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HI-TECH RUBBER James Vincent and the <strong>Singletrack</strong> Rubber Crew have been testing a range of new tyres and picked their top recommendations for you. WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES VINCENT As a mountain biker, the chances are that you fall into one of two camps – you’re either a habitual tyre swapper, changing rubber and checking pressures on an almost daily basis to suit trail conditions, or you buy a set that just works and leave them on until they fall apart (or tan walls go out of fashion again). The problem with this second approach is that, unlike in some parts of the world that are blessed with actual seasons that hang around for more than a day, here in the UK we’re lucky if we get more than a few hours of consistent weather. And if it does last, the trails can take so long to dry out that they’ll just be coming good when it’ll start to rain again, flipping conditions on their head and rendering our tyres suboptimal. While this most definitely keeps things interesting from a riding perspective, it also asks one heck of a lot from our tyres, especially if you just want to focus on riding and having a good time, rather than faffing about with tubeless sealant and compressors on a regular basis. And so this test was born. What we’ve got here are ten highend trail tyres with a wide range of casings, compounds and technologies, all designed to work in the mixed conditions of UK riding. To keep things consistent we limited the test to 27.5in wheel size, 2.3in–2.4in width, tubeless-ready tyres – all ideally suited to trail bikes. Ranging in price from £35 to £70, these are tyres you’ll want to upgrade to. They are, on the whole, versatile and tough, although some will excel in the wet, and some work better in the dry. We’re not necessarily looking for the lightest or the fastest, but the best all-round tyres that you don’t have to constantly swap around for different trail conditions. They’ve been tested to destruction in the Lake District, on a mix of steep technical climbs, wild rocky descents and fresh-cut offpiste loam, raced in the Tweed Valley and shredded for weeks in the Alps. We’ve dragged them up fire roads, slid them down wet rocky slabs, and spent more time checking pressures and squeezing side knobs than is healthy. If you rarely leave the hardpack of a fire road or trail centre then these tyres are probably overkill. But if you venture off-piste, into the more varied natural trails that the UK has to offer, or even the big mountains of Scotland and further afield, then read on. 98