Tyres for rocky terrain

[andio]

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on tyres.

I'm living in Ontario, Canada for a few months and have brought my MTB over. I have a 2013 Trek Fuel EX9.8 which is the last of the 26" Trek's and it's running Schwalbe Racing Ralph's.

The terrain here is rocks piled on rocks with more rocks. There's the occasional stretch of dirt/rotting leaves in between and small sections of slush and mud. The rocks are anywhere from football size to house size but the good thing is they are incredible grippy.

Not surprisingly my current tyres aren't up to the task - I've had a couple of flats and dinged a rim - so I'm looking to put something else on. Before randomly pick something to buy I thought I'd see if anyone could recommend something?

Thanks
Ando

 

[andio]

Oh I thought I should also mention the bontrager wheels I have pre-date the current trend of 25-30mm internal rim width and are maybe 21mm.

 

[Oddjob]

Raras or any Schwalbe will not last long in rocks.

My tip would be Maxxis DHF front and back in double down casing for lots of rocks, or a Shorty up front if there's a fair bit of mud and leaf litter.

I've also found the Vittoria tnt casing to be tough. So a Goma 26x2.4 front and back or a Morsa up front for more mud and leaf litter.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

 

[andio]

Thanks Oddjob.

 

[Jpez]

Just make sure you don’t buy a wide trail WT version with your rim size.
I agree the DHF up front is a great go to and a DHR2 rear is also excellent.

 

[andio]

I did have that in mind, thanks.

 

[ChrisJC]

Ralphs are pretty much useless for anything other than XC/smooth trail. Minion DHF and DHR2 as mentioned above would be my pick.

 

[andio]

Yeah that’s why I have them - for racing and riding daisy hill, Bayview, etc around Brisbane. I had no idea the terrain was going to be as rough and rocky as it is over here. I’ve ordered a pair of Minions today.

 

[rowdyflat]

Reasonably wide tyres w a strong sidewall obviously run tubeless about 25-28 psi.
Rocks cause burps , pinchflats and sidewall slashes mostly.
It depends on the shape of the rocks but tilted sedimentary standing upright is deadly eg Mt Loch , Atlas Mts Morocco.