Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
I had issues with the 2024 radial trail casings being too squirmy, but have not had that problem with the 2026 Trail Pro casings. I'm happy to run those front & rear on my trail bike... will eventually replace the Grav Pro on front end of my ebike with one too once it wears out, might try it rear also as I'm on the lighter end of the spectrum. 2026 weights seem dead on for the 4 I've purchased & weighed.
Simply no „radial“ casings and instead the regular ones.
Sadly it seems like the best solution is going with a different brand that has a more robust trail casing. I just picked up a Gravity Pro casing Romy to replace my sliced Trail Pro version and as I'd expect it's a bit of a pig, but sturdy and nice to not have to worry about. It just seems like there's a big gulf between the two, with the Gravity Pro casings feeling like a pretty proper DH casing and the Trail Pro casings having absolutely paper thin sidewalls that at this point I don't trust to hold up, even if the support feels decent.
Yeah I’m kind of pissed they just added 2 layer of chasing to the gravity, when I need a gravity rear I don’t want a DH tyre, and now there’s no option anymore to stay with the radial, and imo radial front and non rear feels like 💩
FYI, casing, not chasing. There is no H in tyre casings.
It's not so much that 2 layers were added, its that now both of the 2x67epi carcass layers are now extend ontop of each other under the tread cap (before it was just one layer that extend to the end of the lap.
Here is some non radial tire talk - I’ve been running the Michelin Wild Enduro MS Racing Line front and rear for a season and a half now. In general I’d say it’s been the best set and forget tire I have used. Similar loose condition performance to other all-rounders like the Magic Mary or High Roller, but holds up better on hard pack. I really like the casing too - supportive without being harsh, not too heavy, and haven’t had any flats (yet).
Thinking I’ll try the new Performance Line option as a rear tire to get more life out of it. Hopefully the harder compound doesn’t sacrifice too much on wet roots/rocks.
I'm curious what you feel with the mixed setup? It looked to me like this was more common than not on WC bikes. I personally like it on all of my bikes but there's a chance that's an issue with an unrefined palate
Even the performance line still rolls slow af while being average in grip
It feels faster on smooth climbs/roads, definitely not as smooth/efficient on tech climbs, but where I noticed the difference I didn’t like at all was downhill, I feel like I’ve got 10mm less travel and a stiffer rear end, plus, they just don’t grip nearly as much on roots/of camber sections
So how much slower is a new gravity pro radial vs previous gravity radial in say an Albert, so same rubber, same thread
Correct my misunderstanding, but could we describe radial as a spectrum? Could we hope and pray for rear specific, faster rolling, semi-radial, or radial-light, tires in the future?
How about we you just post the data. Its been spoken about a lot but I haven't seen it. Would be cool to see actual numbers. Rolling resistance, impact resistance across the skus.
„Radial“ as used in the bike tire industry is already a spectrum of tread angles. If it was used as it should be, radial would only mean one angle, which is exactly radial to the wheel center. But it‘s the bike industry that likes to not give any fuck.
Just use the so called diagonal tires, which are exactly what you want in the rear, with a steeper angle between the carcass treads.
Thanks to you all, I finally made the switch from my trusty Conti and Maxxis tires onto Magic Mary and Albert Radials this year. For starters, the supple and conforming feeling over roots and rocks is satisfying. The biggest holy shit moment was me able to clean a local climb/hike trail that I always slid out on. It is very steep towards the top (20-26%) on off camber rock slabs. Most people hike or push their bikes up. The tires just wouldn't let go even when I was out the saddle trying to keep the front end down and crawl up. All my Maxxis and Conti tires's side knobs would just slide out. Thoroughly impressed and finally get the hype.
So the Scale is:
Vee tyre full radial 90º
Schwalbe radial trail
Schwalbe Gravity 2025
Schwalbe Gravity 2026
Specialized and E-Thirteen - closer to Diagonal
Delirium - unknown but sound like the are closer to Specialized
Diagonal tyres.
Exo/Exo+/trail casing
DD/enduro/super gravity
DH casing
Obviously, a full on DH diagonal is way stiffer compared to a radial but I'd be curious to see a test of EXO or EXO PLUS suppleness compared to a radial gravity tyre. Yes the Radial DH should be less prone to slashes.
From personal experience trail casing tyres with inserts is still not as supple or less bouncy than a Schwalbe radial gravity casing (2025 Shredda or 2025 Albert).
Thoughts?
I'm thinking we shouldn't let you get away with calling bias ply tires diagonal in the nerd thread haha
My experience with the racing line MS is they roll equal to or faster than an equivalent maxx grip Maxxis tire, which is my baseline. Not too worried if the performance line doesn’t roll all that much faster, mostly just want the tread to last longer. Different priorities than you, maybe.
What performance series tires have you tried? Wild Enduro MS? Or the older ones? I don’t know if the compounds/casings are the same between the old and new Michelin tires
performance wise the latest ones, precisely the MH performance rear, and E wild performance front, can't comment on how long they last as i had them to try for a few rides only, casing is different, bit more supportive i felt compared to the older ones from a few years back, rubber is apparently the same as what the Magi x. Gum x is according to the rep i've spoken to
Slowly been fiddling with the Tacky Chan Trail Pro 2.5 Soft tire pressures. I’m up to 30/33 psi and I think I’m finally at the point where I’m comfortable with the support. Running lower pressures gave a silly amount of grip, but pushing into corners with the front or pumping or preloading the rear felt like an absolute gamble. It never actually rolled the bead or anything, but loading up the rear and having the bike randomly change yaw by 3-4 degrees wasn’t great.
Still haven’t gotten the weird mushiness I felt with the Alberts or the super bouncy feel at this pressure, so either the tread or casing difference is an improvement.
Unless I'm trying to maximize grip in the wet I much prefer radial front/non-radial rear. I like being able to break the rear tire loose often and for better or worse the radial rear makes that much more difficult to do.
Horses for courses I suppose. I just want different things from my rear tire vs front.
Exactly my reasoning for picking up a Romy diagonal for the rear - I prefer being able to slide the back a little instead of the Velcro feeling of the Albert, and a little pep while pedaling goes a long way for our locals.
Post a reply to: Tire chat (nerds only)