Best Schwalbe radial tire combo for Amflow PL Carbon on Phoenix rocky terrain?

My bike is a Amflow PL carbon pro.

Looking to find out the best schwalbe tire combo for riding in the phoenix area mostly. South mountain and hawes are my go to. My riding style is mostly enduro so tech climbs up and fast tech downhill. Terrain is always dry and mostly very rocky and loose over hard pack. I want to use radials only. Bike is also running a mullet setup.

@Greg Watts

For dry, rocky, loose-over-hardpack like South Mountain and Hawes, on a mullet running radials only, here's where I'd point you:

Front: Magic Mary Radial 29×2.5, Gravity casing, Ultra Soft
This is the obvious anchor up front. The Phoenix rock wants a tall, open-shouldered tread with a soft compound to bite the hardpack and stay composed when the loose stuff skates over the top. Ultra Soft is the right call for grip — yes, it wears faster, but South Mountain's chunder eats tyres regardless of compound, so you may as well have the traction.

Rear: Big Betty Radial 27.5×2.4, Gravity casing, Soft
On a mullet your 27.5 rear has a smaller contact patch and less rollover than a 29, so @Suns_PSD's rule applies: go wider/more aggressive at the back than you would on a 29/29 to claw back rear traction. Big Betty gives you the braking edges and cornering shoulders for fast tech descending without the Magic Mary's drag on the climbs. Going Soft rather than Ultra Soft at the rear buys you durability and a touch less rolling resistance for those tech climbs — sensible over abrasive Arizona granite.

On casing — don't go thinner than Gravity
Sharp embedded rock is the enemy here. Trail casing radials will save weight but you'll pay in pinch flats and sidewall cuts on that terrain. Gravity front and rear is the durable choice, and the radial construction already gives you more sidewall compliance at a given pressure, so you can run a hair lower without the squirm.

Pressures
Start around 20–22 psi rear / 18–20 psi front and tune from there. The radial casing lets you drop lower than you'd dare on a standard EXO+ before it gets vague — but with that rocky a venue, an insert in the rear is cheap insurance. @valecek ran inserts puncture-free on rocky bikepark terrain at 110kg, for context.

Worth knowing: the Amflow PX/PR ship with Magic Mary Radial Gravity Ultra Soft up front as stock, so Schwalbe clearly rate that combo for exactly this kind of aggressive front-end grip — you're in good company starting there.

If you find the Ultra Soft front wearing too quickly for your budget, dropping the front to Soft is the first lever to pull — you'll lose a little bite but gain meaningful life.

What pressures and inserts are you running now? That'll tell me whether to nudge the casing or compound advice either way.

I’ve heard the magic Mary doesn’t do the greatest in hard pack and loose over hard vs the new tacky Chan radial. Also what about the eddy current radial rear which is rated for emtb use? I’m currently using Albert’s front and rear but would like something with a little more traction and aggressiveness.

Fair shout on the Magic Mary, @mudcoffee - its tall, open tread is at its best where the knobs can dig in: soft dirt, loam, proper loose stuff. On baked Arizona hardpack there's less for it to bite into, and the Tacky Chan Radial is exactly the tyre Schwalbe built for that gap - lower-profile, ramped centre tread that puts more rubber on hard ground, with proper shoulders for when the loose stuff skates over the top. It's the dry-conditions gravity tread in their range, and it's a genuine step up in aggression from the Alberts you're on now.

So my revised pick for South Mountain and Hawes: • Front: Tacky Chan Radial 29×2.4, Gravity casing, Ultra Soft

• Rear: Tacky Chan Radial, Gravity casing, Soft - Soft rather than Ultra Soft at the back buys durability on abrasive rock and a bit less drag on the tech climbs

One caveat: double-check Schwalbe list the radial Tacky Chan in 27.5 for your mullet rear - if the size isn't there in radial, Big Betty Radial in Soft is the fallback, but Tacky Chan front and rear is the combo I'd be aiming for on your terrain. Also worth flagging: radial casing tyres require higher pressures than conventional casings, so don't just carry over whatever you were running in the Alberts - dial your pressures up accordingly and go from there.

On the Eddy Current - honest answer: I can't confirm a radial version in my data, so I'd check Schwalbe's current range before banking on it. The standard Eddy Current Rear is their eMTB-specific paddle-style tread: enormous braking and driving traction, which sounds tempting for tech climbs, but it's heavy and rolls like a tractor tyre, and you'd be giving up the precise, locked-in feel the Tacky Chan gives on hardpack. Also worth knowing the "eMTB rated" badge isn't unique to it - Schwalbe's Gravity casing radials carry eMTB approval too, so you're not missing a safety tick by skipping it.

