Riding your bike through the winter means wet and slippery trails. Where grip is seriously compromised, moving to a mud-specific tyre will elevate your winter riding experience and boost traction due to the elevated tread pattern. However, in some cases, it's not as straightforward as simply fitting a mud spike onto your wheel as there many considerations to take into account. Read on for all the details on why you should consider upgrading to a mud tyre.

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What do I need to look for in a winter mountain bike tyre?

Winter and wet weather require tyres with vastly different attributes to those that are better suited to summer conditions. Generally, in the winter trails get wetter and softer so riders will need tyres with different tread patterns to suit these surfaces.

If you look at a brand’s range of tread patterns, it will start with semi-slick tyres with minimal tread, through to cross-country, trail and enduro/downhill. With mud tyres, the tread will get taller, and spikier and the knobs will be spaced further apart. For a winter tyre to provide more grip in wet conditions, taller knobs help dig into the trail, through the soft surface into the harder stuff underneath. Tyres suitable for winter riding also tend to sit on a wheel with a squarer profile, with its shoulder knobs being taller still to bite when riding off-camber sections.

2021 maxxis shorty gen 2 close.jpg, by Liam Mercer

But it’s not all about tread depth or knob height, however, because if the knobs are packed too closely together, mud will collect and cling between them. So companies space the pattern out wider to help mud clear as the tyre is rotating allowing for optimal traction.

Mud-specific tyres, often referred to as mud spikes, take knob height to another level to provide enough rubber to bite deep into the slop of overridden and exceptionally wet trails.

It’s not all about the mud spike

When riders think of winter tyres, the Maxxis Wet Scream and Continental Hydrotal will immediately come to mind. However, these tyres are excellent in a limited scenario – wet downhill racing.

During a downhill race, hundreds of riders take on the same course during a day and when it’s wet, that churns up the trail’s surface, making it sloppy and grip incredibly hard to come by. As more riders tackle this course, it gets even worse, take Danny Hart’s win at 2011 World Championship win at Champery for example. These tyres are designed to work in only the filthiest of conditions.

2022 Continental GravityLine Hydrotal.jpg, by Liam Mercer

But to us non-downhill racing amateurs, full-on mud spike tyres can be too much. They don’t roll very quickly, making peddling tougher than it needs to be, and unless you’re riding in 2011 Champery-like slop, you’ll spend a lot of time riding on the tips of a mud spike’s taller knobs, and not benefitting from the enhanced grip they can offer. And through sections of trail that are harder, the knobs can fold over themselves, resulting in very poor handling.

That’s where tyres such as Maxxis’ Shorty come in, which is a Wet Scream (although tweaked a little more) but with shorter knobs, hence the name. This tyre then works better in a greater range of conditions, where serious mud and drier, harder sections come into play with some riders even turning to the tyre for deep and dry dust.

Tyres like the Shorty, Schwalbe’s Magic Mary, Continental’s Argotal and WTB’s Verdict all provide a great middle ground between a mud spike and an all-round tyre. These provide great grip in very wet conditions, whilst being reliable over hard sections of trail, and even in the summer. Where tyres are very expensive, rubber such as this is an excellent choice for year-round riding.

Is wider better in the wet?

This is where an argument for a narrower tyre comes into play and is part of the reason why plus tyres struggled to take off. A fatter 2.6in tyre can skate over patches of thick mud, instead of cutting through and biting into the harder surface underneath. As such, available grip is minimised.

2020 Schwalbe Magic Mary top angle.jpg, by Liam Mercer

That’s why tyres such as the Maxxis Shorty are only available in 2.4in width, allowing the tyre to cut through soft bits of mud and grip.

Is a softer rubber compound better for winter MTB?

Over hard surfaces, a soft rubber compound produces more chemical grip, whereas the tread pattern is responsible for mechanical grip. On hard surfaces like rocks, roots and harder mud a soft rubber compound is excellent as it increases grip at the expense of increased wear and rolling resistance.

While there is an argument that a firmer compound will help dig into the ground better, a softer compound will provide more traction over wet roots and rocks or other surfaces where the tyre isn't able to bite. This is because soft compounds are often stickier, for lack of a better term. Because of this, you'll also find better versatility as a trail changed from a soft to hard surface. 

But with that in mind, a soft compound deforms more, especially with a tall tread pattern and that's where knobs can begin to roll if you're running a mud spike or similar. If you find yourself in such a situation, it's time to rethink your tyre choice.

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