Semi slick knobbly mix?

[Cyclist33]

Hello

After reading Sheldon Brown stuff, and on the advice of my local Dr Bike mechanic, I reversed the direction of my rear semi slick so that the knobs bite into the ground rather than carve through it. That's the theory anyway. I haven't tried it in practice yet... does it make a difference? All bikes I've seen in stores have their tires facing the same way on both front and rear...

I've also switched my front tire back to the Kenda Nevegal it came with, again based on some advice I read on a website that suggested the fat knobbly front would give better steering and pathfinding, while the slimmer semi slick rear would keep rolling resistance down. Does this actually work?

The thing looks a bit daft to me now with this enormous front end and a relatively skinny arse but has anyone else set up like this and can comment?

Thanks in advance
Stu

 

[ColinJ]

There's always a trade-off between rolling resistance and grip. I've got an absolutely huge (2.3 inch) knobbly rear tyre on my MTB and it feels really hard work on tarmac but give it a steep muddy climb and it can make the difference between riding and walking.

What do you mostly ride on? If it is hard-packed surfaces and tarmac then smaller tyres and semi-slick would be suitable. If you ride on lots of very rocky and/or muddy stuff then I'd go for bigger and knobblier tyres.

I preferred riding with a smaller rear tyre so I'll switch back to a 2.0 inch tyre when the current one wears out