DirtRoadRunner

Despite being a highly-rated tire, my pair is ragged after < 500 miles of roughly half pavement / half gravel riding. See the pic below of my rear tire. The front is only slightly better.

About 1/3 of the small lugs are missing, and the other 2/3 are worn down or hanging on by a thread. These tires were ran at 85 psi on pavement and 60 on gravel, and I weigh 185 lbs. We do have some sharp rocks around here (lots of rhyolite and chert), however other, cheaper tires have lasted 1,000+ miles for me on the same roads. I rarely lock up the brakes and have ridden these on maybe 1 mile of smooth singletrack. I have gone up lots of very rough, loose gravel climbs, however.

The ARE fast tires, and the DO have good traction, but have not proven durable to me. When they were new, they really bit in to loose gravel well, but now spin out fairly easily when going up hill. Ironically, they roll better on pavement now after most of the lugs are missing or damaged.

For a $60 tire, I am not impressed with the durability. I would be happy with 1,000 miles out of a tire, but not 500. My old Conti Speed Rides lasted twice as long at half the price (with a similar weight). When the front one finally goes, I'll try the WTB Nano 40's - or maybe go all the way to a Schwable Marathon Monodial.

jtbadge

I have over 1000 miles of pavement, gravel, and dirt on my set WTB Nano 40c Race... still tons of tread left and never a flat.

rusheleven

Sometimes it is best to think of racecar tires when thinking of bicycle tires.

You have family sedan with economy touring tires = They function and get a ton of miles before they wear out.

You have a race car with racing tires = Your tires are fast and have tons of traction and they accelerate like no ones business, but you change them out every few laps.

So, what I'm getting at is when something is marketed to the high end crowd, it is usually faster , grippier , lighter, and all the while having lower rolling resistance, but it wears out quickly.

If you want durability get something with a firmer rubber.

NormanF

Not necessarily.

The Schwalbe Marathon Dureme is an all-around folding tire designed to be both light and durable.

It can be done and such tires cost a pretty penny but they're worth it.

Sundog3478

High performance, durability, cheap. Pick two. That said, 472 miles sounds extremely low - but I cannot see the picture in the OP.

chriskmurray

My XPLOR's still look almost new after around 400 miles but type of pavement/gravel could be a big factor. Riding style also can play heavily into that as well. With that being said, I also can not see your picture.

CliffordK

Something is wrong with your photo. Just use the "insert photo" option from the forum. It is much easier.

As far as wear, I believe the X'PLOR MSO just has the very small knobbies which will wear fairly quickly in the middle.
On the other hand, the X'PLOR USH has a center wear strip, and knobbies on the edges.



I only have 100 miles on my X'PLOR USH (still excellent condition), so I can't give you a long-term wear comparison yet.

Much of your cornering traction will come from the knobbies on the edge of the tire, and perhaps it is ok if the tire wears down a bit in the middle. I guess it depends on your needs.

DirtRoadRunner

The photo should be active now.

The problem with the MSO seems to be a combination of a soft, weak (but sticky) rubber compound and very small lugs. This makes the tire grip nice when new, but the soft little lugs easily get sheared off on sharp rocks. Perhaps if the lugs were bigger - or the rubber not as soft/weak, the tire would last longer. Again, the picture is of the rear tire but the front is only slightly better, which can only be explained by a tire with poor durability as I certainly have never locked up or spun out the front tire.

The bottom line is that these tires do not last very long if there are sharp rocks around. My riding style is conservative with very few skids, spin-outs, or lock-ups.

Next up will be the WTB Nano. I replaced my rear tire with another MSO, due to a significant rock puncture. Maybe this one will last a bit longer.

BigC_82

My CX bike has close to 2,700 miles on X'plor USH 60 tpi of road/gravel without any issues and held up to all I can dish out from going all out on gravel averaging 18mph + to group riding.

bikebreak

how is the MSO on grass? wet grass?

DirtRoadRunner

I haven't ridden it much on wet grass - just pavement/gravel/dirt. The lugs are pretty small so I can't imagine it would be that good - better than a road tire, but not as good as a real knobby.

It seems my premature MSO wear is due to road conditions around here - all of the chert and rhyolite on the roads here is literally harder than steel and can be very sharp. Perhaps on a groomed limestone gravel road (like most Midwestern roads in IA, IL, NE, etc) they would last a bit longer, but most of our roads here are not like that. The USH looks like it has slightly larger lugs - perhaps that helps with the durability.

BikeInMN

I wonder if you got a bad one (or two)... or if its a pressure thing.

I've put probably 700 miles on a set and haven't had any issues with losing knobs and my mileage is probably 50/50 gravel and pavement. My standard PSI is 45-50 front and 50-55 rear.

I have found the center tread on the USH 120tpi tires wears a lot quicker than I'd like. For an expensive tire it wears quickly. I have also had one sidewall failure at the bead where the tire separated.