Is this the MOST Fun MTB Tyre Combo? - Schwalbe Wicked Will & Racing Ray Review

[@solobellimino2356]

Shoot I use my wicked wills for mild dh. I love those tires Ray and Ralph on my ssr

[@olafmoosmann2390]

Many thanks for the great review. I ordered also the wicked will and am looking forward to ride with it.

[@goingdowncountry]

Thank you! Good choice! Hope you will like it!

[@WilliamBeaver-tb9nt]

I'm having a blast with my Kenda sport nevegal 29 2 20 tires on my hard tail.

[@goingdowncountry]

Hey, great! Kenda is not very common in Croatia, so I no chance of testing them out.

[@WilliamBeaver-tb9nt]

@goingdowncountry they're great tires

[@vanw1554]

Great review! This will be my next combo for my 120/120 bike, replacing my current Rekon front and rear tires.

[@goingdowncountry]

Thanks! This should be faster with equal or even better grip.

[@knitterfreiyoutube]

With the Racing Ralph tire, the self-cleaning properties in wet mud are not quite as optimal, but the response when pedaling hard in dry conditions is better, in my opinion.

[@goingdowncountry]

I haven't tried the Racing Ralph, but I agree entirely. The thread pattern suggests that it's faster in the dry.

[@Zyzzyx42]

The WW came stock on my Scott Spark and I've been quite pleased with it for the last year+. They'll probably make it thru the winter, but I'm already starting to obsess over tire choices. I don't ride very much chunk or tech, so something faster rolling has been in my mind, been looking at a Ron/Ralph combo. But also realize the WW Superground Speedgrip should be better than the WW ='Performance' OEM casing and rubber that is stock. But I had not considered mixing the two. And while living in the high desert I don't see much mud (aside from a few weeks of light snow in the winter), I've not been thrilled looking at the tight paddles of the Ralph for the rear. Putting the Ray back there seems to make some good sense. Thanks for helping me both settle and confuse my choices. ;)

[@goingdowncountry]

I haven’t tried the OEM Performance Shwalbes, but from what I’ve heard, the top of the line ones are much better. Glad to help you (or not 😅). Ray Ralph seems as a good speedy combo for you, Ron is more for the wet and muddy type of soil and trails in my opinion.

[@farhadkabiri9240]

1.Great review in English. 2. Can you elaborate what is the rim width on your bike and how will it affect the performance if that is changed?

[@goingdowncountry]

Thank you! The rim width on those rims is 30 mm internal. On my other set the widths are 33/29, however I haven’t used the same tyres to draw a clear conclusion. Before I’ve bought those two wheel sets, the default that came with my bike was 22 mm internal, and I didn’t like those at all. For modern tyres that are at least 2.35 this was to narrow, making the tyre very round and unpredictable. I think that everything from 27 to 30 is fine for XC, and 30-35 for trail/enduro, or bikes with better clearance.

[@cosminandrei6456]

My girlfriend has been running wicked wills both front and back (came stock on her scott spark). The 'magic' happens on the front wheel : she's got one wi wi 2.4 in addix soft super race. I thought I'd try this one on my front wheel too (i'm riding a transition spur) and it feels great. I paired it with an older rocket ron 2.25 speed on the back which i had laying around and wow! the bike is really sharp and snappy with this combo. (the ro ro is only 620gr)

[@goingdowncountry]

I have been running the same (as you) WW/RoRo combo last year, it was blazing fast! But I have snake bitten the RoRo, and thought according to weight and same casing the RRay should be tougher but equally good rolling. But I can feel the approx. 120 more grams on the uphills. Your Spur should be similarly behaving to my heavily modified Element. 😊

[@cosminandrei6456]

@@goingdowncountry yeah, I'm a light guy . I can get away with flimsier tires :)) runnning these on some 1400gr custom carbon wheels

[@josericobaeza3270]

Muchas gracias por su vídeo !!! Me va a ayudar a salir de dudas sobre el nuevo combo que le pondré a mi bike , venía teniendo muchas dudas sobre cuál poner, ahora mismo tengo fast track 2:35 trasera y ground control 2:35 delante la verdad es que no funciona mal pero quería probar algo diferente y me surgieron dudas de que cubiertas poner maxxis continental etc pero tu vídeo me encanta y me ha sacado de dudas. Gracias y saludos espero acertar Por cierto corro con 140 y 130 terreno mixto y seco suelo hacer down contry y trail !!! Y busco algo que no pese mucho ya que tengo tramos largos de asfalto antes de meterme en las sendas trialeras y demás. Saludos

[@goingdowncountry]

Thank you! Glad it helped you to get an idea for new tyres. I also plan to try Ground COntrol/Fast Trak combo, I liked two Fast Traks, but on the front, It's a bit sketchy when it's really wet.

[@josericobaeza3270]

@@goingdowncountryentonces recomienda el cambio de este combo de Specialiced que montó al que usted aconseja !!! Ando con dudas !! O cualquier otro consejo de otros combos sería de agradecer. Saludos

[@goingdowncountry]

@@josericobaeza3270 I still need to try the Specialized combo (Ground COntrol/Fast Trak). Fast Trak / Fast Trak is faster than WW/RR, however the grip, cornering and breaking is nowhere near the Schwalbe combo. Fast Trak / Fast Trak, in my opinion, only for bone dry singlketrack without loose over hard, or rocks, since the GRID casing is lighter than the Super ground on the Schwalbe.

