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Intro
Your front tire may be the most important component on your bike, directly influencing your riding confidence more than the other parts hanging off your frame. If you want to turn the bike, whether through lean or steering, that input drives through your front tire. Trail conditions and riding style make a huge impact on which tire will work best for you, but there’s a good chance you’ll get along well with the Maxxis Assegai, High Roller, and DHX. These are the three most popular gravity oriented front tires from Maxxis, and each of them has different strengths that will cater to different scenarios, so let’s take a closer look at each tire and talk about why you may want to run one over the other.
The Assegai is the reigning champ, and has been the default front tire for just about every enduro or downhill bike on the planet since it came out in 2018. The transition knob gave it a level of predictability that few front tires could match at the time, and tons of riders never looked back.
The High Roller is the swiss army knife, fitting between the dry and wet weather specialists as a jack of all trades. It combines the best of both worlds, taking cues from the Assegai and the Shorty to perform very well in a wide range of conditions, making it a great choice when the trails are unpredictable.
The Minion DHX is the latest addition to the Minion lineup. This tire is the new kid on the block, and it’s here to shake things up with some of the largest knobs I’ve seen on any tire.
Alongside the DHX, Maxxis also debuted their New DH casing. The previous DH casing used just a small butyl insert by the bead, but the new DH casing beefs up that original insert and adds another larger plastic insert along the sidewall to increase sidewall support. Maxxis also switched from 60 TPI threads to 120 TPI for a more pliable tread, allowing the tire to conform to the trail just a little bit better. All together, the New DH casing is designed to be more supportive and more sensitive than the previous DH casing.
In my couple of months spent on this new casing, I can confirm that Maxxis has accomplished both of those goals. I’ve got all three of these test tires with the new DH casing and MaxxGrip rubber so we’ve got as close to an apples to apples comparison as possible.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves, there’s a tire we haven’t mentioned yet that definitely deserves a shoutout, and that’s the Minion DHF. This is potentially the most legendary mountain bike tire of all time, and we’re not including it in this comparison. I can already hear the comments reminiscing about how revolutionary this tire was, and trust me, I loved the DHF too back in 2016. But times have changed, and so have the tires. Maxxis seems to agree, as they aren’t offering the DHF in their new downhill casing, which means the DHF may be nearing the end of its life cycle. Let’s have a moment of silence for the Maxxis Minion DHF.
Some riders also use the rear specific Minion DHR II as a front tire, but I haven’t tried that setup before, so we’re leaving it out of this comparison, and just focusing on the three Maxxis tires that are most commonly used as front tires in 2026. All three of these tires are born from Downhill racing, but that does not mean they only work on downhill bikes. I’ve been riding them all summer long on my trail bike, ebike, and also my downhill bike to get an understanding of where each of these tires is the correct tool for the job. I’ve been all over the PNW, including Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to put these tires to the test. And honestly, I’m tired of swapping tires, so let’s talk about what I’ve learned.
Ride impressions
The most important thing I’ve learned is that these are all really dang good tires, and I’d be stoked to keep riding any of them. But as always, we’re here to split the hairs and be professional tire nerds, so that’s what we’ll do.
Assegai
Like I said earlier, some riders have kept the Assegai up front since its release eight years ago. It released in 2018, back when the first real 29er enduro bikes came out and ebikes were few and far between. Things sure have changed a lot since then, except the Assegai has remained one of the most popular tires, and for good reason. This was the first Maxxis downhill tread pattern with the transition knob between the center knobs and the side knobs, and that one little knob contributes so much to the character of the Assegai. As you lean the Assegai over, each knob hands the grip off to the next, and you’re never left floating between the center knobs and the side knobs. This is exactly why the Assegai became so popular so quickly, and why tons of riders have become die hard Assegai fans since then. It’s intuitive to ride, comes in a ton of different spec options, and has the GOAT’s blessing.
