Help! Need tire advice for Saturday race!

[chazpat]

I'm in the Rope Mill Dirty Duathlon on Saturday and just mounted a pair of Small Block 8s on my Superlight. Now they are predicting rain tomorrow, the day before the race. They are predicting about 1/2", possibly into the night. With the SB8's bad reputation for mud, they reportedly clump up and do not shed mud, I'm wondering if I should swap tires. This is my first pair of SB8s so I have no experience. I took off a Smoke and Dart. The rear Smoke is pretty warn on the center knobs, Dart isn't too bad. Also have some Nevegals but they are also pretty worn down the middle. And some WTB Velociraptors; they seem a little heavy so they may be wire bead but they probably have the least amount of tread wear. Got a lot going on tomorrow so I probably won't have the chance to buy anything new. The Nevegals are off a parts bike I bought and not sure where I got the Velociraptors but I have never ridden them.

I've ridden the trail a lot but not really right after rain. I do know of a couple of spots that can be muddy/slick climbs, though most of the trail I would think wouldn't be too bad as it is in a forest. I'm probably not going to be very competitive as I'm 48, this is my first race and my wife will take all my bikes away if I end up in the ER again. But I'm not all that slow either.

Any advice would be welcome!

[rsutton1223]

Small block 8's are great on dry but are going to spin in mud.

I would run the Nevegals as they are more of an all around tire. The Velociraptors would work pretty well too but I would imagine those are pretty heavy for racing.

[ssinga]

The Maxxis Ignitor should serve you well as an all around tire (especially for fall) and as a wet weather tire for the race. They should be easy to find at of of the Metro ATL shops. If you can handle the extra 60g I would recommend the EXO version.

Edit: The ADvantage would make a good cornering front tire with the ignitor out back.

[chazpat]

The Nevegals are mounted and I'm ready to go. Hoping it won't be too muddy but we've had a good bit of rain.

chaz

[rsutton1223]

How was it?

[chazpat]

Well, I was a bit disappointed in my time, I was a whole lot slower than when I did the course last weekend, but all in all it was good. Cold waiting around for the race to start but that was forgotten once we started. A good bit of sliding around, I went down a couple of times but nothing bad. I didn't have any problems with my rear tire spinning whereas some riders did. The new beginner trail that the run was on is really nice. More climbing than I expected and some nice views over the river.

chaz