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on such a bike i'd go Romy Diagonal Race front and Wicked will rear
The thing is that I already have a wheelset with Racing Ray/Racing Ralph, I am searching for a secondary wheelset for more agressive riding in the mountain.
I fear that Romy/Wicked Will won’t be a huge improvement, but I have never tried those I admit
Great post! I have a trail and gravity casing 2.6 Big Bettys (soft) waiting in the wings, which I planned to start using. But over recent years I've seen a few references to the shortcomings of the BB, and of course now it's been discontinued,,,which doesn't give me the utmost confidence. What's confusing is that I've seen references to pro riders finding the corner knobs too supportive and unforgiving if they got off line, so they were reducing/cutting down the corner lug height, which doesn't fully add up. Further confusing, the Tacky Chan seems to be the evolution of the BB, but then why are the corner lugs so massive...on the latest 2.5 Radial (which I LOVE as a front in loose conditions), the corner lugs measure something like 7.75MM, and are very well supported...so why are they so big? I was staying away from running TC in the rear, thinking I'm "supposed" to run a rear tire with less aggressive cornering lugs, not more aggressive than my front tire.
I picked up the BB tires because the corner lugs looked about perfect for what I was looking for...6mm in height, and I liked the spacing (good all around, but probably too tight to clear mud well). And certainly the corner lugs are stiff and well supported...which I "thought" was what I was looking for.
I don't know, any further insight would be helpful, thank you!
Just mount em up and shred the shit out of them, they’ll be fine.
then it makes sense for the other more aggressive options
After a couple of seasons riding on my DH bike with Michelin DH22/DH34 and DH22/DH16 combos, I moved to Schwalbe:
SCHWALBE Magic Mary Gravity Pro 29 x 2.50 | Ultra Soft Radial TLR | black - front
SCHWALBE Tacky Chan Gravity Pro 29 x 2.50 | SOFT RADIAL TLR | black - rear
As I'm waiting for the tires to arrive, it would be nice to hear what the possible changes will be? I've been riding 1,6bar (23,2psi) pressure.
Nice...that's what I'm talking about!
I'm not sure why more people don't run the Tacky Chan up front...with this new design on the 2.5 Radial, I suspect we'll see more people doing that! The MM sample I have weighs 1,460g, and the TC weighs 1430g, so it's fairly stout. I actually "suspect" you'll end up running the same pressures as you did before...as I'm really not sure the "add 3 psi" rule-of-thumb is going to apply with the Gen 2 Gravity casing. Maybe add 1.
I'm going to assume you're going to run the tc in back and that's just a typo. But I find the schwalbe tires to be somewhat similiar to the 22/16 combo you mentioned, just a little less on on the spectrum of gnarly. I found the TC to roll faster, have a bit softer casing, and not bite as much under braking compared to the 16. The side knobs felt stiffer to me when turning compared to the 16 though. I haven't ridden the lastest radial MM, but the previous version I thought had a lot less sidewall support than the 22s.
Honest question for the peanut gallery: anyone have any advice for picking the Kryptotal Front vs. Rear as a rear tire?
I've only ever used the Kryptotal Front DH Super Soft, and it's been great as a rear tire. Super long lasting, fast rolling, and accceptable braking, cornering, and casing. Curious if I'm missing out on anything by not using the "Rear" tire as a rear tire.
The rear specific tire is lighter and flimsier. Never seen a casing break in and become so much more pliable before. I nuked a rim before I figured out I needed a 2-3psi more pressure than the dhr2 I had used before.
I tried the non-radial TC as a front tire, and found the extreme ramping and wide spacing to cause it to carve either left or right instead of tracking straight, and far too much transition gap unless you went “full commit”. However, I am really excited to try the radial 2.5 up front - I think it will be better in both regards.
Thanks for the feedback. You said "The rear specific tire is lighter and flimsier." Have you tried the front specific tire in the rear, too?
I have. I only liked it in the dry, it packed up in the wet unless I could really open it up. Not ideal for me locally.
My current setup is HR3 front DD and DHR2 DH both with Cush Core. Much better when things get slimy, which is too often.
+1 on mount and shred them!
I think the unforgiving cornering you reference has more to do with the overall knobs geometry than just the height.
Big Betty sideknobs are quite square and wide. Whereas the TC, with a more open leading edge corner, allows corner entry to be less aburpt.
Also now that the TC has a more widley spaced pattern on the tread cap for the 2.5" radial version, it also has less off a dead spot. When you add in the radial casing defelction, it's pretty much elimianted.
Compare that to the cornering behaviour of a Big Betty, it was very on/off, and i think many riders would get lost in that dead spot. Not what you want in a front tire.
Thanks for bringing back an old post!
@schwalbai Do you have any idea if this tread pattern is going to be released in 2026 ?
🤷♂️
Great thread, and great feed back, thank you! I feel like a proper tire nerd already!
Okay, so I rock the Big Betty! Likely I'll run in Squamish and BC Bike parks this summer...thinking it will be good there. Problem is, I already have a couple variants of the Tacky in soft compound, for rear tire use, in route. So I don't know if I can get enough riding time to burn them all up...it's quite the problem. But I'll try!
