Choosing Mountain Bike Tyres - Mountain Bike Zen
What size and type of tyre should I go for?
Often a neglected area by all vehicle owners, this is also a hugely important and significant choice for mountain bike riders and cheap rubbish tyres will make even the best of bikes utterly average to ride.
Fingers crossed, the only thing that should come into contact with the ground while riding is your tyre, as such this contact is responsible for a huge proportion of your ride experience, tyres can affect balance, speed, noise, stability, cornering, braking, confidence and safety.
There are two types of tyre - tubed and tubeless. A tubeless tyre requires no inner tube but will require sealant and high pressure to pump it up quickly and ensure the seal remains. They are more expensive, more difficult to change and more difficult to maintain - but you do save a little on inner tubes.
For tread you will generally want a big knobbly tyre, if you ride mostly on the road or tarmac you may want slicks, although whether you really want a mountain bike in the first place should be questionned. The thickness of tyre will depend upon where you ride and what sort of conditions you ride in. The thicker the tyre the more contact with the ground and the better the grip, although this can work against you in muddy conditions as although there is more surface contact there is less pressure and you are more inclined to skid. Some tread is more suited to dry conditions where the gaps in the tread will be closer, in wet and muddy conditions you want tread that clears the mud quickly and diverts the water away from the tyre.
For an all round tyre you want around 2.1-2.3" width and high knobbles with decent spacing in them. You can get tyres for mud, ice, rain, rocks, gravel, tarmac, etc. Tyres are of course easily swapped and you may want a couple of pairs (they make great christmas presents) so you can swap depending on the season or conditions you are riding in.
Adjusting your tyre pressure is also important, lower pressures will give you more grip and absorb more of the smaller bumps on rough terrain. Higher pressures will be faster and less sticky in the mud. Experiment.