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Any Feedback on Maxxis Ardent or Icon

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
Depends on your conditions like most tires. If you live somewhere with traction/moisture they'd work great. Where I live I won't even use and ardent as a rear tire, but many of our 'XC' trails looks like the worst spots on a world cup dh track

Minion DHF F 2.3, Ardent 2.25 R seems like a combo that will roll pretty quick but actually work when its loose
 
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canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,188
19,155
Canaderp
I can't provide feedback on the 2.2 Ardent, but I've used the fatty mcphat 2.4 Ardent for the last few years on my trail bike. I'm afraid to recommend it due to @kidwoo 's wrath, but I personally didn't find anything particularly bad about the tire. Perhaps its due to the large volume, but over those few years of using them, I only got one flat. I used the DH casing 3C tires for a few years and then last year I used the single ply Maxxterra versions.

Haters will hate, but I also used 2.6 version of the Ardent on my old DH bike. Same story, only one flat (at Bromont on the rockz) and they worked okay.

Though I must say, going to the DHF on the downhill bike I do notice more grip with those than compared to the Ardent.

And now I've ditched them for Minion DHR 2's, but can't comment on the change due to not having ridden these new tires, yet.

I do believe @jstuhlman also has at least one Ardent. But, I'm not even sure how he rides that unridabru trail slaying machine.
 
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jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
16,622
12,911
Cackalacka du Nord
in general, ardents are great overall tires. if your trails lean more towards xc than gnar, maybe an ardent 2.3/2.4 up front and an ikon 2.2/2.3 rear would suit?
 

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
Currently running Kenda Nevegal DTC in 2.3, they are more tire than needed where I ride now. I was hoping for a 2.2 up front and a 1.95 in back although 1.95 is a thing of the past. I'm also thinking of dumping tubeless, where I lived before was humid all the time and swans never dried out, around here it too dry to get more than a few months and it's a bitch to clean up when dried.
 

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,259
8,765
Crawlorado
The Ardent was one of the worst tires I've ever used for a multitude of reasons. I tried it both up front and in the back. It lost its usefulness as a front tire when the side knobs wore off after like a month of riding. When moved out back it just didn't offer a ton of grip. Combine this with the weak sidewall that pinch flatted if I looked at it wrong and it's easy to see why I gave it the boot after a few months. While I greatly enjoyed the DHF/High Roller or Advantage combo the Maxxis sidewalls would blow out before the tire tread was gone. I switched to some Specialized tires and have had great luck with them ever since.
 

kickstand

Turbo Monkey
Sep 18, 2009
3,441
392
Fenton, MI
I've been running the 2.2ish ardent on the back of my trail bike for the last two seasons. Mostly hard pack, some sand/gravel, roots, etc. Have also ridden in some rockier locales Midwest/eastcoast and overall I like the ardent as a rear tire. Haven't tried it as a front.
 

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,838
6,145
Yakistan
Before I switched to the Goma, I ran 2.4 Ardents on my bikes, front tire only. I liked it. Didn't like it as a rear tire. 2.4 Goma is better than the 2.4 Ardent. I liked the predictability of it as a front tire but it wouldn't bust loose for me on command in the rear. This is on hardpack with loose gravel and baby heads in the trails.
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
They're not horrible
They kinda are though.

Maybe I've been spoiled by riding Minions+High Rollers exclusively on my bikes for years. When I bought a bike last fall that had Nevegals on it I decided to leave them on for a few rides to see if they were as bad as people around here say.

I was sliding way more than I normally do and once they break traction you are done. They were off the bike as soon as I could get my new tires into the shop. Although, my buddy needs a rear tire to trash so we're gonna trim out the intermediate nobs and see if they suck less than a worn out DHR.
 

DaveW

Space Monkey
Jul 2, 2001
11,160
2,685
The bunker at parliament
I've been running the 2.25 EXO ardent on the front of my oldschool XC bike for a couple of years now with an advantage rear tyre.
Works well for me on hardpack with rocks and roots that we have around Wellington.
If your more of an XC hard or XC aggressive I'd go with the 2.4 upfront though as it has a lot more grip than the 2.25.
I haven't played with the icon's on any of my bikes but a lot of the local XC racers lover them on hardpack.
 
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Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
OK. I selected the High Roller 3C EXO 2.3 and the Ikon 3C EXO 2.2 for the full squishy and a set of Adrent Race 3C EXO 2.2 for the hard tail. Bought them at jensonusa as they were marginally cheaper than from Maxxis direct,

They should be at my door this coming Monday.

I wonder which one I'll regret buying 2 years from now?
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
Like crabon, if you protect them from direct sunshine, they should give you two solid years of good ole parking lot posing. :nerd:
 
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canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,188
19,155
Canaderp
I hardly ever spend more than $50 US on a tire; they better last 2 years plus if I have made a mistake it will take me at least that long to admit it.
This is how I first obtained said Ardents... Way back when, there was a great time in history when the Canadian dollar was on par with your mighty American dollar. Jenson had a great sale of various 3c compound Ardents; they were $18 all in. I purchased enough tires to last two bikes for almost 5 years. I became one with the zen of the Ardent.

Now I'm back to spending $80-100 on a tire. :(
 

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
As much as you ride? Those things will be toast before August. NTTAWWT.
Knoby Nicks are arriving on the new bike... I heard those kill. But not the good kind of kill.

I feel confident in the High Roller and mounted it without stans, I mounted the Ikon with a tube. Will be mounting the the Ardents tonight for a ride tomorrow.
 

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
To be honest, you should probably just go for a Dart/Smoke combo. :D
$24.30 for both plus shipping, you can't get Panaracers that cheap anymore... I set the Kendas and an early 90s built wheel, 8 speed cassette and Panaracer Fire XC Pros in the alley on Sunday. They didn't get claimed until this afternoon, I guess the homeless are more discerning than I.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,558
24,181
media blackout
I moved on to other tires, it didn't do anything well, side knobs sucked big way, total suckage in grease and didn't last long. Slaughter GRID is IMHO much better and predictable.
i hadn't heard anything about them so i figured they were crap. thanks for confirming.