I have been using the same IRC mythos XC tires on my mountain bike for a while. Mostly because they are the best $14 kevlar beed tire you can get from Performance, but partly because the dry trail fairly non technical conditions in Boulder, CO which I called home for about 8 years.
Oh those were some sweet trails. But I have new different trails in PGH. Mostly the difference is roots and mud. The IRC Mythos are just not hooking up that well once a touch of water hits the ground, or the root is slick at all.
I had read that a bunch of racers used the Kenda Nevagal at the big US Mtn bike Champs this year, since the vermont course was such a mud fest. My local shop PGH Pro happened to have a pair of them in stock. I picked them up, because I have no problem buying my way into a skill set that I don’t have, which is riding in mud.
Oh my gawd those things rock! They hook up on anything, even though they are 2.1 just like the mythos, they are bigger, have more knobs and louder. Yes you can hear the tires, but man do they hook up on roots, logs, rocks and wierd angled trails.
Check out that tire… ooh its sweet. I have them on my klein palomino race with Mavic 717/xt with disk. And man is it a nice riding set up.