Yep Forekaster front and Rear is a good combo for me. I’m trying Forekaster F/Reckon Race R just now and there is no traction in the rear through muddy sections.
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Arden Race is good for MN, but you might like a little wider tire. Maxxis Rekon’s, Rocket Ron’s or Ray/Ralph all work fine. I run Booster Pro’s (2.40). If you go wide, make sure your frame and rims are compatible. If you ride the ironrange trails you will want protected sidewalls, and/or inserts.
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Been running Hutchinson Skeleton rear, Kraken front this race season…so far I love them…fast and loads of grip. Used to run a rocket ron rear and knobby nic front…the hutchinson combo is superior.
After the last ACC pod, I searched up the Kenda Rush. Low center knob height.
Karma 2 is maybe sim to rocket ron. Both look good.
Super low volume 
I saw rain in the forecast and it’s raining on the course where I’m racing tomorrow and last time this happened, it got quite muddy in spots, so I picked up a Ground Control 2.35 for the front, just to have some extra insurance.
It’s a nice profile actually. Meaty but short. Interested to see how it goes. I moved the Fast Track to the rear to replace the Renegade I had there.
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Does anyone know if a partially worn or even 3/4 worn mtb tire is FASTER than a new or minimally worn tire? Seems all the hairs and sharp knobs on a brand new tire add some rolling resistance.
This is if traction/cornering and braking traction aren’t really a factor. Mostly dirt road.
Is there a point where it flips and the worn tire becomes slower? Or if you can ride the thing and maintain control, then it’s gonna be faster all the way until there’s nothing but casing and threads left?
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Just got my Mach4SL built up and decided to put Ikons front and rear. 2.35s
So far I’ve been happy. The trails at the house are mostly hard pack or just loose over, nothing crazy muddy.
Hump
So the theoretical benefits of a worn tire would be less traction/friction and a smoother/flatter contact patch. Also, as the tire is worn it becomes marginally lighter as rubber is worn away. If I were to take an educated guess, in an ideal world on an ideal surface then possibly a worn tire would be fractionally faster.
However, outside of a lightly used tire, as the tire is worn the rubber is stretched and the sidewalls become less supportive. So the tire may eventually no longer behaving as intentioned and the contact patch may become less than ideal. So on a straight gravel road possibly their are some extremely minor improvements in rolling resistance (as long as the side knobs don’t make contact), but those advantages would be quickly lost on a trail and in turns. So aside from having less traction on a trail, a worn tire could be flexing and moving too much that it becomes actually slower rather than faster.
Rather than analyzing the benefits of a worn tire, the lesson here is choosing a proper tire for your terrain/trail. IMHO, a new proper tire is better/faster than a worn less than ideal tire.
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Ah, didn’t think about the side/cornering knobs making contact or the sidewall characteristics changing. Good points.
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Update on the Ground Control:
I actually really liked this tire a lot. I had a race where it started to rain/hail half way through, with some sandy loose soil that got progressively more chewed up as the race went on and this tire was pretty confidence inspiring in the front.
I was limited in selection at the shop since the tire swap was a last minute call, so I had to buy the Grid version which is a bit chonky weight wise.
I could see myself running these for any more technical race or just as a fast rolling trail tire.
Ran it with a Fast Trak in the rear and it was a good setup. A bit slow but I was never worried about traction.
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Did you use T5 or T7? asking for both tires.
The word around here is that T5 is a bit lacking in wet, but T7 works fine
I’ve been running the Vittoria Mezcals on my Hardtail for ~2.5 years now without a single issue. They’re relatively fast rolling and have pretty good grip for an ‘XC’ tire. I use the TNT version (so their Trail version) and I don’t think I’ve had a single flat on them. Also, I weight in the low 180s so not a lightweight.
The Syerra’s look interesting but I bet they’re a hair slower rolling than the Mezcals
For MTB, the biggest difference of tubes vs tubeless isn’t going to be the weight or the tube’s friction (though that’s probably not insignificant) it’s going to be that tubeless will allow you to run much lower pressure while not pinch flatting on every rock. At pressures in the 20s (or lower) each PSI is a pretty big percentage so if going tubeless lets you drop 5 or so PSI then you’ll get wayy more grip and comfort.
My bike came with stock Ground Control front & Rear in the T5 rubber. They got plenty of grip on hard pack. Tried them the day after some light rainfall: I found the grip to be terrible on wet rocks & root.
The Ground Control was T7 in the front
Fast Trak was T5 in the rear
Slight but noticeable traction difference between the two
That’s my take… it gets faster and faster ‘till there is nothing left but the lack of grip and flats will become an issue far sooner. As the casing gets more and more flexible how can it not?
Joe
I’ll have hard data in a few weeks on this
Joe
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How do you plan to measure things like cornering grip or pinch flat protection?
Pinch flat protection is gonna be tough to measure but I’m planning on running the same pressure as with tubes, 20 rear, 18 front. I’m at 200# geared up and the bike weigh 33#. Not sure if I can go lower, I get that tire rolling sensation in the harder corners if I go lower than 20 in the back.
I’m running a constant average power on a 14 minutes loop called Twister so if cornering makes a difference I might be able to see it.
I don’t always get repeatable results that I trust but we’ll see.
Joe