But the Assegai isn’t perfect, and struggles when it gets muddy. Its tread is made up of a lot of knobs, and they get in each other's way when the dirt is soft and you need your knobs to physically dig into the trail. It’s prone to smearing and pushing on the top layer of loose dirt instead of punching through to the traction underneath. The super complete coverage of knobs all over the tread is both what makes the Assegai such a good dry tire and what makes it a bad mud tire. It feels like there’s not enough space between each knob for the Assegai to effectively dig into the dirt, which causes it to pack up and get overwhelmed, leading to some pretty sketchy moments in the winter. If it’s super duper wet to the point where the dirt is so saturated that it doesn’t even pack up on a tire, the Assegai can still work well, but honestly you’re better off waiting for another day to ride if it’s that wet out.
Back when I lived in California and rode dry hard pack trails all year round, the Assegai literally never came off the front of my bike. It really is as good as it gets in a dry hardpack scenario where you just need to get as much rubber in contact with the trail as possible. We never rode in the rain because that would destroy those trails, so it was dry hardpack riding year round, and pretty much all of my riding buddies and I all rode Assegais. But here in Bellingham, we ride in the wet about as often as we ride in the dry, so we need to plan our tire choices accordingly. Lots of riders here in the PNW use the Assegai during the dry summer months and then switch to a more wet weather capable tire like the High Roller when the leaves start changing colors and sun sets before you get off work.
High Roller
This is the third generation of the Maxxis High Roller, and it’s completely different from the more fast rolling, rear tire focused first and second generations. It’s got the footprint of a mud spike with lots of space between each center knob but each knob isn’t as tall as a true mud spike. Its knobs are about as tall as those on the Assegai, making the High Roller a very unique tire that’s able to excel in a wide variety of conditions, and is rarely the wrong tool for the job. Because it’s such a generalist, it’s a safe bet that the High Roller will work pretty darn well for you no matter where you ride or what time of the year it is.
Where the High Roller really excels is in the shoulder season. During those months where it’s rainy and muddy one week and dry the next week with some hero dirt in between, you really can’t get a better do it all tire than the High Roller. No one wants to switch from mud tires to dry tires every week, and something like the High Roller that can manage both conditions very well is exactly what you want. The relatively squared off and spiky knobs with plenty of room around them are able to dig into loose dirt incredibly well, getting you way more traction than an Assegai when the tire is able to dig into the dirt rather than sit on top of it.
In looser dirt that lets the High Roller sit into the trail, you get a very consistent level of grip across the entire tread. If you’re sitting on top of some dry dirt, the High Roller can get a little sketchy between the center and side knobs. It’s not as scary as the DHF, which has given me some heart attack inducing front wheel washouts, but hard surfaces isn’t where the High Roller does its best work. It’s still much better than a Shorty or a Shredda in these conditions because of its shorter knobs, but doesn’t give the same consistency as an Assegai.
As a general rule of thumb, if your tires are leaving an imprint in the trail behind you, then the High Roller is probably a great choice.
The High Roller is also a great tire if you’re traveling somewhere new for an enduro or downhill race where you’re not quite sure what kind of terrain or conditions to expect. Lots of race tracks are a mix of fresh cut and bike park sections where you want a tire that can handle everything with confidence, making the High Roller a very safe choice for both enduro and downhill racing.
A dusty Squamish day for the High Roller launch in 2024
Minion DHX
While all three of these tires were developed with direct feedback from downhill racers with the highest level of downhill racing in mind, the new Minion DHX feels the most like a dedicated racing tire. Just looking down at the tread, it definitely has the highest volume center knobs and side knobs, and you can tell it means business. The center knobs are so big that they’re almost touching the side knobs, and each sideknob has tons of rubber on the outside providing support. Every other side knob has the classic Minion L shape, and it also uses some L shaped center knobs. Overall, I think it’s the meanest looking tread pattern Maxxis has ever made, and I was very excited to ride this tire when it first showed up.
The majority of my time spent on the DHX has been on my downhill bike at some races and also at the bike parks, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite front tires. The standout feature of the DHX is its side knobs and overall cornering ability. With how beefy those side knobs are, I’ve never felt the same locked in cornering sensation that I get from the DHX from any other tire. I can really feel the side knobs digging into the dirt, not squirming at all, and just pulling my front tire through the corners. The cornering knobs just feel so robust that you can load them more than any other tire before they slip out front under you, which gives me so much confidence in this front tire.
