Maxxis Minion Semi Slick

I haven't had any experience with Maxxis but there are lots of riders here on the nthrn beaches, guys that ride hard and love the Gnar who are running a combo of High Roller and Minion DHF (I hope I got that right the right way around)
Being a bit old and slow I find my Schwalbe Nobby Nick (Front) and Rocket Ron (Rear) seems a pretty good compromise (emphasise compromise) between something that rolls ok on the harder stuff but still has some grip when things get serious. I've got Procore tubes which have allowed me to run pretty low pressures (sub 20psi) for almost a year now without any flats. There's a high pressure inner which runs at 85psi but so far no pinch flats, touch wood.
I'm thinking I'll make the switch and try out the Maxxis combo next time I have to replace my treads but will keep the Procores.

Great tyre for hard pack with a bit of dust. Ran one at Thredbo, stromlo and the you yangs and it was great. Not much straight line braking traction but great cornering. Found it ran best at slightly higher pressure which minimised drag from the side knobs.

Aggressor, dhf and dhr2 are much better on our local trails though imo.

But I've just ordered 2.6's Spec Butcher and Slaughter in Grid casing. Ridden the Spec at a demo day and also in the 2.3's on a DH demo 8 hire bike. I found a big difference for the trails we ride between the control and Grid casing.

I like the semi slick option in either Spec or Maxxis for the best compromise for me between fast rolling and cornering. Another HRII on the rear is like riding through glue in comparison.

Looking for better traction on the 2.6's and lower pressures and the Spec tyres are still generally bigger for the same size than Maxxis.

I'm currently running the Maxis SS 2.3 on the rear, finding 30PSI works well. On the front I have the HRII 3C 2.3 running 25PSI. I'm 85kg. Tyres are Exo.

I ride mainly Narra and the surrounds. The SS (either maxxis or spec version) takes a little getting used to going down. Its a bit like skiing or snowboarding, you have to be on edge (out of the seat and bike leaned hard) to get traction where its awesome, but when you are not leaned on edge its loose.

I am very surprised at how well it climbs in the dry to tacky. No issue if you pedal smoothly. On switchbacks etc its better than some other tyres with the massive side knobs, just lean the bike (out of the seat) for traction. In fire trail rubble it seems to sink in and then the side knobs bite and all good.

You lose straight line braking performance. However the front end does most of this work, make sure you have a sticky front tyre. Need to be a bit more careful on rock rolls etc.

I hugged a tree on a steep wet straight line tree root section in New Zealand as couldn't use the front brake on the tree roots and the rear SS had no grip.

Pretty sure the rubber compound changes when you go from a Control casing to the Grid casing. The Control casing wouldn't be able to handle the extra grip offered by the softer compound tyre. I found it struggled even with the 60-50a compound so I ran it with a DH tube and it was pretty good, still makes it a 1kg tyre in the end though.