2011 Panaracer CG XC; CG SC AM; CG AC AM; CG 4X AM

CG SoftCondition 2.1, 26″ (655g, 2.1″ true width) and CG SoftCondition 2.25, 26″ (760g, 2.25″ true width)

This soft-conditions tire is clearly designed as a mud tire for trail and all-mountain bikes, but I found it to be much more versatile than that. It excelled in loamy and tacky dirt, sandy washes, soft clay, pine needles, high alpine scree, and really everywhere that isn’t blue-groove hard pack, or thin loose over hardpack.

These tires really are perfect year round for trail riding in places like Bellingham, Bozeman, Seattle, Vancouver Island, etc. They will also ride very well for shoulder season (spring and fall) in places like NorCal, Colorado or Utah, once the trails cool off and the precipitation picks up.

The SoftCondition tires roll quick in mucky trail conditions, and I credit that to the adequately stiff knobs, courtesy of the Combo tread compound. The design is also open enough to clear mud, and they also offer nice braking and cornering performance, especially in loamy and loose stuff. The tread bites in exceptionally well in softer soils.

The tire tread incorporates an interesting design choice by leaving the knobs nearly closed; if you look the tire head on, the knobs basically enclose the entire profile fore and aft, but having the tire totally open from side to side. (I.e., if you look at the tire from the side, all knobs line up, and you can only see alternating stripes of tread.)

While the fore-aft arrangement really served to keep the tire hooked up and engaged in pretty poor conditions, the totally open arrangement side to side did limit the usefulness of the tire in loose-over-hardpack-type situations. Because the cornering knobs are not offset from the center knobs, once the tire is on edge and braking forces are applied, the cornering knobs cannot slow down any dirt, and the rear tire can shoot right out from under you. The same thing can happen on the front tire if you are driving it very hard into a corner.

This phenomenon only happens on ball bearings on top of true hard pack, which is obviously outside of the intended purpose of the tire. But I think that if the cornering knobs were offset backward from the centerline tread, and so closed off 50% of this gap, this tire would be pretty damn awesome everywhere, for everyone, and I would ride the CG SoftCondition a ton. As it now stands, the tire will get a ton of use in the fall and spring when the trails in Colorado are wet, but will have to come off the bike once it’s 97 degrees in the shade and the trails are like concrete.

Finally, this tire is offered in a 2.1 and a 2.25. The 2.25 has a taller knob height than the 2.1, which has a knob height similar to that of a 2.35 Maxxis Minion DHF. On my trail bike, I experimented with all treads and found the 2.1 never to squirm on hard pack, and the 2.25 to squirm only a small amount, and only on nearly bullet-proof trail surfaces.

I really liked the 2.25 in the front and the 2.1 in the rear on a longer-travel trail bike. On a shorter travel bike (4-6″ of travel), I would not hesitate to go with a 2.1 front and rear. It offers exceptional grip in adverse conditions. I found the 2.25 to roll a little slower in the rear, but if the conditions warranted it (mud bogs, snow drifts, etc.), the 2.25 front and rear would be an exceptional combo to keep the bike upright and fun, where the rider would otherwise be struggling to get up or down the hill.

The casing size of the 2.1 and 2.25 are very similar; the extra “width” on the 2.25 comes more from the additional knob height, and not so much by the overall air-volume of the tire.

I realize that I’ve dwelled on the traits of this tire on hardpack a little much, given that it is advertised as a SoftCondition tire. Simply put, the CG SC rules in wet, loose, soft, sandy terrain, and is better than anything I have tried in these conditions. If you need a soft-conditions / mud-type of tire for a trail bike, you should just go ahead and buy a pair right now.