Purgatory in Purgatory

At first, I was thinking this should just be a paragraph, a Gear Shot; "hey, look, this is a tire that has almost zero relevance to the shore scene, but here ya go anyway", before scrolling on to the next thing.

But then I started digging around looking for what others might be saying about this latest version of the Specialized Purgatory, and there was not a ton of info out there. Which seems a shame, since this newest Purgatory (rev3 by my estimation) has been around for over a year now, and is (in my opinion) a very solid tire choice for riders who are subsisting on a diet of sharp rocks and blue-groove hardpack.

"Wherever you go, there you are", right? Well, I happen to be here, in a desert, riding exclusively in a landscape of big sharp rocks, smaller sharp rocks, occasional blue groove hardpack, and a whole lot of dry loose shit that sizes out somewhere between arrow heads and sand grains. The latest version of the 70 USD Specialized Purgatory, seen here in T7 compound, featuring Grid Trail casing, in 29x2.4 size, is a tire designed for dry conditions, first and foremost. While the Purgatory may not seem to be of much relevance to the coastal PNW or North Van or the Sea To Sky corridor for most of the year, it is target locked on the rest of the western half of the continental US. And who knows, it might even be a potential option for those two weeks of dusty and loose riding you sometimes get up there as well. Given my current location and terrain, it seems like a good time to find out how these stack up against the other usual suspects. I spooned a pair onto a Yeti SB120 that was previously shod with a Maxxis DHF 2.5/Aggressor 2.3 combo in MaxxTerra/3C/EXO guise, and headed out into the desert hellscape of the Sierra De La Giganta.

The Specialized Butcher has emerged as a quiet go-to tire for many of us in the NSMB-sphere. The T9 compound may not be quite as sticky as Maxxis's MaxxGrip, but it is not too far off, and the low hysteresis rubber combined with big, well supported tread blocks lends the Butcher a chunky, tractable readability that makes it a very easy tire to get along with in most conditions. But these same attributes also make it a bit of a pig when it comes time to accelerate, and even though the T9 compound wears exceptionally well for its effective durometer, it's going to get chewed up when subjected to extended hard and dry terrain. Which brings us to the Purgatory.

This is at least the third version of the Purgatory that I am aware of, and while each iteration of the tire has been aimed at dry/hardpack performance, the similarities between each version end at the name. Tire profile on this newest Purgatory is rounder than it is square, but it has a decent amount of side-knob and doesn't round off quite as much as a more intentionally "fast rolling" tire. High volume center knobs with a decent amount of spacing between them give way to tall, well-supported side knobs. Overall knob depth is shallower than the Butcher by a couple mm, but still substantially deeper than, say, a Rekon. The transitional tread blocks and side knobs are siped and all knobs feature what Specialized refers to as a "block in block" design, which, presumably, allows the knobs to squirm a little bit to find traction when getting smeared onto rock faces, but not be so squishy as to let the knobs tear or the tire feel vague. GRID casing is a 60tpi design that features a reinforced sidewall for cut protection and tire stability, and the GRID Trail moniker in this case refers to an additional layer of bead to bead puncture resistance.

There's not a ton of weight difference between the Purgatory and the Butcher; 980 grams for a 29x2.4 GRID Trail Purgatory in T7 compound versus 940 grams for a 29x2.3 GRID Trail Butcher in T7. Expect to pay a 50-70 gram weight penalty with either tire when going up to T9 compound. By contrast, the DHF/Aggressor combo that came off the bike clocked in at 1099/989 grams each (these weights are all per brand websites, because I am not packing my gram scale on this trip...).

Riding these tires in loose drifty desert terrain, it has been difficult to determine whether the ride feel I am experiencing is because of the tread design, or due to the compound, or a component of both. I suspect getting them into some slippery/wet terrain would find some answers quicksmart, but that is not where these tires are designed to perform, and that is certainly not any sort of riding environment I will be seeing in the immediate future, so... here goes.

The Purgatory is quieter on pavement than either the Butcher or the DHF. Not too surprising there, given that it is shorter in knob height and slightly rounder in profile than either of those options. It feels like it rolls smoother and a little more willingly as well, and is pretty close to the Aggressor in this regard. Once in the dirt, the Purgatory hooks up well in hardpack and has very easy to read manners in the soft/loose end of things. It is not quite as comfortable in super loose and sandy going as the Butcher, but it's good enough that I don't feel like I'm losing time and, short of going to something huge and floaty that sucks everywhere else, tire behavior at this end of the traction spectrum eventually becomes kind of binary - you are rolling or you are walking. All the way up to the point where the sand becomes too soft and loose, or the particulate size of the loose shit becomes so small as to become a sand trap, the Purgatory grips well and also offers plenty of feedback as traction goes away. It feels trustworthy, for lack of a better word.

Climbing and braking traction reinforced this sensation. I could hunker down on gut punch climbs, and if I had enough in my legs, could usually find the traction to get up some ledgy steeps that had been dogging me for the past couple months. I'm not willing to say that the tires made these climbs possible or easier, but they certainly did not hinder my effort in any way. Same goes for braking; easy to read, easy to modulate, and the only times I felt I was losing out to bigger knobs or stickier compounds was during crux moments on rock that was giving way to shale or loose garbage. Front or rear, the Purgatory hooks up surprisingly consistently and with enough predictability that I am happy to run it at either end of the bike. It doesn't feel mega sticky, but it is a very easy tire to read, and in some situations I think that the slightly firmer character of the tire - resulting from the combination of short, well supported tread blocks and a slightly harder compound - might actually be a better call than something knobbier and squishier.

Leaning it into turns was predictable, and it was easy to feel where traction began and ended. Again, this terrain isn't the kind of place where you can just push the bike into the ground and lean at will. Everything is going to break loose, and it is a matter of how predictably the tire behaves as that happens that determines how trustworthy it feels. Bigger knobs and more weight generally feels more predictable in this regard, but going apples to apples between these and either the T9 Butchers or the MaxxTerra DHF, I can't really claim that the Purgatory loses much ground to them.

This is all a roundabout way of saying that not only am I impressed with how well the Purgatory works at either end of the bike in the desert, but also that the T7 rubber is working out quite a bit better than I had expected. Well enough that I am contemplating switching to T7 for my Butcher rears in summertime. Buuut, I also want to try the Purgatory in T9, just to get my head around it. Specialized is pretty bullish about both the adhesion and wear characteristics of their flagship T9 compound, and state "when it comes to compounds, firmer rubber—like the T7—prioritizes rolling speed, and longevity, but still has excellent grip." What goes along with this is the implication that the more "damped" lower hysteresis of the T9 compound is always the choice for optimum control, but I think this is something to consider on a case by case basis.

T7 will definitely roll faster and wear longer than T9. It will not feel as damped in some situations, and that can be seen as a negative. But in the dozen or so hours that I have put into these tires so far, in the desert conditions they are designed for, I am thinking that T7 might be a better call. Rolls faster, offers more than enough grip in almost any dry ground scenario, real easy to read, and I have a hunch that the lifespan will be dramatically longer. These photos were taken at eight hours in, and the little nibs were still proudly jutting off both tires. They are mostly gone from the rear now, but the front looks like it is new. My shoes, in that same time frame, look like a dog has been chewing on the soles.

If you find yourself confined to the loamless purgatory of mountain biking in desert environments, or are planning on some midsummer alpine grinders at a ski resort just north of Durango, Colorado that also happened to play host to the first full-on UCI mountain bike World Championship, you could do far worse than slap a Purgatory on either end of your bike.