My Experiences with some of the tires mentioned...
I recently moved to Prescott AZ and ride a lot on phoenix-like trails (in addition to the pine forest duff trails here). My main goal in a tire is to maintain traction up steep, loose trails without adding too much rotational weight. I should note that, while I don't have many huckster skills, I am pretty good at maintaining that fragile balance of front/rear weighting. I agree with what others have said about working on technique, because it is the single biggest factor in making it up hard stuff, but once you are 95% skilled at slippy climbing, the next biggest factor is your rear tire. (followed by rear suspension, bar ends and frame geometry). With that in mind, here are my somewhat objective views of three tires I have tried here.
I started out with my east coast fave XC tire: the 2.1 Fire XC pro (127tpi). It performed ok, but on the loose stuff, its traction was a limiting factor.
Then I asked the locals what they ran. Wierwolf was the predominant tire of choice. I got a set of 2.1s, ran the rear reversed (this is key for climbing traction) and it was a noticable improvement. After 30+ rides in them, they are even better than new.
I have stans rims and am slowly prodding myself towards the goopy notubes thing. Unfortunately, WTB tires (i.e. my newly beloved weirwolfs) are a no go with Stans (if you follow their reccomend, which I will). So, after much searching, I bit the bullet and paid retail (!) for Kenda Nevegal and Blue Grooves. I am on a bus. trip so I don't remember which was front/back, but the rear one was the Stick-E tread. These tires were another step up from the Weirwolfs - though not as big a step as Fires to Weirwolfs. True to the name of their rubber, they stuck to everything. The big problem is that, after 10 rides (!!) they have worn so much that the traction is signifigantly reduced. Obviously, the Stick-E rubber was not designed with longevity in mind (they have a different tread for that), but 10 fricking rides? That is way too quick wearing for me. Yes, my ride has some pavement, but only about 1 mile. The Weirwolfs have been through 3x as much riding and are right at the sweet spot.
So where does this leave me? Well, I might try the longer lasting rubber versions of the BG/Nevegal if I can find 'em at a price less than retail. I am also looking at the Specialized Roll X pros. In the meantime, I am back to my Weirwolfs and wondering if this Stans thing is really worth dealing with the extremely limited tire choices...
