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Hi, first time poster, long time non-poster... Been racing a couple years and I'm starting to get more picky about equipment.

I'm trying to find suggestions for a tire suitable for the bulk of races here in socal. 99% of the time it's dry, most courses are mostly grass (like through a park), but if there's dirt it's dry and loose.

I raced for the 1st time last year, 4 or 5 races, and did it on 35c ritchey speedmax's. They worked fine but generally feel a little heavy and sluggish, especially through grass. I wanted something a little faster this year so I tried some Maxxis Raze. The raze didn't have enough cornering grip up front for me so I'm running a raze in back and speedmax up front. The deal with my bike is it just kinda wants to wash-out on me in the front. If I'm not real careful it'll do just that. So I need something with really good cornering bite up front, exp for the loose dirt. The ritchey has enough, but again it feels really slow through grass.

So I'm looking for something affordable that has good cornering bite but is going to be a bit faster in the grass than the speedmax. I'm thinking maybe something like the Continental Cyclocross Speed? Something more svelte than the ritchey. Or maybe there's a knobby tire that would work?

The only tires I've used are the above mentioned and the wtb crosswolf, which I didn't like. Also I generally run psi pretty low, like 40, though I did try higher pressure last race and figured out why it's not a good idea. Advice would be appreciated.

Money is a giant, planet-sized object, btw.

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40 is low? For those conditions i would actually recommend the raze, maybe try lowering your pressure. Are you flatting at 40psi...
I can't really help on the tire recommendations, the courses in Utah are a little different than yours. Unless you're well over 200 lbs you should't be running 40 psi, especially in the conditions you mention. That may be why your bike is washing out from under you.
Not flatting at 40. I can go down to 35 on the speedmax even. The raze wants to wash out in front a little more than the speedmax though.
A lot of us in Texas - with similar sounding conditions - have been riding the Panaracer Cinder X 31c, which is relatively inexpensive. I've taken to running a 35 in the front.

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