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Downhill/Freeride Advice

ezl_oo

Chimp
Jun 11, 2009
52
0
West New York, NJ
I went to my first downhill/freeride park yesterday at Diablo in NJ and I loved it. I have a 2009 Transition double and I fell so many times that my whole body is aching and is filled with bruises and scrapes. The double held up perfectly and took all the abuse it received from a noob. Never had 1 problem with it. I have a 4" fox suspension travel in the rear and Marzocchi 4X World cup forks (100mm travel) up front.

The only thing I need is more downhill/freeride oriented tires on it. Right now I have Kenda small blocks 2.3 on both the front and rears. I had a little problem not braking fast enough because of my tires not catching so well. So, I want a super grippy tire that has alot of stopping power and are light. Which tires would you guys suggest I run and what size and compound? I see that some people run bigger tire in the front and smaller in the rear (2.7 front and 2.5 rear). I don't really understand the whole bike tire size, compound and running different sizes? I will be using these tires only when I go to the freeride parks. I love my bike but if there is anything (besides longer front forks and getting another bike...lol) that you guys suggest that I do to my bike to improve on the downhill please shoot away. As I want to be able to prep my bike and get it ready when I'm going downhill riding and put it back to normal when street riding. Here is a pic of my machine.

 

norbar

KESSLER PROBLEM. Just cause
Jun 7, 2007
11,346
1,587
Warsaw :/
Get minion dhf 42a front and high roller 60a rear in 2.35'' sizes and you should be fine if the bike handles well what you throw at it. Though it's far from an FR/DH rig.
 

manhattanprjkt83

Rusty Trombone
Jul 10, 2003
9,644
1,214
Nilbog
for that bike i would get some Maxxis Advantage 2.4's, dont bastardize it and run some crazy heavy dh tires...keep it what it is, a light weight ripper...

 

sundaydoug

Monkey
Jun 8, 2009
609
271
Maxxis Minion DHF 3C's in 2.5 work well for me and I ride Diablo all the time. Kenda Nevegals are also very popular tires for FR/DH.
 

manhattanprjkt83

Rusty Trombone
Jul 10, 2003
9,644
1,214
Nilbog
for that bike i would get some Maxxis Advantage 2.4's, dont bastardize it and run some crazy heavy dh tires...keep it what it is, a light weight ripper...


BTW riding that bike only at diablo is like taking a knife to a gunfight, unless you are only riding the smoother trails like dominion, you really need some more travel to have a good solid day @ almost any park.
 

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
Specialized Clutch SX tires. The SX casing is 1.5 ply, so they will be lighter than a full-on DH tire with most the grip and durability.
 

RaID

Turbo Monkey
personally id chuck some 2.5 maxxis minions F (3C or 40A) on there, they will offer significantly more grip and youre only going to be using them as you say at the bike park so they wont weight you down during other rides.

You might also look into getting an adjustable travel front fork like a fox 36 talas or a lyrik.
That way you can have slightly more travel for the bike park days, with a slightly slacker head angle to stabilise the ride, while chucking the travel back down to 100mm for all the other riding. Those forks will also have better dampening than the 4x (from memory this fork doesnt have great dampening relatively speaking) you have at the moment.

Most of all enjoy the ride!