Tires whats the hot ticket lately?

Years ago everyone who raced the NETRA hare scrambles was running a certain Dunlop intermediate rear tire and I can't remember what front tire. I used the Dunlop, irc vulcanduro, and the trellborg rear tires. I'm interested in what's the hot ticket tire wise today?

Front 300-21"??

Rear 130/140-18"??

Rear 500/510-17"??

What's everyone who races using?

I just picked up a IRC M5B 500-18 but the 430 cr will get this one. The 250 wr will get the 130-17" maxxis m68. I'm stuck on what front tire to go with? Intermediate/soft terrain?

Pirelli MT-16, there is no better tire for general off road use, period. I use it on every bike I have, modern or vintage.

The only bikes I dont use the MT-16 rear are those with 17" rear wheels, in that case I use the IRC VE33.

Michelin S12

Michelin S12's are good but for pure performance I prefer the MS3 (21&18).

imported chinese tires i use them on all my sons bikes so I can keep up.

metzeler unicross, very versatile, long wear. veeerrryy predictable. about the same tread as the pirelli mt16 everyone likes.
ive had a michelin s12 on the front of my 88 250 for a loooong time. doesnt seem to wear and hooks up great, never slides.

a great feature of the uni and mt16 is that they really look good on vintage bikes. they also seem to roost on decel alot, which i guess means they clean out well. at least im told that theres always chunks flying out of the uni, whatever bike they are on, off or on the gas. cant be a bad thing, lol....

I could catch up to my son at will at first. Once he learned how to ride good he became faster and faster in the woods. I no longer try to keep up with him. But his repeat or good karma is coming his way too. His son has the Suzuki jr50 with training wheels soon to come off. This little guy once he learns at his own pace will be hard to keep up with. He's only 4yo now. I hope I live long enough to see him rip with a kx80 or kx80.

so what tires are you going to get?

We had a wide spaced apart knobby on the 85 cr 125 and the only problem it would roost two and three inch rocks. Ouch if you were following.

I need three new front tires and one new rear one. Plus rim locks and heavy duty tubes.
I have no clue why some remove the rim locks.

probably thought it made tires too hard to change and they never rode hard enough to make em slip. the 84 i bought had no locks either, but had some old tenmaster tires on it.

This Thread is of great interest to me as I'm lacing up my 84 WR Rims and getting ready to purchase Tires as we speak ! My 84 also did not have any Rim Locks and it still had the original tires on it so that's the way it left the factory. However it does have Steel Spikes that are driven into the Rims to work as Rim Locks. I have never seen this before. I had the Rims Striped of the Anodizing and then worked out most of the Scrapes and Dents. When I took them back to have them Anodized again I was told that the Steel Rim Locks would blow out the Aluminum of the Rims when the Anodizing process was done. Since I had nothing to loose I just had them re do them anyway. The Steel is what lost out in the process, not the Aluminum. For the most part they are gone. Normal Rim Locks will be going back in, the Holes are all ready there.

It seems to me the most popular Tires for MX are the Michelin and the Dunlop. The Michelin M12's S12's seem to be the Tire that is the Standard that everything else is compared to. The Dunlop have some new Models out that I have not herd any feed back about yet. I used the Pirelli Tires on my 430 that I have never ridden and I think they are the best looking tire.

i know im preaching but you will not be disappointed with the metz unicross. i have never run the pirelli but it looks very close to the uni, altho i know compound makes a big difference as well. those are probably the two rears i would go with at the moment. really impressed with how the uni handled the 360 all summer.

i don't think any of my huskys ever had rim locks always bead pins never got one with an SEM ignition or shocks that were not Ohlens just lucky i guess i'v got a 90/90 GT 216AA and a IRC VE33 that i'm sure will die as its been on there for 25 years then it'll be a GT 257 or Kenda K 787 Equilibrium

i would not call getting a wheel with the pins lucky...those suck!!
never getting the sem maybe....

FYI, the GT 257 is a very soft tire. In dry conditions it'll be gone in no time.

softer than a regular trials tire??? it dose get dry here an even the hard stuff has a layer of loose gravel trials tires are very common here I/T IH/T are the normal knobby in these parts you see quite a few vee rubber tacky tires and kenda [i think] GNCC STICKY SOMO is one big quarry youtube chadwick if you wana see it tell me what you think

The rear rims have two rim locks. The front rims have one. I'm installing both rear rim locks. I figure when I try to turn the earth they better be installed.lol

The rim pins are for ISDE bikes where you have to do tire changes in 2 minutes. The tire, as long as it is inflated, will NOT spin on a rim with the pins. Any time I can I remove rim locks and use rim pins. In the past for rims that did not come with the holes for the pins, I have drilled the rim and put sheet metal screws in them. I also take a chisel and make the serrations on the inside lip of the rim much more aggressive to help hold the tire.

Metzler has been owned by Pirelli for about 15-20 years now, the knobby tires for both Pirelli and Metzler are made in the same tire factory in Brazil. The Metzler Unicross is similar to the Pirelli MT16 but the knobs are much taller on the MT16, and the one size the Unicross rear is available in is not really big enough for an open class bike.

There is not a more versatile tire than the MT16, especially the front. It is excellent in everything from bottomless mud and sand to blue groove hard pack. There may be very narrow use tires that might beat it in that specific narrow type of terrain, but nothing can beat it overall.