XC Racing Tires

[smeulebroe]

What kind of tires do you recommend for XC Racing? Should I go for a pair of all around tires or buy mud tires, hard pack tires etc.... Give me a little direction before I slap the cash down. Thanks :D

[SickBoy]

I'd recommend a set of mud-specific tires and then a set of all arounders that maybe lean towards the fast side (vs the knobby side).

I've got an entire drawer full of tires though.... my problem now is that too many of them are getting too worn down.

[Standard]

I wish I had the money to buy condition-specific tires for everything...

but I don't, so here's my suggestion :D

On my XC bike I'm running Conti Explorer Pro's. They shed mud good and get traction almost anywhere. Can't really think of a situation where I didn't have bad traction..

[SickBoy]

My big thing is that with as much mud racing as we do in Minnesota, good mud tires can really make a difference.

In fact... I missed my start time out at Alpine Valley for the NCS race last summer and basically had to make up like 5 mins.... so obviously I was going nuts in the woods trying to make up time. A lot of guys made comments to me that it looked like my tires (I had the mudders on that day) were hooking up pretty well. They were... ( I run specialized Extremes and Fire Mud Pro's, both work really well)

so the moral of the story is that I personally think mud tires are worth the investment. even though I only use them a few times a year I think they are worth their weight in gold for those times that you really do need them.