Tires SUMITOMO or Maxxis

But its still a beefy maxxis tire. Im riding a dhr exo rear on my hardtail no insert and 18psi. Works great.

I run exo+ with no issues.

I run exo casing minions. No complaints.

Ridden both for XC racing and I have come to prefer the specialized tires over maxxis. I personally like to run ground control T5 upfront with fast track t5 in the rear as my base for my local trails and most race courses ( mid Atlantic area US) . If the course is hard pack and not super technical I’ll run fast track upfront with fast track or renegade in the rear. My I also found to get I got pinch flats more often on maxxis or side wall cuts through rock gardens. This is completely a personal preference but I’ve also felt more in control of the bike with specialized tires I mentioned

I have also ridden both. Like pretty much everyone else here said, it’s a matter of personal preference. I had a lot of problems with the 120 TPI Maxxis XC tires where I live because we have a lot of sharp rocks. I have been using the 60 TPI rekon race tires for the last couple of months and they have been great.

I ride a Maxxis Aspen up front and a Specialized Renegade in the back. Both are very fast rolling and I like the Aspen better than the Specialized Fast Track up front.

In my experience I have had way less flat tires switching from specialized to maxxis tires. Fast trak and ground controls were super unreliable for me. I’ve used maxxis rekon, ardent, ikon, and aspens. Will never go back to spec tires.

Falken’s parent company sumitomo makes the encounter AT with similar performance for much cheaper, it’s what I’m running currently and they’re great

I tried the Rekons. In the EXO casing. Lasted about 2 months before it succumbed to our thorny trails. I loved the speed but hated the grip on our dry loose over hard.

Drove my trd off-road for a week with them. Then it snowed and froze and i proceeded to slide almost into the curb on the other side of the road on the first turn out of my driveway going to work going in the morning.