WTB Trail Boss Tire

The Ride

I didn’t think I was going to like these tires. Most of the tires that I really like have pretty widely-spaced, large square knobs, and have a significant channel between the center knobs and side knobs. The Maxxis DHF / DHR2 / Highroller 2 family of tires are pretty much my go to options.

The Trail Boss doesn’t look like one of those Maxxis tires; its knobs are lower, wider, and much more tightly spaced. Given those parameters, I knew that the Trail Boss would roll faster (which is nice), but I was worried about how it’d hook up and corner in most other situations.

And having now ridden them for a few months?

I not only have zero urge to swap them out for a pair of DHFs, but I’ve recommended them to a number of people.

My initial expectations were met. For a tire that’s still relatively knobby (compared to some of the more XC-oriented options), the Trail Boss rolls pretty fast.

On one particular ride, I was behind a friend that was running DHF’s front and rear on a similar bike (hardtail 29’er). It was a windy, rooty trail in Whitefish that’s pointed down enough to not require much pedaling, but not so steep as to require much braking. At pretty much every point in the trail, I was putting a ton of time into my friend on the DHF’s, and I attribute that almost entirely to the tires.

To be fair, it’s not like DHF’s are a fast rolling tire. Saying the Trail Boss rolls faster than a DHF is kind of like getting excited about the realization that water is wet. Mostly, I found it interesting to see just how much fast they really were (a lot), and more importantly, that they didn’t give up that much ground in the corners.

Cornering

About those corners: this is where I was worried that the Trail Boss would fall short. And to be clear, if you want to throw your bike as sideways as possible into a loamy rut with your eyes set on that bar drag bounty, the Trail Boss probably isn’t your huckleberry.

But they do pretty well; lots of tires with closely-spaced, low knobs just feel skittery in corners. The Trail Boss, all things considered, felt impressively locked in. In many of the conditions I ride in, I’d say the Trail Boss could corner a bit harder than the Vigilante, despite the Vigilante’s taller knobs and wider profile.

Noah Bodman reviews the WTB Trail Boss Tire, Blister Gear Review
Noah Bodman on the WTB Trail Boss, Whitefish, Montana.

Most of my time on the Trail Boss was around Whitefish, which has a little bit of gravel, a little bit of sand, some nice loam, and lots of relatively packed trails that have a layer of pine needles mixed with a bit of brown pow on top. And it’s these packed trails with a little bit of soft on top where the Trail Boss excels; it rolls fast, but it still gives enough grip in the corners that you’re not sent into a panic in every corner. It’ll arc into a corner with confidence, and when it starts to drift, it does so predictably.

Braking

Another other place where I found the Trail Boss to work well is under hard braking into a corner. The way the side knobs are shaped, the pairs of blocks create a little alcove to catch dirt when you’re leaned over and on the brakes. This is similar to the “L” shaped side knobs on some of the Maxxis tires—it’s a feature that I think is crucial to good braking performance, and it’s one that lots of companies miss. (See Kevin Bazaar’s discussion about the Trek G4 vs G5 tire.)

Braking in a straight line, the Trail Boss did fine, but the tighter spaced knobs and the lower knob height meant that it wouldn’t slow me down from speed quite as well as a meatier tire. This is more or less to be expected, and I basically see this as the trade off for less rolling resistance.

Climbing

Like any fast-rolling tire, mellow climbs were easier on the Trail Boss; it simply rolls faster than a bigger, knobbier tire. But when the going gets really steep, the Trail Boss didn’t seem to dig in quite as well as something like the Vigilante. It was clearly better than some of the more XC-oriented tires that don’t really have any substantial knobs, but as with the braking characteristics, the tighter-spaced, low knobs aren’t able to really dig in when the going gets legitimately steep.

All Around Impressions

So the Trail Boss doesn’t corner as hard as something like a DHF, doesn’t roll as fast as a pure cross country tire, and doesn’t climb steeps or brake as hard as something with bigger, taller knobs.

But it rolls way faster than those super knobby tires, and it corners way better than those pinner cross country tires. In other words, it hits a great middle ground.

