Rigid to soft...tyre width Q

[faustus]

I've gone soft on my 29er. The dried out hoof print trails and baked hard dirt has been taking it out of me lately. I've been running my main bike rigid for years, but something in me has switched recently. Maybe it's the Soul hardtail I got as a 'play' bike, but the sus fork was fun and fast. Recent rides on the Titus seem to be showing up the juddery limits. This is with a nice enough carbon fork and 2.6 front Mezcal at low enough pressure, and I know how to ride a rigid and find the right lines. I think I was finding the limits often enough that it started to grate with me perhaps? Anyway, I took a punt on some cheap but unused 100mm Rebas and will be giving them a good test to see how I feel. Question is, should I keep the front tyre 2.6, or should I scale down a touch to ~2.4 to balance out the extra cushion of the fork but retain decent grip/contact patch. Rear is 2.35. Only ran 2.6 as it was rigid....thoughts welcome

[voodoo_simon]

Tyres aren’t cheap at the moment, so I’d keep it simple and ride what you’ve got to see how you get on

My trek procaibler has a 2.4 Bontrager XR3 on the front with suspended fork and my rigid Titus has 2.6 Barzo. Some days I wish one bike had the other tyre on it and vice versa

[L2R24]

I recently swapped out the rigid forks on my Titus for some 100mm Reba RLs. I'll be honest in that they haven't been quite as 'plush' as I'd hoped, but maybe I haven't got them set up quite right. The clearance also seems quite tight with a 2.6" Mezcal. Latest plan is to put the Silk Road back to rigid, and keep an eye out for a Whippet or Ti El Vajero frame for the 100mm fork...

[faustus]

I'm lucky in that I have a few spare tyres, and can steal the front wheel from the Soul as it's a mullet bike. Mines an el Viajero, and the fork should be just right. But the Reba is pretty basic (motion Control Solo Air afaik), and I can see the pressure needs fiddling with to get it feeling right: the guidance chart on the fork label is way out (and was on previous ones I owned). So a fair bit of trial and error to try and get the sweet spot. But the 2.6 seems to have ample room. I'm going with a touch more pressure in the front tyre so it's not all too vague.

I must keep in mind it's for general xc feel and not downhill hits. Just thinking there might be a good balance of tyre deformation and fork response, I'm just not sure what that is yet. I'm also mindful of not going too far down the road of fiddly suspension settings, it's a bit boring and I don't think my tastes are that subtle anyway! The best fork I've had was a 130mm Sektor on an old 26er Inbred, so pretty billy basic.