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Sticky rubber combined with open tread pattern throws stuff at you and that T9 rubber collects all the rocks and pine cones it can find. So a harder compound and lower knobs is the solution.
6 is an albert
I would say Magic Mary front, Romy rear but the Magic Mary will throw pebbles at your feet and down tube. If she's an intermediate rider she's unlikely to push hard enough to get tread squirm or fold the edge knobs of the Magic Mary which is really it's only weakness.
I'm considering the new Radial 2.5 Tacky Chan front and a Romy rear combo. I would have pulled the trigger already if I hadn't just put on a new Tacky Chan on the front days before the new tires were announced. I'm currently running Tacky Chan front Nobby Nic rear.
That being said there are times I like the assegai more, love a Mary or similar, and the dissector has been a phenomenally fast front tire. You kinda can’t go wrong with tires right now.
Xynotal soft? It’s like the best hardpack gravity tire on the market isn’t it?
You completely get rid of the squirming issue on hardpack that the radial tires really suffer from, which might affect her and not you. I don’t think you have to be pushing super hard to feel it, I think some people are just more sensitive to it than others. If she thinks the current tires are unusable because of the dust, wait till she feels that squirm (if she does)! Where I live in hardpack land my lbs said they had to take the radial tires off the demo bikes because they got so many complaints. Supposedly not an issue with the Gravity/DH casing. You said she doesn’t get flats so I’m guessing she’d also rather not lug around DH casing tires, but you didn’t talk about casing.
Xynotal knobs are super stable, and they actually dig in to hardpack quite well, amazingly. Definitely throws less dirt in your face than maxxis maxxgrip tires, but, but on legs and stuff? Idk… the assagai throws a lot of dirt in front of you, and in your face, but it doesn’t have horizontal sipes. Maybe go for the soft instead of super soft and it won’t pick up as much dust/dirt to throw at you, but I’m not that familiar with how those compounds differ tbh.
Maybe do a ride on her new tires yourself; thus cleaning off the mold release compound and getting through the really bad dirt throwing phase. First impressions matter and all that.
First ride with the Romy Trail Pro Diagonal Soft (what are we, Maxxis?) was a success! With the radial Magic Mary up front, it reminds me of a modernized version of my benchmark Vigilante Light/High Grip and Trail Boss Tough/Fast Rolling combo from WTB. It’s no XC tire, but it gives the Sentinel the pep I’d been missing when it comes to climbing and cornering.
Great replies everyone, thanks. I told her to go for a good pavement ride to see if helps on the dirt. From there we will see where we end up. Since she complained her bike is slow compared to her XC bike, if I did replace I'd probably lean away from radial since they are heavier. No sense make it feel slower. Dissector Exo maxx terra seems like a good happy medium if so.
I hope the radial 2.4 does the same at a beautiful 30psi
Could try her on the WTB peacekeepers, I’ve been loving them for a faster trial tire.
If she’s anything like my wife, give her the previous tire combo that she used.
Back to radial talk. 3rd ride on my Tacky Chan + Romy trail radial, and slashed the sidewall on the Romy. No idea how or where, no moment of "oh crap", on a trail I've ridden 50 times before without a puncture. Its been years since I've had a sidewall puncture, I used to puncture Exo+ on the bead or top of tread. Hoping it was a fluke but I'm concerned how thin they are for me. I'm going to patch it and keep trying. This was my concern switching from Conti enduro to the trail Schwalbe.
Before the puncture I was liking them quite a bit. Conforms really nice over small chatter, especially noticable while doing technical climbing. The Romy broke free fine for me and hooked up well on flat corners. The Tacky Chan was great leaned over. I was digging it. Was going between 24-25 on the front and 27-28 on the rear (150lbs), which was 2-4psi higher than previous tires. I don't think more pressure would have stopped the sidewall tear.
In theory radials will be easier to cut than a regular bias ply MTB tire. Because the threads in the carcass are more parallel to each other it's easier to slice between them.
For me, the main data points on radials is that comparing my previous Continental Xynotol Enduro Soft vs the Schwalbe Trail Pro Radial Soft is that the Schwalbe is 35g lighter (3%), the radials have more grip, roll similar, are more comfortable at slower speeds, but seem to puncture significantly easier on the sidewall. The enduro mag test seemed to confirm that, where enduro casing had a ~28% puncture resistance compared to 9% on trail radial, although I am not sure where on the tire that was tested, and they did not change the pressures. Puncture resistance was my main concern trying this tire, but I did not want to add 175g to the rear of my trail bike with gravity. I want to do more testing to confirm if this is a fluke or not, but 3rd ride on a very familiar trail isn't confidence inspiring.
Depending what people are looking for in tires or how hard they are on them would help people consider the benefits of radial vs non.
Anyone have time on the new Vee radial offerings? Treads look good for what ever that's worth.
In kind of a "duh... what were you thinking, dummy" moment since I started running radials again... I had noticed that it felt like my rear suspension was occasionally blowing through its travel (landing jumps, square edge brake bumps). I added a bunch of LSC & HSC, still was happening. Added shock pressure and it still would happen. Then I realized I just didn't have enough rear tire pressure, and that I was just bottoming out the tire in certain situations (even though it was stable most of the time). Good thing my Reserve rims are tough. 🤣 I added ~2 psi to the rear and it seems to have mostly resolved it.
Alright, need new tires for my enduro bike and Trail bike, keen to try the Schwalbe radials and looking for some advice. I'm in the greater Seattle area, mostly ride natural trails, bike parks at most 3 times a year. I prefer tires that I can ride year round and don't ride much in the wettest parts of winter. Was thinking:
Enduro bike: magic Mary super soft radial DH front, tacky Chan soft radial DH rear
Trail bike: having some trouble with this one. Romy radial front and rear? Tacky Chan front romy rear? Albert front romy rear?
Planning on radials front and rear. Not too much high speed cornering for where I ride regularly.
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