T7 compound ground controls or fast traks are popular here in Pisgah for wet roots and rocks. Schwalbe speedgrip compound is pretty scary on wet roots in my experience.
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Cool thanks! I went for the GC in a 2.35 for the front and a fast trak 2.2 for the rear.
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I had a few good race days on the ground controls. They aren’t the fastest, but are pretty good, especially id you can take advantage of them on the descents. The fast track i would put on the rear was clearly faster, but didnt use it a ton. I would swap to ray/ralph for all the bigger races I had time for. Honestly, Id probably prefer the ray/ralph to the ground control in the mud, but that is so dependent on type of mud, etc.
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I had Racing Rick’s on my bike for what I was expecting to be a dry day in the Midwest only for it to pour the night before a race. I thought I was screwed, but the Ricks turned out to be very good on the wet rocks and roots. It seemed the small knobs shed the wet dirt and mud and then gripped the wet roots. A lot of others were getting the tale-tell rear wheel slipping as they peddled over them but the Ricks held traction.
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Racing Ralph/Ray combo or even a a Ray or Ralph up front with a Rick in the rear feels right at home on damp or wet trails. I have also ridden some Ground Control/Fast Track in the wet and the cornering traction was not good enough for me to try it again. Ten years ago Bontrager had a legit XC mud tire called like Jones Mud X or something like 2.0 or 2.1 and it was bees knees. I don’t do much mud riding or racing but I did a mountain bike TT a decade ago where it poured for 4 hours and that tire was great haha.
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I rode the Vitorria Peyote at Leadville this year. It was dry but they really had good grip. I’m not a big mtb’r so I can’t compare them to a lot of other tires, but I was very happy with them.
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So, I need some advice.
I am gonna participate in a 110 km XC event. Apx 50% singletrack and the rest smoooooth gravel. The course this year had more gravel than expected. Alpine singletrack, some loose over hard but mostly good alpine singletrack with a lot of chunky rocks. Everybody rides FS, and downcountry bikes are preferred among the common men. The weather until the event looks kind of dry so probably not expecting mud. Almost no roots. 14.00 16.00 and 19.30 int this yt video minutes illustrates the singletrack-terrain quite well (not me in the video).
I have done this event several times befor, but now I am recently back functioning after som health issues and plan to fight against the broom-wagon. I will take all the help I can get. My tire choice was all set until i had a snakebite which destroyed one of the tires. Rekon Race 2.4. f and rear. Now that I have to buy at least noe new tire, and the fact that the course has got more gravel than expected have made me want to optimize more for gravel. I have never tried Aspen but reports say the rolling resistance is very low ant that they work surprisingly well inn singletrack conditions.
1 - Buy a new Rekon Race
2 - Buy an Aspen 2.4 Teamspec, and go Aspen rear and RR Front
3 - Buy two Aspen 2.4 Teamspec, and go Aspen rear and Front
What would you do ?
I have not ridden the team spec but have ridden Aspen 2.4s for the last year. I’d be hesitant to throw on a Team Spec up front from what I’ve heard about them and my experiences with the regular Aspen. Especially with you coming from a Rekon race which has a lot more traction.
I saw some small mud puddles in that video you shared and that’s where a regular Aspen turns into an ice skate, can’t imagine doing it on the ST. I’d go Aspen up front/team spec rear or some other combo. In the dry I like the way the Aspens corner but there is some vagueness to them before they bite.
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Love this tire. Go Rick/Rick or if you want/need a little more front tire traction use a Racing Ralph up front.
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Has anyone tried both Ricks and Peyotes? I have trained on Ricks all season and raced them at Leadville, great tires, very fast, no flats. Rear is about done, so considering either moving my front to the back and putting my Ray up front for more fun riding this fall. I really prefer higher-volume tires, though, so I’m considering grabbing a couple of Vittorias.
The Ray F / Rick R combo is great. its what I used at Sea Otter this year and it was perfect.
I’d love to try Peyotes, but seem to have acquired a lifetime supply of Thunder Burts, so I won’t be buying Peyotes anytime soon.
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I have run Ricks f/r, then Peyotes f/r, and back to a set of Ricks f/r now. I like both a lot and feel like they have their own sweet spots. The Ricks seem to handle softer/looser/deeper conditions a bit better as they have some “real” knobs/height to the tread. The Peyotes are really supple and feel great on hardpack or firmer trails but most of the tread on the tire is very low height/tight and the tire is a little vague in deeper/softer/looser terrain.
For reference, I ran Ricks in Moab, Whiskey in Prescott, and Front Range CO.
Swapped to Peyotes and ran them in Grand Junction and more Front Range CO.
Most recently swapped back to Ricks for Nationals in Roanoke and still have them on back in CO.
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Good info, thanks. I was under the assumption (wrong, I guess) that Peyotes were better in loose.
So I bought a set of Schwalbe Wicked Wills, supposedly 2.6. They measure 152mm bead to bead, the exact same as my already undersized 2.4s.
I am done buying Schwalbe tires. When a supposed 2.6” tire measures 2.3” (a bit less actually) there are no excuses.
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Thunder Burt 2.35 is probably only schwalbe tyre that is true to size 
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Truth.
Thoughts on the general longevity of the Dubnital in the race casing for riding on pavement?
For years I’ve just run Rekon’s in a trail casing since my XC bike was my only bike. I have another trail bike now, so I grabbed a set of Dubnital Race 2.2’s to try a faster tire for racing.
I tend to ride my XC bike on bike paths to the trails, so half my training rides end up being pavement. Cornering at speed on these Dubs feel like I’m about to rip the knobs off the side whenever I lean the bike over.
Am I going to just shred these tires training on them with alot of pavement miles?
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I felt similarly at first cornering on pavement with my 2.4 Dubnital Rapid Races, but they’ve held up well so far.
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For what’s worth, Robin Gemperle won this year’s Tour Divide on a single set of Dubnitals. That’s 4400km
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Now that’s impressive! I kept meaning to look up his bike setup after hearing him on Payson’s podcast.