Why would they make the rear specific tire flimsier? I have never heard this and seem like it wouldn't make sense for a rear. When I mounted up my DH casing versions they felt about the same.
Glad someone commented on this, I agree. I am running dual 27.5 DH Kryptotal F (SS) and R (S) with 21/23 psi (150lbs). I've only rim dinged the front, not the rear. I don't have direct experience with reversing for @TEAMROBOT
I never tried the Kryptotal Front in the rear... given that the Rear looks like a taller DHR II, I thought running the Rear in the rear was an obvious choice. What's the logic for running the Front in the rear? Faster rolling speed or something?
using maxxis comps, i suppose it would be like running assegai front and rear instead of assegai front dhr2 rear. I dont have enough DH tire experience to know when id want to do that or not to.
consistency. It's been popular in the past and shows up in wcdh from time to time. not just conti riders, sc used to spec trail bikes with dhr f/r. also makes it easy to rotate tires if you're running the same size f/r - when your rear tire needs replacement, put the front tire on the rear, and put a fresh tire on the front.
I have a dhf on the rear of my trail bike and an assegai out front currently - i like how fast it rolls and i like the cornering knobs, though it doesn't brake as well as a dhr I don't need it to
I know that some of the WCDH guys run this setup, it just doesn't make sense to me compared to running 2x Rear (the equivalent of 2x DHRII). To me it'd be like running dual Assegai, which I've done only a couple times (on loaner bikes) and it was like towing a sandbag behind me.
Consistency and rolling speed (in the case of 2x kryptotal fronts).
I personally dont like dhr f/r because i don't care for the cornering knobs on that tire or the rolling speed. ymmv. I think kyrptotal fr have a more pronounced cornering feel and also roll faster than the assegais that make them a better candidate for a f/r setup. I think someone else in here ran the kryp fronts f/r as well and didn't like them because its harder to use the brake to adjust your cornering angle mid corner compared to a kryp rear/dhrII type of tire - i would agree with that.
The logic is the same as running a rear tire front and rear as well. If you're looking for consistency out of your bike and you like the characteristics of specific tire, then give it a go and see if it works for you. I went kryptotal front and kryptotal rear -> kryp front and kryy front -> kryp front and xylontal before giving schwalbe's lineup a go.
My local 'enduro' riding is pedally and the terrain has a fair amount of grip, so the kryp rear/dhr II etc are more tire than I care for on local rides fwiw.
Current Conti gravity line has always needed more PSI, most of info out there stated that pretty clearly, its 110TPI casing in the DH.
I have only run R in the back, so can't help there.
Will report back sometime soon, just swapped one on. Been running the same Kryptotal Fr DH supersoft on front/rear on both my enduro and DH bikes for 2 years and it's been my favorite setup of all time, but I also ride blown out dusty trails all summer so swapped to Argotal ss enduro front, krypto Re dh ss on the enduro. First impression was very good but need more time before recommending over the double Fr, which I just did a Schladming day on and they were hooooking.
hey. So have had a bit of time in both setups. Both on 140mm 29r smuggler and 200/180mm 27.5 park bike. Used a krypto rear as a rear tyre on both bikes. enduro soft on trail and dh soft on park. felt ok but didnt gel with it loading up in corners. changed after 4-500km on both to krypto front enduro soft on trail and dh soft on park. felt to roll a bit nicer and feel more consistent when leaning on it. The casing did breakdown to become more pliable also making me feel like a hero in the corners. That great window before they casing breaks down past the best bit. Tread lasts for ages. Have done couple of krypto fronts on back of trail bike. Happy to be a go to. Have some dissector g2 to try on trail bike next. seemed like a similar ish design with shorter knobs.
there's no way that the FR could roll faster than the RE. ? surely the point of the RE is to roll faster than the FR. as tall as both tires' knobs are when new, I doubt braking is a concern either way. same shoulder knobs.
double RE could make sense but I never loved the DHR2 as a front. I actually did like the DHF and when I encounter a bike with them (trading with a friend or riding a demo or rental), I can still run them.
I'm on Conti partially because I like the Kryptotal FR and RE, in the normal positions, a lot. But I especially like the grip vs wear/life of Conti soft. There is nothing close that I've tried.
It does with the Kr, and its not a small difference either. I spent 2ish years running the Kr F DH SS in the rear with an Argo DH SS in the front, 5 sets of tires in that span, its a great setup, there is a reason its been preferred for certain trail conditions on the WCDH scene, those conditions happen to be what I ride 75% of the year, blown up loose dust mixed with big granite rocks. Ended up going back to DHRII and Assegai, as good as the Conti's are they just dent have the same bite as the Maxx Grip, esp front and rear.
Everyone that I have turned onto that setup has loved it, especially the life that you can eek out of that rubber.
I actually don't feel that maxx grip has anything over Conti super soft, at least on the trails & conditions I've ridden both.
3CG definitely is more grippy than Conti soft. I likewise don't notice much difference between Conti soft and 3CT, except the Conti lasts 3-4x as long (not an exaggeration at all).
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