Wet Weather Tire Setups

I live and ride trails on Vancouver Island, so pretty similar wet, slippery and muddy trails to yourself. I've tried several tire combos over the last five years searching for grip on the greasy roots and ice-like slippery exposed basalt rock. Nevegals, Nobby Nics, Trail Kings, Hans Dampfs and Purgatories.

I've just switched my tires to my "intermediate" winter set up: 2.35" Hans Dampf TS on the front and Specialized 2.3" Purgatory Grid on the rear. When things get really wet I will run a 2.35" Magic Mary on the front and the Hans Dampf on the rear.

I usually leave the trusty High Roller 2 front/rear combo on for the wetter months as well, 2.4 with the EXO casing. It does pretty well when it gets sloppy out there. Specialized's Butcher Grid is really grippy too, maybe not quite as fast rolling but inspiring on off-camber wet roots and such - good choice up front (wears out pretty fast). Magic Mary is right up there in the confidence inspiring category as well.

For proper British MUD roots & crap i use a Michelin wild mud (magi x compound) & a spesh storm control on the rear. fantastic grip on the front & good grip & rolls well on the rear,I run both tubeless (29er)

I live in Seattle, have lived in Whistler.

Dual Magic Mary's are amazing.
If you're not a Schwalbe dude, dual Maxxis Shorty's would suffice as well.

For the Pacific Northwest, it's hard to beat 2x 2.4 High Roller 2s EXO tubeless on the trail bike and the DH casing tubeless as well on the DH bike in the wet months.

Not as predictable as Minion DHFs on hard pack (bike park) though.

Shortys on the DH bike when the dirt is soft and there is less rock around. Otherwise they skate even at low psi - could try siping in the middle blocks.

Still Minions.

How do you keep you bike clean when it's wet out? Not worth it IMO.

Well in Fruita it is impossible with your kind of dirt.

conti mountain king 2.2 or 2.4 or schwalbe magic mary. both hella balanced grip and slip ratio.

I've participated in a few cyclocross races in my time and they were good fun and inspired by a day as a spectator at a race in Oregon. There was this one bottom turn in a tight forest section of new growth pines that was basically an under mud berm, obviously under a huge pool of mud. Rider after rider, at least in the pro field, just charged into that thing like the mud was invisible. Their skinny tires would throw off waves of mud as they went. It was a thing of beauty. There was a thread a while back about how to ride in the mud. I think that technique is by far more important than tire see up. Perhaps as skinny as possible to cut through the muck and carve bottom. I know it sounds grousom to a trail builder.

We typically do not have too wet of a winter in East Tennessee. I just stay with my trusty Minion DHF tires front and rear on y trail bike and my DH bike.

Back and forth between Shorty's and DHR2's depending on the trail and conditions. I'd recommend a DHF or DHR2 to replace the back tire, since you already have a Minion on the front, Xyian.

I usually ride what I have on my bike--typically what I get for free from my friends when they buy new tires.

used to live in a place where I basically rode in mud all year long---different tires never seemed to make much difference.

Add to that my extreme laziness...too lazy to change tires unless required....and yeah...I'll ride a small block 8 in the mud if it's on there.

If you like me live in Sweden on the west coast where it rains quite a lot you just wash it of with the hose every other ride. If you dont think it is worth it you might as well sell the bike because there is mud 3/4 of the year. Now in winter we ride in the dark(only daylight 9:00-16:00) with the mud and sometimes when it is raining too. So most of the time the bike looks like a pile of mud. The only time you can wash it properly is in the wekeends when you are not at work when it's daylight.

I just changed to Spec Butcher/Purgatory and I am so far impressed. Lots of grip on slippery rocks and roots, we have lots of it here. Compared to NNN it is way better when its wet. They might not roll quite as good as NNN but for the autumn/winter/spring I prefer the grip over the rolling resistance.

Fat-B-Nimbles

For 27.5, I usually run 27f/30r for most conditions and trails/parks. Sometimes I'll go higher, but never lower. I can feel the tires rolling too much in corners if I do (but I'm a big dude).

i usually am not too peaky on the rear tire, just a tire that hooks good on the corners , on front i ride the mavic charge 2.4 all year, and when it's slippery in the winter i run a magic mary or a shorty