Personal favourite of all times was Racing Ralph but they tend not to live very long. I liked it as it was a solid "good" across the board tire. Now trying out a an Maxxis Ardent 2.4 EXO, very stable and fantastic traction on most surfaces but painfully slow on pavement, almost enough to make me cry...
Just curious if you are running tubeless and at what pressures? On my (lighter) aluminum 29HT I was running a 2.2 nano front and back. On a new steel El Mar, I have Ardent 2.4 EXO front and back. All on stan's flow rims, running about 20 up front and 25-28 out back.
The improvement in traction on fire roads and trails w/the 2.4 ardents is quite noticeable. They are also maybe 20-25% heavier.
The El Mar with the 2.4s seems to roll really well compared to the lighter bike with demonstrated fast rolling nanos. Maybe a hair slower, but nowhere near the drag I have with Purgatory/Captain Control front-to-back on a full suspension bike for trail use.
For my application, the trade-off is worth it to me - and I am thinking of trying to get 2.4s onto the aluminum bike when it is time to re-tire. The ride with the big 2.4 in back at 25psi is quite pleasing.
One thing I discovered is that there is now a tubeless-ready 2.4 EXO 29 Ardent in addition to the standard one, which seems to be dual-compound. I have that one on front, and a standard on rear. A lot of my rides have paved segments between home and mountains, so I will see how long they last.
I will say that there is absolutely no comparison in terms of comfort and handling between tubed tires and typical pressures and what I've come to run now.
