Maxxis
Ikon 29" x 2.6 3C/EXO/TR MTB Tire

I'm now running this tire on two of my bikes, and narrower version of the tire on a third intended for the Great Divide next year.

I find them to have excellent traction for the surfaces I encounter, with coastal clay & scree as well as the varied conditions of nighttime riding around on the Oregon coast. They have not had any issues with loss of traction, flats or much of anything else. I am running tubeless.

I'm a student of the Great Divide/Tour Divide. This is one of the three primary candidate tires mentioned by others for those rides, and is common among Tour Divide finishers. It is a solid, durable tire providing plenty of traction and tread intended for fast rolling on flats & pavement.

Recommended.

My 2019 Salsa Fargo came with 29x2.6 Ikons front & rear. I just completed a 180mi, mountainous tour on roads that were 2/3rds unpaved, and good dirt or rocky roads, often loose gravel, with a lengthy jeep track from hell thrown in for fun.

I had no problem with flats (running tubeless). More importantly, I felt quite confidant of the tires' handling & steering. In fact, on the first day, after climbing 2000ft, we descended 2500ft on dirt roads. I felt no hesitancy to go full speed as the tires were consistently responsive to my steering.

On the runout of that descent, on loose gravel, the width of the tires gave good float and I have as much control as I could hope on loose gravel.

My experience on this trip & for the year prior is that the tires are not "slow." They roll smoothly, esp on any sort of solid surface.

They are definitely lighter duty tires as compared to other mountain bike tires, with much small nubs. That is preferable for touring & road riding, but the trade off of course is that handling on rougher surfaces or trails is less. As the one prior review notes in a too-harsh judgement.

But if your goal is a good touring tire for rough surfaces this, this tire is a good choice. It has 120tpi, the 3C MaxxSpeed compound, EXO protection and is of course tubeless ready.

If recently hunted for a better alternative. There are MANY alternatives; I couldn't find a clearly better alternative for the type of touring I intend on this bike.

Very disappointing to order this tire again to replace the rear and have the direct comparison to be 5mm or so smaller in diameter and height than the older tire. What is the users guide for measuring tire sizes if the manufacturers are going to put a shrink on them? Wait for the 2.9 to come out so I can get the 2.6? Now I will have 2.4's that are molded 2.6. The older size was perfect. We put these on a MTB Tandem and the larger size was perfect.

Perfect tire for the rear of my wife's mountain bike. Light and fast.

Fast and light for XC only. Best for rear in my book

Fast and light for XC only. Best for rear in my book

Not enough side knob to use as front tire on anything but hero dirt. Bad on leaves, loose, loose over hard, and hard. Mud magnet, collects mud and doesn't let go.