I had a Prairie 700 and now own a BF. I want a tire that is good on trails and mud and will help me powerslide better. Bear Claws? Mud Lites? HELP!!!!!!!!!!

 

I ran Mud Lights on my old DS650 and it did real good in the mud but I couldnt catch traction in loose or hard packed dirt for nothing. I also have heard of bad batches of mud lights and they are cracking between the outter and inner lugs so watch out for that.

 

i got 27" bearclaws, so far i am very happy with there performance over stock. i havent had a chance to test them out on a real ride yet (just around the yard and on the farm) but im goin to do that this upcoming sunday.

 

I've had 25" mudlites and 25" bearclaws on my P650...which I use for XC racing and casual trailriding (and occasional mud riding). Both are very good all around tires. I have to say that the mudlites are a lighter tire than the bearclaws when comparing the 25" size and the mudlites seem to handle deep mud a little better (but I haven't spent as much time in the deep mud yet with my bearclaws). But asside from those points, I like the bearclaws better for my type of riding/racing.

The bearclaws have 2 things I like that the mudlites don't have...1) great rim/ bead protection AND 2) the side lugs that stick out and give noticeable better traction when trying to turn the front wheels and climb up out of deep ruts on the trails...I especially noticed the benefits of the side lugs in a very muddy XC race about 1 week ago b/c I remember thinking at the time that the mudlites would never pull me out of the ruts like that! As far as bead protection goes, I dented/ruined a front c-series rim last January while using mudlites (which have no rim/bead protection) and also had a problem with mud/sand working its way into the bead/rim and causing a slow leak. I don't think I'll have these same problems with the bearclaws. On a side note, I believe the bearclaws might be a little cheaper.

Happy trails...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Thanks Mikey, that's good info. It's gonna be a hard choice. Do you feel your Prairie is faster on the Mud Lites or the Bear Claws? Or, which set provided the least amount of power loss?

 

Cam 650,
I can't say that I honestly felt any power loss with either tire as compared to stock tires (I only had my stock tires/rims on for 12 miles!). If you send me a PM with your e-mail, I'll send you a spreadsheet that I made with specs on different tires that I was interested in buying (like weight/ply rating/etc.). You'll see from the chart that mudlites are the lightest 25" tires that I considered buying. I like the Maxxix Bighorns, but they stopped making the bias ply and you can only find them now in radial version...which are way too heavy for my tastes.

If I had to recommend either mudlites or bearclaws, I guess it would all depend on what you are going to use them for. Both are good all around trail tires, but mudlites may have a slight edge in drag racing (b/c its lighter) and deep mud whereas bearclaws may have a slight edge for XC racing (b/c of side lugs) and rock climbing (b/c of rim/bead protection).

Happy trails...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]