Tire choice can be the difference between frustration, enjoyment, or through-the-roof stoke on any mountain bike ride. With a myriad of tread patterns and casings available for every condition you’ll ever ride through, how do you ensure your tires aren’t holding you back from maximum trail fun?
If you haven’t read our blog post on front and rear tire combinations, give it a look. It presents a quick overview of how tires are expected to perform and offers several pairings we like for all around use.
For this installment of our tire guide series, we focus on combinations that work for hardpack conditions. Generally, firm dirt calls for short, or at least ramped knobs. This minimizes rolling resistance, and reduces squirming, as taller knobs won’t be able to dig into the hard earth.
Different disciplines will also call for different hardpack tread combos. Cross-Country racers can often get away with the same minimal-tread tire front and rear as decreasing rolling resistance is more important than any other factor. Traditionally, front tires place an emphasis on cornering control and traction in turns, which sacrifices rolling speed.
Trail/All-Mountain/Enduro riders require higher levels of cornering traction, so front tires with stouter, grippier knobs are acceptable, but still stop short of aggressive knobs designed to dig into softer soil.
Finally, since downhill racers rarely encounter true hardpack conditions over an entire track, tread designs have to be a bit more versatile. Knobs must be aggressive enough to grab softer dirt, but adequately ramped for low rolling resistance, while being stable enough for control in high-speed corners.
Cross-Country
- Choose the thinnest casing for both tires
- Choose widths from 1.9″ to 2.1″
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Front |
Rear |
Trail/All-Mountain/Enduro
- Usually, this style of tire would require a medium-reinforcement casing, but for true hardpack conditions without rocks, the extra weight isn’t necessary, although higher pressure will be required
- Choose widths around 2.3″
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Front |
Rear |
Downhill
- Choose EVO (Schwalbe) or EXO (Maxxis) casings for lighter weight
- Super Gravity (Schwalbe) or 2-Ply DH (Maxxis) casings are usually not necessary for true hard packed dirt
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Front |
Rear |