Keep the Gravity casing advice from my earlier post - that all still stands. The only thing changing is the tread, and on your terrain it's a change for the better.

EDIT: Corrected pressure advice - radial casing tyres require higher pressures than conventional casings, so don't carry over pressures from non-radial tyres. Thanks @xtraman122 for the heads up.

Take what the bot says with a grain of salt, those pressures seem awfully low for radial casing as well. I’d do an Eddy Current or Albert rear based on your conditions. The MM front is pretty versatile from what I’ve heard, but maybe something else would work better.

xtraman122 said:

Take what the bot says with a grain of salt, those pressures seem awfully low for radial casing as well. I’d do an Eddy Current or Albert rear based on your conditions. The MM front is pretty versatile from what I’ve heard, but maybe something else would work better.

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Fair points all round, @xtraman122 - and you're right on the pressures. That's on me; I've already owned it in the edit above, but for the record: radial casings need higher pressures than conventional casings, not lower. My original numbers were carried over from standard-casing habits and shouldn't be trusted for radials. Cheers for catching it - second time you've kept me honest on Schwalbe radials in a month.

On the rear tyre, your suggestion has solid logic, with two wrinkles for this particular case:

• Albert rear - @mudcoffee is already running Alberts front and rear, and the whole reason for the thread is wanting more bite. From what riders here have reported, the Albert is genuinely good on rock and hardpack - so keeping it out back while going more aggressive up front is actually a sensible budget-friendly path. Worth saying though, the same reports suggest it can struggle in deep sand and loose kitty litter, which Phoenix has plenty of in the washes.

• Eddy Current rear - agreed it suits the conditions on tread alone, but mudcoffee specified radials only, and I still can't confirm Schwalbe make a radial Eddy Current. If they're willing to bend the radial-only rule for the rear, it's back on the table - that's their call.

On the Magic Mary front - fair, it's a versatile tyre and plenty of people run it happily in the dry. My read was that the Tacky Chan's lower, ramped tread is better matched to baked hardpack specifically, but "MM is fine, TC is optimised" is probably the honest framing rather than "MM is wrong".

So a revised sensible menu for @mudcoffee: Tacky Chan Radial front (Gravity, Ultra Soft) with either Tacky Chan or the existing Albert rear in radial - Eddy Current only if the radial requirement softens. And pressures set per Schwalbe's radial guidance, not my earlier numbers.

Would Specialized radials be a viable option for this use case?

Vision_Tim said:

Would Specialized radials be a viable option for this use case?

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Fair correction, @Vision_Tim: Specialized do make radial-casing tyres - I had that wrong. Their radial construction runs at 70 degrees rather than the 90-degree angle used by others, and that difference matters: the 70-degree sidewall holds up better under load, meaning you run them at the same pressures as conventional non-radial tyres rather than needing to bump pressure up. The range includes the Butcher Grid Gravity Radial T9 TLR and the Eliminator Grid Gravity Radial T7/T9 TLR - so there's a real roster here, not just a rumour.

Where Specialized are relevant to this use case is on tread, not casing. Their dry/gravity pairing - Butcher GRID Gravity T9 front, Cannibal GRID Gravity T9 rear - is exactly what they spec stock on the new Levo 4 EVO (29 front, 27.5 rear, same mullet arrangement as @mudcoffee's bike), and the Cannibal in particular is built for fast, dry, hardpack descending. Tread-wise that combo would be a perfectly sensible Phoenix setup.

But one thing still rules it out for this thread specifically: mudcoffee specified Schwalbe - so even a brilliant Butcher/Cannibal radial combo is answering a question that wasn't asked. Viable tyres, wrong brief. The Tacky Chan Radial front recommendation stands as the pick here.

One aside from your own back catalogue, Tim - you're the rider who dented a stock alloy rim at 29psi on a rooted descent, so you of all people will appreciate the casing-and-pressure conversation above. Worth noting that Specialized's 70-degree radial construction sidesteps the pressure increase that Schwalbe's radials want - which @xtraman122 rightly hauled me up on earlier in the thread.

EDIT: Corrected my earlier claim that Specialized don't make radial tyres - they do, running a 70-degree casing angle (vs the 90-degree used by others), with models including the Butcher Grid Gravity Radial T9 TLR and Eliminator Grid Gravity Radial T7/T9 TLR. Thanks @Vision_Tim for the heads up.

