Let's talk tires

[limewave]

I just brought home my new Superfly

I'm going to ride it for a few weeks first, but I'd like to get it set up as a "racing bike" and am going to go tubeless. I'm also looking at putting on some more aggressive tires.

The trails I ride have a lot of sand and tree roots. It's pretty rare I get to ride on hard-packed trails.

I'm looking at possibly doing Kenda Nevegal DTC 29x2.2 in the front and Kenda Slant Six 2.0 in the back.

The Nevegal is really sticky and grippy. The Slant Six has lower-profile knobs for faster rolling.

My goal is to be able to float over the sand and grip through the turns! This bike will be used 99% of the time on the trail. My other xc bike (Trek 800) I'm setting up to be used on trail, dirt roads, and bike paths.

Just an FYI: My bike with saddle and pedals is 27# (I have yet to take off the reflectors). By going tubeless and putting a new saddle on it I should be able to get it down to almost 26#.

[jessmarimba]

My new bike is tubeless!...but running tubes. I don't have an air compressor and don't know anything about tubeless.

[limewave]

My LBS said they could set me up with tubeless for about $50 (cost of materials). The benefit of tubeless is lighter weight and you can run your tires at a lower pressure--no worries of a pinched flat. And if you do happen to flat, you can throw a tube in there.

My Trek Fuel had tubeless rims but the tires were not set up for it. It was a pain in the katoosh to change the tire--because of the rims. It took 3 guys in the shop 45 minutes to change the tire.

The Trek Superfly has the tubeless ready wheelset, might as well go tubeless!

My biggest concern at this point is finding the right tire for my kind of riding.

[Aggie_Ama]

No one in Texas stays with tubes for long, I made my Epic tubeless before the day I picked it up and with my Industry Nine wheels built on Stan's rims it is even better than it was when I got it.. Of course when you race in cacti why would you? Nevegals are popular here for many riders but I haven't tried them. It is about a 10-15 minute job here but they do it a lot.

My preference is a beefier sidewall because we have lots of rocks here and cut sidewalls are a relatively common in our races. I went tubeless on my Fisher and never looked back! It is awesome if you have rims that won't burp them. I run PSI of about 25-26 here on tubeless 29er which is like butter on the rocks, my team captain runs as low as 19 which sounds crazy.

My tire preference is Maxxis, I run the Ignitor in the front which is a bit beefy and then the CrossMark in the back which is a lesser tread. They can be a little heavier but the confidence of not cutting a sidewall is what I need in a race. I think my full suspension 29er in a tiny size (15.5") is around 27 pounds.

[jessmarimba]

Maxxis Aspen & Ignitor here.

Sounds like I should take the tubes out soon

[Mama Coosa]

What tires came on the bike?

If they are the new Bontrager XR4's, you should give those a try. They are light years better than last year's Bonty tires. Check out some of the reviews on them if you can find them.