Even when it starts to slip and push out from under you, it feels like the DHX corner knobs can hold their shape and keep giving more grip than an Assegai or a High Roller that’s starting to slide. Plus with those huge center knobs covering the entire tread all the way from side knob to side knob means there’s no feeling of float or vagueness as you lean the tire over.
Because the DHX just came out this summer, I haven’t gotten a chance to ride it in truly wet conditions, but I don’t expect it to outperform the High Roller in the winter. Maxxis says the DHX is recommended for use in “All trail conditions”, but they also say the same for the Assegai, and I don’t think that’s true for the Assegai. Of course they’ll both work just fine in all trail conditions, but that’s not where they perform best. My guess is that the DHX will work pretty well in the wet. Probably not quite as well as the High Roller and a little better than the Assegai, but that’s just a guess. I’ll definitely get plenty of time to put that guess to the test in the next few months.
Braking
Front tires are typically measured in their traction and cornering capabilities, but it’s also important to think about braking. There’s definitely some debate as to whether the front or the rear tire actually provides more braking power in the real world on trail, but I think we can all agree that the front tire has more braking potential than the rear tire. Braking naturally shifts your weight forward to the front of the bike, loading that front tire and giving it tons of potential braking power. So which of these tires can take the most advantage of that potential? This was surprising to me, but I get the most braking confidence out of the High Roller.
While I would expect a tire like the DHX with its large, wide, almost DHR II esque center knobs to offer the best braking performance, the High Roller really impressed me during my testing. I think it’s because the High Roller knobs are digging into the dirt rather than dragging on top of it, and it really feels like you can stop on a dime with the High Roller up front. The Assegai and the DHX are both still very capable of slowing you down, and honestly they’re only a couple percent behind the High Roller in my opinion, but that High Roller is able to just claw at the ground and shut it down super effectively.
Weight/Rolling Speed
We should mention the weight, and because these are all downhill focused tires, they’re obviously going to be some of the heavier tires you can get, but if you want the lightest of these three heavy tires, that’s the High Roller. It’s about a hundred grams less than the Assegai and the DHX but I can’t say I noticed the weight difference on trail. I personally wouldn’t make my choice between these three based on the weight, but if you're counting the grams, there you go.
What doesn’t make a ton of sense is that the heaviest of the three, the DHX, feels like it rolls the fastest. We’re not scientists and this isn’t an objective fact, but my internal speedometer tells me that the DHX just feels a hair faster than the other two, which is one of the reasons it feels the most like a dedicated racing tire. Honestly I usually have a very hard time noticing rolling speed when I’m actually riding, but the DHX did stand out to me as rolling slightly faster than the other two. So if you’ve got a need for speed and plan on lining up in the start gate next summer, I would strongly recommend trying out the Minion DHX.
Which should you ride?
If you’re riding in a variety of conditions ranging from dry to wet and everything in between, the Maxxis High Roller is your best friend. This is probably the ultimate year round PNW tire, but it’s going to work great anywhere your tires are really able to dig into the dirt. But I bet a lot of you are wondering how the heck to decide between the Assegai and the DHX if you’re riding in the dry. There are probably lots of Assegai enjoyers who are thinking about stepping out of their comfort zone and trying out a new front tire for the first time in 8 years, and I think this is the right time to do that. The Minion DHX takes everything I love about the Assegai and turns it up a notch with bigger center knobs, more supportive side knobs, and more confidence across the board. While the Minion DHX looks like a successor to the Minion DHF, it rides more like a next generation Assegai. Those L shaped center knobs give the same consistent grip from the center knobs to the side knobs as the Assegai’s transition knob, and the DHX just builds on that consistency with more confidence in the dry loose conditions you can expect every summer.
But the one downside to the DHX is that it’s currently only available in the new DH casing, which is super overkill for most rider’s front tires. Something like an EXO+ or Double Down is usually plenty of protection for trail or enduro riding, while a downhill casing in the front is usually only used on downhill bikes or for enduro racing. Maxxis always releases their new downhill tread patterns in the DH casing first, and we’re expecting DHXs with those lighter duty casings to show up later this year, but for right now in September 2026, it’s DH casings only. If you’re reading this in the future, check our complete collection of DHX tires for further options!
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