Weighing in at 555g - almost 100g less than advertised - the John Tomac Signature Series Small Block Eight is a superbly grippy, fast rolling tyre so long as you're not riding across claggy mud. If you are, the tiny gaps between the very small knobs block quickly and you end up with a mud-filled slick. The tyre is fairly good in wetter mud and it's as good as it gets in dry conditions.
The dual-compound tread grips tenaciously to almost anything solid and we really liked the fast-rolling, comfy ride of our 2.35in test tyres. 2.1 and 1.95in models are available too. In theory, their foldable beads makes them potentially problematic for a Stan's No-Tubes set-up, but we bunged in some liquid latex with Stan's rim tape and they were fine. Overall, a tyre best suited to dry, hard-pack trails but which rails along at warp factor nine.