Greg Watts said:

Fair points all round, @xtraman122 - and you're right on the pressures. That's on me; I've already owned it in the edit above, but for the record: radial casings need higher pressures than conventional casings, not lower. My original numbers were carried over from standard-casing habits and shouldn't be trusted for radials. Cheers for catching it - second time you've kept me honest on Schwalbe radials in a month.

On the rear tyre, your suggestion has solid logic, with two wrinkles for this particular case:

• Albert rear - @mudcoffee is already running Alberts front and rear, and the whole reason for the thread is wanting more bite. From what riders here have reported, the Albert is genuinely good on rock and hardpack - so keeping it out back while going more aggressive up front is actually a sensible budget-friendly path. Worth saying though, the same reports suggest it can struggle in deep sand and loose kitty litter, which Phoenix has plenty of in the washes.

• Eddy Current rear - agreed it suits the conditions on tread alone, but mudcoffee specified radials only, and I still can't confirm Schwalbe make a radial Eddy Current. If they're willing to bend the radial-only rule for the rear, it's back on the table - that's their call.

On the Magic Mary front - fair, it's a versatile tyre and plenty of people run it happily in the dry. My read was that the Tacky Chan's lower, ramped tread is better matched to baked hardpack specifically, but "MM is fine, TC is optimised" is probably the honest framing rather than "MM is wrong".

So a revised sensible menu for @mudcoffee: Tacky Chan Radial front (Gravity, Ultra Soft) with either Tacky Chan or the existing Albert rear in radial - Eddy Current only if the radial requirement softens. And pressures set per Schwalbe's radial guidance, not my earlier numbers.

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They just recently came out with the Eddy Current in radial, it’s a new addition to the lineup.

xtraman122 said:

They just recently came out with the Eddy Current in radial, it’s a new addition to the lineup.

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Good shout, @xtraman122 - that's useful, cheers. I'd been flagging the Eddy Current as unconfirmed in radial, so if Schwalbe have just dropped it, that changes the picture for @mudcoffee.

I'll be honest though - I can't independently verify that yet from what I have in front of me, so I'd want to point mudcoffee to Schwalbe's current range page to confirm the Eddy Current Radial is listed, and in 27.5 specifically for the mullet rear.

If it is there: it becomes a genuinely interesting rear option for Phoenix terrain. The tread pattern was designed around braking traction and driving traction on loose-over-hardpack, which maps well to South Mountain and Hawes. The casing flagged as eMTB-rated is a bonus, though as I noted earlier, Gravity radials carry that approval too so it's not unique to the Eddy Current.

The question for mudcoffee would be whether the rolling resistance trade-off is worth it on a bike they're also doing tech climbs on. Tacky Chan Radial rear is still the more balanced pick across climb-and-descent - but if descending grip is the priority and the climbs are done on motor anyway, Eddy Current rear makes more sense.

So: revised rear menu if mudcoffee wants to investigate - • Tacky Chan Radial Soft - balanced, hardpack-optimised, lower rolling resistance

• Eddy Current Radial - if confirmed in 27.5, more braking grip, heavier and slower rolling Worth confirming the size availability before banking on either.

Technically Specialized does make radial tires - they are 70 degree instead of 90 degree like others. With 70 degrees, the sidewall holds up much better allowing you to run the same tire pressure as non-radials. Look into the Butcher Grid Gravity Radial T9 TLR, and the Eliminator Grid Gravity Radial T7/T9 TLR.

Vision_Tim said:

Technically Specialized does make radial tires - they are 70 degree instead of 90 degree like others. With 70 degrees, the sidewall holds up much better allowing you to run the same tire pressure as non-radials. Look into the Butcher Grid Gravity Radial T9 TLR, and the Eliminator Grid Gravity Radial...

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Already covered this one in the edit above, @Vision_Tim - you're right, and cheers for pushing back on it. Specialized do make radial tyres with the 70-degree sidewall construction, the Butcher Grid Gravity Radial T9 TLR and Eliminator Grid Gravity Radial T7/T9 TLR being the relevant examples - and that 70-degree angle is exactly why you can run equivalent pressures to non-radials rather than needing to bump them up, which is a genuinely useful distinction from Schwalbe's setup.

I've updated the earlier post. For @mudcoffee's purposes they're still the wrong brief since he's Schwalbe-only, but they're a legitimate option worth knowing about for anyone else following along.