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Tacky Chan vs Albert radial rear on Cube AMS Hybris 177 mullet for loam?

Daniel Pearce

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I ride a Cube AMS Hybris 177.

I currently run a 29 magic marry radial front with an Albert radial 27.5 rear so its a mullet setup and was wondering if a Tacky Chan radial rear would work better for loam/lose trails.

@Greg Watts
 
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Good setup to be tweaking — the Magic Mary radial front with an Albert radial rear is a properly current pairing, so you're already in the right ballpark on your AMS Hybrid 177.

Short answer: yes, a Tacky Chan radial rear would work for loam/loose, but it's a sidegrade in a different direction rather than a clear upgrade. Here's the trade-off:

Albert (your current rear) — Schwalbe pitch it as the do-everything rear: faster-rolling than a Tacky Chan, predictable, decent braking bite. On genuinely loose-over-hard or dry loam it's competent but not the deepest-digging option.

Tacky Chan rear — taller, more open, more aggressive knobs. In soft loam and loose dirt it'll dig in harder and give you more cornering and braking bite when the surface is moving under you. The cost is rolling speed and a slightly vaguer feel on hardpack and rock — it's a softer-conditions tyre by design, which is exactly the brief you've described.

So for a dedicated loam/loose rear, the Tacky Chan is the more logical choice than the Albert. The radial casing carrying across front and rear is a sensible move too — keeping the casing family matched means the bike feels consistent rather than one end deflecting and the other absorbing.

One thing worth flagging on the mullet side: with a 27.5 rear you've inherently got less traction than a 29 rear (smaller contact patch, less rollover), so going wider and more aggressive at the back is the standard fix. @Suns_PSD makes exactly this point — on a mullet you want to lean harder on the rear tyre's aggression to claw back the grip the smaller wheel gives up: → view post. If the Tacky Chan comes in a width a touch up from your current Albert, that works in your favour for loam.

My honest steer: if your trails are reliably loam/loose through the wetter months, fit the Tacky Chan rear and don't look back. If you're chasing an all-rounder that still rolls decently on the climbs back up — and your AMS has the 120Nm Gen 5 to drag a draggier tyre uphill without much complaint — the Albert is the better year-round compromise. It comes down to how committed your conditions are.

What pressures are you running, and is this a winter-rear swap or a year-round change? That'd sharpen the call.
 
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