Originally Posted by
Rnauth1418
I thought it would be weird as well. Super super weird; I got to ride a Santa Cruz blur last summer with a trail king front, mountain king rear. Amazing combination.
Usually its it's nice to have something super grippy with nice cornering knobs on the front. A tire with low rolling resistance in the back is nice for speed. The rear tire is much easier to keep under control than the front so grip in the rear is not supernecessary.
The xking mk combination I'm running is more than enough tire for trail riding.
That is
EXACTLY what the owner of the LBS told me...handling up front and the low rolling resistance in the rear. What concerns me about this is that by going with a "slicker" tire on the rear, I'm going to be fighting with grip on steeper climbs. It just seems like it would be a questionable strategy to throw a tire with less grip on the rear.