SPECIALIZED HILLBILLY £37.50

Riding in slidey conditions is great; it’s more challenging, softer if you crash and you don’t even have to bother with sun cream. Right? OK... we tried, summer’s the best. But winter can be fun too, if you have the right tyres…

Specialized has a new version of the Hillbilly, a gravity-focused tyre designed for wet and loose conditions. It uses deep centre knobs combined with high-volume shoulder blocks to add bite in loose soil and enhance traction, control and confidence. Block-in-block transition knobs offer structural reinforcement for traction and stability.

Most interestingly though, there are some of the tiniest little sipes we’ve ever seen, and it’s those cuts in the outer blocks that will help the tyre deform more and enhance grip. The Achilles’ heel of most mud spikes is that they don’t do well on rock, but we’re hoping this innovative design will buck that trend.

The tyre is constructed from Specialized’s own Sticky Fast T9 rubber compound. This, Specialized claims, offers great traction in greasy conditions and also adds damping to reduce tyre bounce and deflection. It certainly feels tacky to the touch.

The Hillbilly is available in GRID Trail and GRID Gravity-casing options, the former being suitable for aggressive trail riding in the mud while the GRID Gravity is a two-ply tyre for extreme conditions and hard enduro, downhill and bike park riding with plenty of strength and stability for hard cornering and jumping. The Hillbilly sits at the maximum traction end of Specialized’s tyre range, above the Cannibal and the Slaughter. It’s 2.4in in width, and costs £50 for the Gravity version, or £37.50 for the Trail. specialized.com