With so many mountain bike tire widths available today, riders can get pretty much exactly what they want for their local trails and preferred style of riding. Over the past several years we’ve seen riders and bike brands experiment with different widths to optimize handling, weight, rolling resistance, and durability, just to name a few factors. So is there a general consensus on what works best for most conditions?
A bit of context for my choice: I recently switched from full-sus to hardtail. On my full-sus I had 2.4″ front and rear, and I now have 2.6″ front and rear. I’m loving the lower pressures, slight smoothing effects, and great traction. I can also run a less aggressive tread with the larger tires (the bike came with 2.35″), and that makes for awesome rolling speed.