Ask Pinkbike - Desert Tires, Drivetrain Upgrades, BoXXer Dial Dilemma

 Soil penetration, key word...

 MTBLegend92 (I like the reserved low-key approach to your choice of moniker), I recommend that if you wish to offer an alternative viewpoint that you at least include a) alternatives to the advice being offered with b) summary of the reasons for your advice; such as say "I have found that after 6 months on the the 2.35 Contischwaxxis Sandblaster at 30psi on the trails around San Bernacanyondreas, I have achieved really good cornering grip compared to....", etch etc.

Otherwise you may come across as nothing more than a reactionary loudmouth, and you wouldn't want that would you(?)

 The post above was a response to an earlier post that's now below threshold- the page messed up and had 3 reply boxes displayed, I guess I picked the wrong one.

I wasn't trying to offer an alternative tire choice or tell everyone that highrollers suck and you shouldn't use them for those conditions. They are a good tire in those conditions, a lot of people can attest to that and I'd agree. My problem is with the lack of reasoning or justification provided for why you should pick those tires. He literally describes nothing about the design/construction of the tire that makes it better for those conditions, so it's either his opinion, which isn't proper advice, or it's paid advertising, which again isn't proper advice. This is an advice column, not a sales floor.

 Oh really? Then what would you recommend?

 Sure, there's product plugs, but the HR2 is one of the best tires for the Southwest dry hard pack. He also gave info on how to run lower psi (tubeless) which you need here. I thought he hit it on the nose.

 Pinkbike is a shill. The problem is they don't declare when they are pushing something that has been paid for.

 And what your spouting is?

 People are crazy on here. Guy (RC) tries to provide knowledge and a service based on years of experience in the industry and in the saddle. Then self-proclaimed legends and other MTB gods have to rip him a new one. We've lost respect for each other, we spend to much time puffing ourselves up and tearing others down who may have a different opinion than ours. Sad.



Wait for it...............

 They shouldn't be using what's supposed to be an advice column as a paid product pushing opportunity. He said absolutely nothing to explain why the highroller should be chosen for those situations, he just said its the best and nothing else comes close- this is either personal opinion or paid advertising. If you can't legitimately explain why it's better you shouldn't be giving the advice, it's a simple as that. If you can explain why it's better, then you should describe what makes that design/construction good for those conditions, and then name a few tires that fit that description if you feel so inclined.

Highrollers are good tires in these conditions, a lot of people can attest to that, even I will tell you that, but if you don't know why you shouldn't be proclaiming it as god over other tires. That sales bullshit and doesn't belong.

But if you want to think I'm crazy for wanting people to give actual advice and not sell you a product, ok, I'm loonie.

 Do not for one moment forget that there are at least two possible explanations for the advice given by a PB columnist. 1) It is their considered professional opinion 2) It is an opinion they are paid to promote.

Could you enlighten me as to how you have decided to evaluate the relative likelyhood of the above two positions and how you have reached the conclusion that the advice given here about the HR2 falls into the second category rather than the first?

 Professional opinion doesn't mean anything, it's still their personal opinion. There are plenty of "professionals" who are absolutely garbage at their job and shouldn't be listened to for advice. A good "professional opinion" isn't really an opinion because it's based on facts which the professional should easily be able to explain.

It's like we are agreeing about everything, but focusing on different points. I AGREE what he posted was probably one of those two things. In your other post replying to me, you asked me to provide specific metrics (30psi of this tire on these trails over X days, so on and so forth) for tire performance comparisons- THAT'S ALL I WANT FROM THIS ARTICLE! The complete lack of any defining facts to support his "professional" argument for Maxxis Highroller's god-like abilities is not acceptable. Tell us exactly what it did better, and tell us why it did that stuff better.

It's possible RC doesn't exactly know why the High Rollers perform better, he just knows they seem to when he rides them compared to other tires. That's fine, not everybody knows how things work, but it comes across as incredibly fanboy when he doesn't justify anything he writes and just say it's the best by far. He is in a professional situation where he should be giving justifiable, as minimally biased advice as possible, and he didn't do that at all. Either he is not informed enough to provide proper advice on the subject and is instead submitting his personal opinion, or he has someone putting money in his pockets to say something about them. Either way, this should not be in the article.

 I do sincerely hope that each of you don't take everything journalists say as fact so easily without discovering for yourselves where the truth is, and why it is the truth.

 If you are insistent that that is your point MTBlegend92, then learn to say do from the get go.

You could have stared in your first post with "It's possible RC doesn't exactly know why the High Rollers perform better, he just knows they seem to when he rides them compared to other tires. That's fine, not everybody knows how things work, but it comes across as incredibly fanboy when he doesn't justify anything he writes and just say it's the best by far"

Instead you chose these words: "So how much did Maxxis pay for you to push their product here? Because that's some grade A bikeshop bullshit and not actually helpful to the rider."

It betrays you Sir. It is hardly polite is it. It is hardly going to allow others to think of you as someone with a valuable point to put across is it. And it hardly makes the point you are suggesting you were attempting to make.

In addition, as gshep points out, the advice given here is "based on years of experience in the industry and in the saddle. ". That is worthy in itself, even if he does not explain the mechanics of the reasons why he believes the HR2 works best, and would work best, for the person who has asked.

At the end of the day, there are more than enough varied opinions coming from the journos on PB to convince me that people are giving their considered opinions after countless hours of riding a wider variety of bikes than any of us could hope to; go ahead and look back at the long term reviews of PB contributors and you will find both positive, negative, and supportive reviews as well as those that give advice of products to avoid and the reasons why. Of course, all journos are at risk of being overly positive ir negative about products, however it is about time that the readership of PB gave these people a modicum of credit, and at least the benefit of politeness when questioning their opinions.

Grade A Bikeshop bullshit? Learn a little respect, or you will be given very little of it yourself, and rightly so.

 Boys at the end of day we're just riding bicycles not flying F-18's for the Navy. Some of us take ourselves WAY to seriously. Some perspective is called for.

 At the end of the day, RC said something like "only one tire is proven to do it all for these conditions." Kinda f*cked up to say that tbh. A lot of stupid people will take that as fact because he is a reputable MTB guy who has been in the industry for SO long.