I have had very good luck with Ground Control T7 in the Grid casing, very flat resistant
Yes, me too. It’s only marginally heavier than the control casing so it’s a no-brainer.
Just did an XC race in very sandy conditions and the Dub’s weren’t ideal. I would say they fare as well as ricks would in the same conditions.
Did the same trails today as on my first ride with the Barzos, even wetter today (borderline flooded). The tires are now okay on wet roots. So, with the release agent wearing off, they went from comically bad to reasonable, which is pretty good in my book. Only bad thing I can point out is how noisy they are on asphalt, even if the rolling resistance seems to be low enough.
If the Pisgah stage race last year showed me anything, the Aspen was a tire that was ridden well on wet roots.
I did not race it, this was watching coverage of the race on DirtWire
Fat tire crit tire
+1 went to Vittoria Barzo 2.4 @BRR as there is no other MTB tire in the list that has real chance to make it to the top this month
@jkarrasch They claim this is 40% faster than the old XC RC you tested:
Any chance you will test any of the new Pirelli’s?
I am definitely interested. I talked to somebody who is sponsored by them yesterday I think and they said those tires were pretty hard to get in the US right now so I guess we will have to see what happens.
Listened to Dylan Johnson talk about using 2.6 tires for a recent race, looking through photos I assume it was the Mezcal, which is really interesting, I dont remember if I measured mine, but a super high volume 2.6, I dont think it will fit on my current bike, the element, although the 2.6 rekon is fine.
I have not found any intel on the goodyear peak in 2.6 yet.
DJ ran 2.6 Mezcals for Little Sugar yesterday. Hopefully he’ll talk about it a bit on BonkBros this week.
The 2.6” Barzos and Agarros both measure 2.45” on a 30mm rim. I’d bet the 2.6” Mezcals are similar.
Does anyone have experience with Rocket Rons in UK style conditions, particularly wet roots? They seem to be quite fast rolling for such an aggressive pattern.
no, my 2.6 mezcals were MASSIVE, I’m going to mount it up this evening, but I want to say 68mm, but even taller than that
I finally got some good singletrack CRR testing done recently on my Rick 2.4s and hope to figure out a good 2.6 soon for similar home track comparison.
I wish I had a good suggestion, I imagine the goodyears could/should be near the top of the list, but I havent used them. The kendas might be a good representation of a higher volume tire, but a fragile one. Wicked will could be smart, since you can compare it to a smaller wicked will, but folks here said the 2.6 is a 2.4.
Mezcal would likely be the most interesting, its a big jump in size, can compare it to a 2.4 mezcal trail (not race). The tread is a bit different, as I think they basically spaced out a 2.4 mezcal. I do quite like the rekon 2.6, but its a bit more trailish for sure.
In my head, I suspect they are similar, but a bit slower to a 2.4, which might come down to weight a bit, but the benefits come at specialist conditions, like lots of small-medium bumps in succesion, like roots and spikey rocks. But also for people at the fringes, ha, bigger riders. I for instance, had most my best race results at 210 lbs, and felt like I had to run double the tire pressure to my competitors, I guarantee the tires would have helped in a few scenarios.
Welp - I flatted my rear Vittoria Aggaro last weekend on the Whole Enchilada in Moab. Goes to show that even beefier than traditional XC tires are prone to flatting (maybe me riding like an idiot might have had something to do with it 
)
6 dynaplugs didn’t seal the hole. Pulled out the insert, put in a tube, and limped back to town on sand flats road. I was kicking myself, as I had been looking forward to this ride.
A sad pic after the incident 
A happy pic the day before on Captain Ahab 
OK, so building on my recent experiences with flat tires:
I rode this afternoon with a friend who had 2 flats in his last 4 rides - about the same as me. We rode a loop that is about a 1 hr climb, followed by a 15 min descent that is known to be rough on tires.
On the climb up, we both were lamenting our recent bad luck with flats (plus I had my brand new tire on the rear, no insert), and agreed to take it easy on the descent.
And what would you know, on the descent, he got a flat on his front tire. In a Minion DHF, so not like he was riding a fragile XC tire.
My own recent experience - plus for example hearing about Little Sugar - leads me to the following perspective:
Despite all the advances in tubeless tires, sealants, inserts - I think a remaining (maybe the biggest??) innovation in the MTB industry is how to prevent flats. Thoughts?
It sure would be nice to flat less often, but we used to ride tires at 40 psi with tubes and flatted quite often. Now with lower pressures, lower rolling resistance, lighter tires, better sealants a lot nicer compliance and I believe we get less flats than we used to. (Might be wrong)
Should the industry keep and eye on this? Sure!