bliss

I've been thinking of trying those on my Enduro.

You run those only at Big Bear or other SoCal trails?

Are they the DH or single ply?

Have you mounted them tubeless?

[Shu]

I ran 2.35 Nevegal UST at 27 in front and 2.35 Ignitor UST at 27 in rear in Downieville and Big Bear w/ only 1 burp(rear) on my 2nd to last run in Big Bear from an off camber landing on a jump....

I won't run tubes again....