Soldato
I'm about to get my first bike since 1997, prob going for an Orange Crush 27.5, decided to say sod it and treat myself.
Mountain Biking
- Thread starter Zefan
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Absolutely loved my Orange Crush! Bought it in 2016 and fell back in love with MTB! I recently sold my Orange Five and pur-chased a 2021 Santa Cruz Hightower! Only ridden it twice due to the weather 
noticed such a difference already! Roll on the summer.
noticed such a difference already! Roll on the summer.
Soldato
How long you had the Santa Cruz Ske?Absolutely loved my Orange Crush! Bought it in 2016 and fell back in love with MTB! I recently sold my Orange Five and pur-chased a 2021 Santa Cruz Hightower! Only ridden it twice due to the weather
Also just noticed you're in SW
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How long you had the Santa Cruz Ske?
Also just noticed you're in SW
I picked it up from Don Skenes like, first week of Jan? Ridden the Cafall once, then Pedalhounds and Wacko-Jacko last week. Should be out Sunday! I'll get a pic up shortly.
Soldato
Lovely! Had plenty of decent weather since then
I'm in Caerphilly if you're local and fancy a ride sometime! Haven't been to Cwmcarn for a while now!
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Lovely! Had plenty of decent weather since then
Different climate over there
Any recommendations for a bit of an all-rounder trail tubeless tyre combo? Looking at something I can throw on and use year round, accepting that some tyres might be better in some scenarios than others.
In terms of sizes, stock tyres are 2.3 front and 2.25 rear on 30mm rims and I doubt there's much room to expand. Certainly wouldn't be able to go beyond 2.4 and 2.35 respectively, and so I've been eyeing up the Schwalbe Magic Mary / Hans Dampf combo, as well as the Maxxis DHF/DHR II. Any other alternatives I haven't considered?
In terms of sizes, stock tyres are 2.3 front and 2.25 rear on 30mm rims and I doubt there's much room to expand. Certainly wouldn't be able to go beyond 2.4 and 2.35 respectively, and so I've been eyeing up the Schwalbe Magic Mary / Hans Dampf combo, as well as the Maxxis DHF/DHR II. Any other alternatives I haven't considered?
Soldato
Ive used magic mary and hans dampf for ages now (all year round)
works good for me ! - MM is a bit draggy on very smooth stuff but its magic (lol) on the rough stuff and corners
HD on back is good compromise for keeping the draggyness down
for an alternative:
my mate is the uk distributor for Onza Tyres - he says they are real good and although I haven't tried them personally, but they do look decent
Depends where you are riding, I like the DHF/DHRII combo. But if I was riding trail centres etc, I'd go for a harder combo. Maybe an aggressor on the rear or similar.
Good to get some feedback and about what I'd heard elsewhere that it's a solid UK all weather combo, cheers
So something more like DHR/Agg, reduce grip a bit both ends?
To be honest most of my riding is on proper singletrack in parks and woods nearby, the red routes are mostly all hardpack but some bits of the more xc blue routes are sloppy wet mess in the rain we've had recently, along with some very fun, typically wet rock descents
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Soldato
Im currently running a DHR2 on the rear and a Magic Mary on the front of my Jeffsy.
On the hardtail I have a mixture of:
Magic Mary (f) / Nobby Nic (r)
Nobby Nic (f) / Racing Ralph (r)
depending on what I'm riding.
Magic Mary (f) / Nobby Nic (r)
Nobby Nic (f) / Racing Ralph (r)
depending on what I'm riding.
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used to use DHF/DHR2 but they are to expensive and while exo was fine on the front needed DD on the rear and still don't think the sidewalls are tough enough, i'm in the lakes so a lot of rocky riding(also ride a lot of muddy/rooty enduro style stuff). switched to michelin wild enduros and wont be going back, much cheaper, have plenty of grip, wear better than the minions and are tougher. had one puncture in over 18 months and that was on a completly worn out tyre. about 75% of the people i ride with are on them now. use them all year round comparered to the minions when i would sometimes put a shorty on the front.
Will look at the Michelins, do seem a bit cheaper at around £10 less than Schwalbe and £15 or so cheaper than a set of Maxxis. Always worked well on the car too 
Continental Trail Kings seem to be a similar price too, if anyone ahs any experience? Also seem well reviewed.
Continental Trail Kings seem to be a similar price too, if anyone ahs any experience? Also seem well reviewed.
Soldato
they were not much good a few years back - not sure about now
had rubber queens before going Schwalbe and they were good grip but the nobbles used to split off on the corners very easily
Soldato
I had Conti Trail Kings a few years ago and they were fine until it got wet and slippy and they became useless. Bike 2 currently has Minion DHF/DHR and they are good, but draggy. Bike 1 has a High Roller on the front and Rekon Plus on the rear (it came with them) and really happy with the combo.
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Soldato
How much?
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its been a while since i last bought one but i paid just under £40 for one last time
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Oct 2005
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Just fitted my tannus armour and new tyres finally, what a giant PITA that was!!, better get no more punctures now!
I must have gone through a half bottle of fairy liquid!
I must have gone through a half bottle of fairy liquid!
Fitted my Wild Enduros last night too and found it easy enough, getting the tyre over the rim was hard going but it seated immediately when pumped and the bead was well seated when I had to remove one (valve loose, yup rookie error!). Don't have any liners though, expect that was the difficulty?