• 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Posted: **Mon May 20, 2019 1:22 pm**

First foray into the 29" world. Building a Santa Cruz Chameleon. Got a set of Hope Pro4 XC wheels which seem to have quite a narrow rim. Looking at the Maxxis Ikon for the rear and the Ardent race at the front, both in the TR EXO 3C MaxxSpeed 120 version. Both available in 2.2 or 2.35. Bike-discount.de is the cheapest I can find them but the 2.2 Ikon is not in stock for a while. Is it worth waiting for the thinner tyre? I'm 6'5" and 90+ kg if that makes any difference and the bike is currently not rigid although may go that way eventually.

Posted: **Mon May 20, 2019 1:31 pm**

FWIW, the 2.35 Ikon is an excellent front tyre. Until it isn't. My normal combo is a 2.35 Ikon up front and a 2.2 Saguaro out back.

Still running the front Ikon I took on the TDR. I

Posted: **Mon May 20, 2019 1:37 pm**

I’ve asked a bunch of questions like this on here before and tried many rim/tyre combos.
My conclusion is that I have never regretted having more volume in my tyres (within reason) When running narrower tyres I have i often wished for either more (some) suspension, bigger tyres or smoother trails.
In truth the diff between 2.2and 2.35 is negligible in practice in both weight and advantage.
My opinion- larger

Posted: **Mon May 20, 2019 2:08 pm**

In truth the diff between 2.2and 2.35 is negligible in practice in both weight and advantage.

Indeed. And tyre sizes are so inconsistent in any case, even within the same brand.

For mountain biking, I'd go as will fit. For bikepacking then a skinny tyre still has some advantages.

Posted: **Mon May 20, 2019 5:35 pm**

yeha wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 1:22 pm First foray into the 29" world. Building a Santa Cruz Chameleon. Got a set of Hope Pro4 XC wheels which seem to have quite a narrow rim. Looking at the Maxxis Ikon for the rear and the Ardent race at the front, both in the TR EXO 3C MaxxSpeed 120 version. Both available in 2.2 or 2.35. Bike-discount.de is the cheapest I can find them but the 2.2 Ikon is not in stock for a while. Is it worth waiting for the thinner tyre? I'm 6'5" and 90+ kg if that makes any difference and the bike is currently not rigid although may go that way eventually.

Bought my last set of Ikons from Alltricks. It worked cheaper than Bike Discount, Bike Components, Bike24 or R2-bike to name a few. I'd go with 2.35 size but I don't ride 29" so it may be overkill?

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 7:11 am**

I’ve got a 2.2 ikon on the back and and 2.2 ardent race on my spearfish.

They roll very fast. The Ardent race has more side grip and is a bit less alarming as front tyre. I used to have the bigger ikon on the front of another bike and like Greg said, it’s great until it’s not - tends to let go a bit suddenly!

Don’t know how you feel about thin side walls - I find the non exo ones quite flimsy but haven’t ripped them....yet

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 7:40 am**

I'd not touch the non EXO ones for a front tyre. But, my Minion SS non EXO with the Silkworm protection has so far been excellent. Current rear tyre on my Spearfish and I can't fault it.

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2019 8:42 am**

I'm a Bonty tyre fan. Generally I use the XR series (the SE series is much heavier), bigger numbers mean more aggressive tread. Usually I'll have XR4/XR3 in winter and either XR2/XR1 or XR3/XR2 in summer or drier conditions. The XR2 is roughly equivalent in tread depth to a Maxxis Ikon.

The XR3 is available in 2.4" width and is visibly bigger than the 2.2". They don't do a 2.4" in the XR2 but do a 2.6".

I've a 2.6" Vittoria Mezcal as a front tyre and it's massive. It's also very fast rolling.

2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?

Re: 2.2 OR 2.35 29er tyres?