Singletrack

HI-TECH
RUBBER
James Vincent and the Singletrack
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.
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