The Supercross dirt jump-specific mountain bike tyres from DMR come at a reasonable price.
This is pretty impressive considering the features on offer. They're only available in a 26x2.1in size with a wire bead though, which might not suit everyone.
The entire tread is about 2mm deep, and the raised centre gives the tyre some serious rolling speed. We were easily able to keep up with riders on semi-slick tyres at our local sandy dirt jumps. Thanks to their light 680g weight, they're fast to accelerate too.
But it's when it comes to looser ground that the Supercross tyres really come into their own. The more aggressively shaped side knobs give an impressive and predictable amount of grip, whatever the trail surface.
They do need to be run at higher pressures, and the lightweight casing did feel as if we were going to tear the tyre off the rim when we started really railing the tight turns while running them slightly softer. Pumped right up to 60psi, they felt much more solid and we had no problems.
The amount of grip under braking is impressive too, essentially giving them enough bite to stop in the short distance between dirt jumps without a problem.