osco53

Down here In Florida the winter is the best riding season, but like this past summer we are expecting a wet one.

I wanted to up my traction game a couple of notches so I took the 27.5x2.25 wide Schwalbe Rocket Ron off the back and moved my 27.5x2.35 wide Bontrager XR-3 Expert to the rear and put the Bonty XR-4 in 2.35 wide on the front.
The XR-4 added about 120 grams over the XR-3 and the XR-3 added about 200 over the Rocket Ron that I took off.
I don't feel the extra grams, I think because wider offset this with better float on my commonly loose trails.

Also I first mounted the XR-3 on the back In the proper direction and rode a day, then I re-mounted It in the reverse directon.
The center treads have ramps on the leading edge to lessen rolling resistance and reversing them I was told I'd loose some braking performance but would gain climbing bite...

Not true for my trails, I gained climbing bite, a noticeable amount but not drastic and as far as I can tell I feel no more rolling resistance and no less braking performance..

The rear tire will stay with the rotational arrows pointed the wrong way.....

A more experienced rider told me to try this, he was right.

My trails,,
some mud and or clay in the G-Outs,
Lots of lime rock and shale to shore up the climbs,
lots of sand,,lots and lots of sugar sand,
roots, plenty,
Good old black dirt, yeah that too.

I can lean the bike farther over with the fresh XR-4 up front, yeah yeah this was expected sure, but what It really does for me is when I'm out near the edge of the tires and my limit It gives me a few extra billionths of a second to correct a mistake before the tire slides out.

And Its true, If you like to hang it out there your tires are toast when the treads get rounded, when they loose the sharp edge and for me that's before the center treads loose half their height.

Fresh tires,, It's my thing

DMC707

I'm a Kenda fan with my favorite being the Nevegal. The rounded carcass has just the right compromise between bite and a controlled drift when i am pushing them hard
I mentioned in my other tire thread that im a Clyde, so it doesnt take much speed for me to start finding some traction limits, but i love the predictable way the nevegals break loose as opposed to a grabbier more square edged tire

On the flip side i took off the wide Maxxis Ardents from my 29'er and went with Kenda SB 8's --- im in love with these for dry trail days - so darn fast and light

I just got a set of Honey Badgers to try though, - these are supposed to split the difference between the small block eight and the Navagal - And should be safer on slimy trails than the sb8 but with less peak grip han nevegals.

So here lately i have been flip flopping back and forth a lot on tire choice too

osco53

I was going for the Kenda Nevegal a few years back until I saw It's weight, then more recently I read where Kenda Upgraded the Nevegal, making It lighter.

I consider the Bonty XR-4 to have somewhat less aggressive treads than the Nevegal and rarely see a 'Nev' on trail bikes down here,, most needing that kind of traction seem to go for the Schwalbe Hans Dampf or the Nobby Nic but not this boy. IMO Schwalbes wear out twice as fast as my Bontragers and cost pretty close to twice as much...
$90 for a single bicycle tire that I can wear out In three months, I don't thinks that's funny one bit, If I raced they would make sense but I don't.
I fed the back of my bike BOTH the Rocket Ron's that came with the bike in ONE summer and bought an upgraded one. It went faster.....
I wore down all three of those before my XR-3 needed replacing and the XR-3 even being 200 grams heavier rolled just as well and was far more predictable in the traction and handling department,,again on my trails.