Swiss brand Onza has pushed its tough 27.5in mud tyre further into enduro territory from the significantly lighter 26in version we rated a few seasons ago. At over a kilo, the fatter Greina is clearly built to last, with a thicker dual-ply carcass using a coarse construction to resist casing penetration.

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The Onza Greina bead snapped on to the rim fiercely, sealed first time and immediately felt solid when slicing through loose clag. Even with aggressively ramped leading tread edges, it bobbles on hard ground and feels quite slow to turn over and maintain speed. This makes sense with the thicker casing, but it does use a firmer 65a durometer centre strip, so we’d expected to roll a bit faster.

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Despite these harder blocks on the crown, hold and braking poise on greasy surfaces going straight is very assured. Leant over hard, grip seemed to fade away in a few instances — nothing too bad, but the tyre tends to float, rather than catch an edge. There’s also a sense that the offset edge knobs flutter in long, flat, greasy corners or when holding off-camber slopes.

Like its dry-conditions equivalent, the Onza Ibex (which shares a similar rubber compound and casing), the Greina lasts well, and clears superbly, so we can only conclude that it’s the tread pattern we’re not fully sold on.

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