I had a couple of opportunities to ride the Trail Boss in wet, mucky conditions, and it shouldn’t be very surprising that it doesn’t do all that well here. The tighter spaced knobs pack up with mud fairly easily, and the low-ish knobs don’t penetrate through the slop.

That said, I found it to stick reasonably well to wet rocks and roots; it didn’t instantly jettison the bike off the side of the trail when it hit something slippery.

Comparisons: Trail Boss vs. …

Compared to other similar tires I haven’t found anything that I like better than the Trail Boss. I thought the Trail Boss hooked up better than the Schwalbe Nobby Nic in pretty much all situations, and it beat the Continental Trail King in all categories except climbing. I thought it cornered harder and more predictably than a Maxxis Ardent, and rolled a little faster, too.

In conditions where cornering and braking are less of an issue, something like a Schwalbe Razor Rock or a Specialized Slaughter are probably going to roll faster and (potentially) corner harder, but I see those tires as fitting a fairly specific niche, whereas the Trail Boss is a better option for an all arounder.

Durability

So far, the Trail Bosses are holding up well; they’re not chunking out, and the edges are rounding off at about the rate I’d expect for a reasonably long-lasting tire. The Trail Boss uses the same compound as the WTB Vigilantes that I reviewed a while back, and those Vigilantes are still looking pretty good after a season of riding, though most of that riding was on a hardtail, which definitely doesn’t punish tires quite as much as longer travel, full suspension bikes do.

I didn’t have any sidewall tears or slices, although that’s not all that unusual for the riding that I do on my hardtail around Whitefish. If sidewall tears are a concern, the “Tough” version of the Trail Boss is definitely a great option, though it does come with the normal weight penalty.

Bottom Line

I’m a big fan of the Trail Boss as a general purpose tire for riding that involves a decent amount of hardpack.

I’m the kind of guy who, in normal circumstances, will give up some rolling speed in order to have a tire that will corner nicely. But I acknowledge that, for the trails I actually ride most of the time (particularly on my hardtail), this doesn’t make much sense—it’s only about 10% of the corners where aggressive side knobs actually become useful.

And that’s where the Trail Boss comes in. It still does pretty well in the 10% of corners where hard cornering matters, and for the other 90%, it hooks up predictably, rolls fairly quickly, and doesn’t have any off-putting characteristics.

There are other tires that roll better, or corner better, or climb better, but I haven’t found many other tires that do all of those things well in a single package. So if you’re looking for a decently knobby tire that rolls reasonably quickly without giving up too much in the cornering, braking, and climbing departments, the Trail Boss is a solid option, and one of my favorites so far for all-around trail bike duties.

8 comments on “WTB Trail Boss Tire”

  1. Noah,

    I am running Geax AKA 2.2’s on my Airborne 29 hardtail. The AKA’s roll well, and for the occasional street riding I do I like them. I find I spin them easily on steep climbs in the NE woods. I am considering replacing them with a Maxxis Ardent, but the Trail Boss sounds better. I am a big guy, 250lbs and wonder it I should get the heavier tough casing?? Also wonder if this is aggressive enough to improve climbing without being too knobby for occasional street riding.

  2. Hey Scott –

    For your question regarding casing, I’d just look to what you’ve been riding in the past. If you’ve been running regular single ply tires without problem, and if you’re satisfied with their performance, you’ll probably be fine with the “Light” version. But if you’ve had problems with slicing sidewalls, or if you just find that you have to run really high pressure to keep the tire from folding in corners, the “Tough” version with the Enduro casing will help both of those issues.

    As for you question about steep climbing traction vs. rolling resistance / street riding, to some extent those two areas are kind of on the opposite ends of the spectrum. For climbing something steep, I’m usually looking for something that has wide, somewhat tall, spaced out knobs in the middle – basically big paddles that can dig into the dirt. For fast rolling, I usually look for something that has low knobs that are relatively tightly spaced. For pavement in particular, I’ll usually look for something that has an almost continuous strip of knobs on the centerline of the tire (which is pretty much the exact opposite of what I want for climbing steep pitches).