[@josericobaeza3270]

Gracias por su ayuda !! Voy a ver si consigo decirme

[@MaquinasDePalomitas]

Grea great video, seen about 3 times already.

[@goingdowncountry]

Awesome, thank you! 😃

[@MaquinasDePalomitas]

@@goingdowncountry I couldn't decide between the Forekaster and the Wicked will for a front tire (for a marathon race). I already have lots of Maxxis so decided to try something new. Your video was very helpful, specially the bonus tips, teaching about threat patterns (I run a Dissector front right now and keep washing out). So much useful information in a quick video. I made sure to order the Super Ground w/the SpeedGrip.

[@goingdowncountry]

IMHO the new Forekaster (the 2.4 one) should be somewhat comparable with the Nobby Nic, maybe faster rolling due the slight ramping, but also it’s 940 g according to the R2 bike scale. Looking at other reviews, seldom they mention the tread pattern and no one explained how it affects the ride, that’s why I thought I could help some people with what I’ve experienced over the past three years.

[@josericobaeza3270]

Muchas gracias por su vídeo !!! Me va a ayudar a salir de dudas sobre el nuevo combo que le pondré a mi bike , venía teniendo muchas dudas sobre cuál poner, ahora mismo tengo fast track 2:35 trasera y ground control 2:35 delante la verdad es que no funciona mal pero quería probar algo diferente y me surgieron dudas de que cubiertas poner maxxis continental etc pero tu vídeo me encanta y me ha sacado de dudas. Gracias y saludos espero acertar

[@SzymonWawrzyniak]

Can you compare this combo to Nobby Nic + Wicked Will in terms of rolling resistance?

[@goingdowncountry]

Hey, the Nic/Will combo is definitely slower rolling, especially in very muddy or uphill scenarios, you can "feel" the Will being not as good rolling as the Ray. I need to point out, the Nic on the front was soft compound, not speedgrip, as all the others tyres mentioned in my comparison, which also can have some affect on the rolling resistance. Although it may seems weird, I do somehow prefer the Will as front tyre, with something faster on the back, for my type of ridding, with my particular bike, keeping in mind I have a heavier wheelset with Conti Kryptotal/Xynotal for gravity style trails. Hope this helps. 😃

[@IvanPrskalo]

Dobra recenzija. Ja sam do sada Wicked Will vozio isključivo kao zadnju gumu. Razmišljao sam o tome, ali sada ću je i isprobati naprijed. Doduše, na mom biciklu je to minimum za trakciju jer je 170/140 i to 29/27.5 mullet.. Sada sastavljam nešto što će imati kraći hod, 140/130 pa će WW naprijed, ali još uvijek Racing ništa ne mogu prihvatiti za nazad. Možda bude neki Forekaster, on mi ima malo veće (više) čepiće...

[@goingdowncountry]

Hvala ti! za oboje kaj spominješ je možda premalo WW za naprijed, osim po full suhom vremenu i neke "plave" flow staze. Za taj 170/140 Kryptotal/Xynotal bez razmišljanja. A za 140/130 možeš WW/RR za suho, i ako misliš dosta pedalirat, ako si više na žici ili shuttleu, po meni čak dva Nobby Nica ili Nobby Nic i WW (ako ideš na Schwalbe) ili Forekaster novi i Rekon ako želiš Maxis. Po meni bi taj novi Forekaster bio nešto u stilu Nobby Nica, nisam ga probao, ali to mi je jedina interesanta Maxis guma. :D

[@IvanPrskalo]

@@goingdowncountry te nive Conti gume moram što prije nabaviti. Svi ih toliko hvale da se ne mogu obraniti. Nisam neki fan Maxxisa, u stvari jedino Aggressor i DHR su mi kod njih dobre gume. Preferiram Big Betty / Magic Mary za žičare i bike park... Ali kako nisam tu često koliko bih želio, onda je nazad upravo W.Will, a naprijed se igram, nema šta nisam probao osim eto Kryptotala... Npr. Znam da nije više u modi, ali meni je i Hans Dampf dobar. I Noby nic..

[@goingdowncountry]

Super gume su novi Conti. Čak u trail casingu nisu preteške (1040g) za grip koji nude.

[@karlojakupek]

Great review, thank you! What tire pressures did you run in the races? 🙂

[@goingdowncountry]

Thanks, mate! 19/20 PSI front WW, 23-25 back RR. Please don't ask me for bar value, it's easier to remember PSI values. 😆 Interestingly, I do run almost as high pressure in the Kryptotal/Xynotal, both in trail casing, on my Alu wheels, which I used when we met on Sljeme last week. 🤓

[@MaquinasDePalomitas]

It'd bee cool if you could cover tire/rim width compatibility. My rims are 35mm inner width and as I get more and more into XC I want thinner and thinner tires that roll fast but still grip. As far as I know Maxxis is the only one that has Wide Trail optimized tires, but how much of that really matters? How far can you stray? Thanks again.

[@goingdowncountry]

Good idea! Those carbon wheels covered here are 30 mm internal, and I never had problems with the tyres, 2.25, 2.35, and 2.4; all were fine. On my alloy wheelset (33 mm front, 29 mm rear), I've got 2.4 Conti Kryptotal / Xynotal, and they are also fine. In my colleagues' and my experience, 2.25 is the narrowest I would use on 30 mm rims, as the tyre gets squared.