Specialized saw a need for a new tyre to sit between their Butcher and Hillbilly tyres. This is where the Specialized Eliminator comes in.

>>> Best mountain bike tyres for 2018

Where the Hillbilly delivers in the wet and muddy conditions, the Eliminator delivers in dry, loose, and blown-out trails.

Transition knobs sit between beefed-up side knobs and robust centre knobs, designed to offer more control in turns.

Specialized Eliminator press release

LOOSE AND ROWDY TRAILS — WE HAVE A NEW TYRE FOR THAT

We’re rolling out a new tyre, the Eliminator. While it’s a versatile, all-around gravity tyre, the Eliminator is especially at home on loose and aggressive trails. In a sense, Eliminator fills the gap between the Specialized Butcher (harder, compacted soils) and the Specialized Hillbilly (loose and wet soil).

If you want to call that “enduro”—go ahead. The Eliminator, after all, rolls up to speed easily and absolutely slays on rowdy, chunder-filled tracks. Or you can ditch the buzzword-of-the-day and just think of the Eliminator as an excellent choice for rides when you’ll need a ton of braking control and cornering grip.

TONS OF CORNERING BITE

Let’s start with the tread. The Eliminator combines a distinct row of shoulder knobs with smaller center blocks. The center blocks are arranged evenly to bite in soft soil, but they also help with straight line-to-corner transitions. Carefully-shaped transition knobs between the center blocks and the aggressive shoulder knobs also give the Eliminator a smooth and predictable feel when you lean hard into a corner at high speeds. You get lots of grip and a clear sense of how far you can push the Eliminator before drifting commences.

STICKY AND FAST

Riders need traction, but they also need fast-rolling tyres. That’s why we developed a specific GRIPTON® tread compound that delivers excellent traction by better conforming to the trail. This compound also helps the tyre roll fast, given the tread blocks’ ability to return to their original, un-deformed state with surprisingly little friction. The stuff is sticky and fast.

IT COMES IN TRAIL AND GRAVITY FLAVORS

Eliminator comes in two casings. GRID is your trail casing, as it’s light and supple but burly enough to handle rock gardens. BLCK DMND takes it a step further with more heavily-reinforced sidewalls that help it to blur the line between our GRID and DH casing, while letting you ride DH tracks on a trail bike.

SIZES AND SUCH

Eliminator is available, in both GRID and BLCK DMND casings in the following sizes:

27.5 x 2.3” | 27.5 x 2.6” | 29 x 2.3” | 29 x 2.6”