    The Trail Boss isn’t the tire I’d pick if I was only concerned about going up steep climbs, nor is it the tire I’d pick if I was mostly riding on pavement, but for a tire that needs to cover both of those situations (and others), I think it does quite well. I haven’t ridden the Geax AKA, so I can’t offer any direct comparisons, but I’d speculate that the Geax might roll slightly faster on pavement, but I’d bet the Trail Boss climbs marginally better and corners significantly better.

  3. Any comment on the preferred direction to run these? The recommended direction looks backwards to me (sideknobs facing out). Seems like it’d make more sense to run it as shown in the second image (knobs “arrowing” towards front of bike). Thoughts?

  4. I punctured the sidewall casing on the 2.4×29 version fast/light version on about my 4 or 5 ride. Compared to reinforced casings like Maxxis EXO or Schwalbe Snakeskin, the light casing is too flimsy and doesn’t offer much protection from rocks.

    Too bad because I like the tire overall for a rear, but I won’t be picking up another. The tough casing I would expect to do better, but then its over 1,000 grams.

  5. I am moving to the wider spectrum of wheels for my 2015 Stumpy Comp Evo. I am 69, 5-9 and 180, but still pretty aggressive and can climb most of the trails in the North Lake Tahoe Area where I live.
    I like technical single track, with steeper descents and drops which the 29er has given me more confidence in riding than I could ever imagine.
    I am not areal fast climber but hold my own with the faster end of the pack on tech downhill singletracks. Weight, traction and better cornering are my goals.
    I have been using a carbon wheel with 26mm interior sizing with Spec Butcher fronts and Spec Slaughter rear both 2.3
    I ride stuff now that I would have walked in the past without even hesitating.
    The trails here are mostly rough and hard with loose rocky sections and lots of drops etc.
    The WTB Asym i35 is one of the wheels I am considering along with the Ibis 941. There is about $700 difference in cost between the two with a DT350 build.
    The trail boss was one of my considerations along with the Minion DHF, On One Chunky Monkey and the Smorgasboard.
    The Hans Daumpf is another I have read about.
    All of these in a 2.4 front probably 2.3 rear.
    Any suggestions on rim choice and tires.

    • The knobs on the Trail Bosses are a bit smaller and tighter spaced, so they’ll roll a bit faster than something like a Minion DHF or a Hans Dampf, but they definitely don’t provide quite as much traction. A Minion DHF will ride very similarly to the Specialized Butcher you’ve been using. The Trail Boss provides a bit more traction than the Slaughter, but not as much as a fully knobbed tire. It’s also worth noting that the Trail Boss with a tough casing is a pretty heavy tire, which is good if you’ve had issues with sidewall tears, but bad if you’re looking to keep things pretty light.

      For rims, at 26mm, you’re already running a moderately wide rim. Bumping up to something super wide like an i35 or an Ibis 941 will make for a much more squared off tire profile. For more comments on that, check out the review of the WTB i35 on here, but briefly stated, they will roll slower, bit with the right tire choice, they’ll corner really well. I haven’t tried a Trail Boss on a really wide rim, but I suspect that the 2.4″ version would work alright. Between the i35 and the Ibis 941, I think that primarily comes down to price vs. weight. The i35 isn’t a light rim (particularly in the 29″ size), but it’s also pretty affordable. If you wanted to try out wider rims without breaking the bank, you could always start with the i35’s and then, if you like the width, get the wheel rebuilt with some carbon hoops.

  6. I’m a few years late to the party, but came here from your 2.6 review, and sounds perfect for what I’m after.

    Just picked up a Commencal meta tr 29 and the Vee Flow Snaps it comes with are super tackee… So gripy as hell but my god they made pedalling a chore with that super soft rubber and chunky pattern, especially when the bike already weights a ton.

    Trying to find a fast rolling tyre that still has some grip – and doesn’t get slated like the schwalbe range for side wall issues seems to be nearly impossible.

    This sounds perfect, AND they come in skin wall

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