MTB tires? What do you run?

I've always been fond of Kenda tires for MTBing, but I want to see the pros and cons of what some of y'all use. I'm big into freeriding and downhill, so I'm looking for a tire that would be optimal for that type of riding.

Also, what do you think about tubeless tires?

 

I'm spinning Hutchinson Piranha 2.3 front and Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1 rear. But that's for mainly single track XC stuff. Cornering is awesome on this setup. I am spinnin an Intense System 2 tubeless setup as well. Not to keen on the whole tubeless thing yet. I guess because I haven't gotten proficient enough on replacing tubeless tires. It's a fkn mess.

 

depends on how wide of a tire you want/can clear. i've had good experiences with maxxis and continental. the maxxis minions are a gread DH tire. very soft compound that grabs everthing you ride over.

for a DH/FR style tire that is a little smaller/lighter and can even be used as a large cross country tire, i'd take a look at the continental trail kings. i'm racing on those tires right now, and they grab great and are strong enough to run at lower PSIs. i'm about 160 lbs, and run the trail kings at 25PSI up front and 30 in the back. that's for when i ride a FR/XC mix. for purely XC you can run them even lower and not roll them off the rim or pinch flat them (this is with tubes btw).

as far as tubeless goes, the advantage to them is that they have a thicker sidewall which allows you to run them at low PSIs. people will say that you should run them becasue they are lighter. this isn't really true. becasue of the thicker sidewall, they are about the same weight most of the time, if not heavier.

Edit: Just an fyi, i've run about 12 different kinds of tires, all of them had pros and cons....the two i spoke about are the only ones that didn't really have cons.

 

Changing the front isn't bad but sometimes the back tire really sucks. I've got a set of 26" Mt.Bike Chains for sale. $30.00 plus freight

 

I have several tires so I can change depending the riding I am doing (AM or FR/DH). My bike (Kona Coiler) came with Nokian NBT 2.3" GW, which was a great tire for me! They did great in almost ALL conditions, and would have bought them again if my store stocked them.
Currently, I have a 2.35" Kenda Nevegal on the front, and I am impressed with the results although they are very heavy. However, I would not suggest running Nevegal's for front and back.
When I know I'm riding mostly FR/DH parks, I have 3C, 2.5" Maxxis Minion DHF that I run front and back. I do not pedal when I'm at the local parks (Diablo, Hunter, Plattekill), so no need for DHR with more rolling resistance. However, they are EXCELLENT tires, and it is most definitely worth the weight. My next tire I would like to look at are the WTB Dissents. I was originally looking into them, but they were out of stock at the time since they were a brand new line.

And, I am not a fan of tubeless, specially for FR/DH. Tubes are easy to replace, and tubes are compatible to every tire and rim. I find that I would want to run low PSI with tubeless and I would end up slicing my tires apart within a short time. Just a person preference.

 

Most of my riding consists trail/x-country. Nothing requiring more than 5" of travel.

Tire setup:

2.1 Front - Kenda Blue Groove Nevegal Stik-e compound

2.1 Rear - Kenda Small Block8 Tubeless w/ Stans tire sealant.

 

I try to go as much as possible. Once they open during the week I'll be there every week hopefully. A lot of my riding buddies went off to college and never moved back for the summer.... So my FR/DH riding has been a little slow so far this season.

 

Nokian: Freddies Revenge. They RIP on the ice