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

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.

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.