The Perks of being adequate - why I love the Schwalbe Hans Dampf

 I've not had the best relationship with Schwalbe tyres. Riding the Lugano and Durano on the roads during my early years left me with quite a poor impression, of slippery rubber and casings that delivered neither speed or protection. That is until last June, when a new set of wheels got me curious. There has never been so much choice on the market, with brands offering myriad compound, casing and tread pattern options that all claim to be the best, grippiest, fastest, long-lastest... How hard can it be?

I wanted something reasonably wide - a 2.5 or 2.6, to take advantage of the generous 30mm internal width of my DT Swiss XM481 rims. I also wanted something with a reasonably aggressive tread pattern, that would bite through the claggy mud that makes up the majority of my rides. So far so simple. I also wanted something reasonably supple and fast rolling - I'm riding XC and Trail with the occasional road miles to link up bits of singletrack. I'm not riding Enduro or DH, so I don't really need one of the big, thick, sticky monster truck tyres everyone seems so keen on at the moment. And that left me with a bit of a problem.

There seemed to be a big gap in the market, right where I wanted my tyres to sit. Every brand makes a couple of good cross country tyres, covering a wide range of conditions from bone dry fireroads right the way through to ever so slightly damp fireroads. Supple casings, minimalist tread patterns and rubber compounds that deliver just enough grip to get you round the course. Fantastic for racing XC on a hot day in Arizona, but... not so ideal in the thick, saturated clay soil of my local woods. The mere thought of an off-camber turn or a greasy root has them sliding sideways. Not particularly ideal - a ride is no fun when you climb faster than you descend.

Then there are the Trail tyres - things like the Maxxis Rekon, Conti Trail King or Schwalbe Nobby Nic. In summer, these can be great tyres, giving a decent level of grip while still keeping decent acceleration and rolling speed, with reasonably firm compounds. However, when things get sloppy, these tyres get slippy, accentuated by the rounded, ramped tread blocks shaped to improve rolling speed.

So, that takes you to the all-mountain and Enduro tyres, which seem to be getting more and more aggressive every year. Thick, triple ply casings, with sidewall reinforcement and soft, sticky rubber. Awesome on the descents, but you feel every bit of the extra weight and grip on the way back up. And while a lot of people seem to ride these just about anywhere, the feeling of being over-tyred up a climb is not a pleasant one. Again, the tread patterns on these seem to correspond too, with almost every tyre following the pattern laid down by the Minion - massive square siped knobs in a row down each side, and big widely spaced, squared off centre bars that clear mud easily and bite into just about anything. These are epic tyres for epic terrain, but... not many of us are lucky enough to live somewhere epic, and on mundane terrain these are just hard work.

So, what to buy? Do I alternate between a heavier duty Trail tyre for summer and a lighter duty Enduro tyre for winter? That doesn't seem like a good idea, given that for most of the year big sections of trail can be thick with gloopy mud. I'd be changing tyres every other ride, and either way there would be big stretches of each ride where I was seriously under or over-tyred for the terrain. I didn't want something that was going to hold me back in one particular area - just a decent all-round tyre for generic mountain biking on a mixture of terrain, be that an XC course or a bike park red run.

Then I remembered the Hans Dampf. I was a little reluctant to try another Schwalbe, but they seemed to fall into just about the right place. German for "Jack of All Trades", it seemed worth a try. So, with nothing to lose, I splashed out on a pair of 29x2.6 Hans Dampfs. I chose the blue Speedgrip compound - a nice halfway house between the firmer XC compound and the squidgy gravity compound - and paired that with the Snakeskin Apex casing - a single ply XC/Trail casing with reinforcement inserts extending away from the bead to stiffen the sidewall a little and provide some more protection for the rims.

Installation was easy (not something I remember from my old Luganos, which were a bastard to get on and off for each of my frequent punctures) and they seated immediately with my trusty Silca track pump, holding pressure overnight without sealant. So far so good.

Fast-forward 6 months, and I'm growing increasingly fond of these tyres, which are showing very little sign of wear despite quite a bit of abuse, and enough road miles to tear all the rubber from a stickier, heavier tyre. Make no mistake, these tyres are not great at anything. The tread pattern is a little overkill for XC courses in the dry. On technical descents I often wish I had opted for the tougher casing option. On wet rock, I wonder whether I might have preferred the softer compound. There is always a better option for each part of the ride. But I don't think there is anything that could be quite so ok at quite so many things, and there lies the beauty of the Hans Dampf.

In ditching the superlatives, Schwalbe have managed to deliver a tyre that does exactly what it says on the sidewall. It isn't the grippiest, or the toughest, or the fastest. The well-spaced tread blocks are squared in every direction, so provide a good mix of traction under acceleration, braking and cornering, while biting into and shedding mud effectively. The casing is supple enough that it still rolls reasonably for faster, less technical rides. The sidewall reinforcement provides just enough extra stiffness and strength to let you rail round corners without it feeling vague, and the Speedgrip compound offers a decent blend of speed and grip. For those of us that only have one mountain bike, these are a fantastic option, providing a tyre that is capable enough to get down pretty much everything except a black run, without feeling like it is slowing you down too much on mellow XC.

The Hans Dampf ties in perfectly with Mike Levy's "Downcountry" idea that is starting to gain more traction, however much I hate the name. Bikes that can cope with technical terrain without becoming unwieldy and boring on the bread and butter stuff we ride most of the time. If you're out for fun, not all-out speed, and want a reliable tyre you can run all year round and take pretty much anywhere, that goes up as well as it goes down, I can't think of anything much better.

I guess I like Schwobble now.