Small Block 8 or Race Kings ?

ric7481

South Downs Way - mainly hardpack, dry and dusty, chalk with flints - hardtail bike - summer tyres .......... :?: :roll: please vote between kenda small block 8's or Continental Race Kings - thankyou

ads4

Out of the two I would go Small Block 8....

Though I had the same choice and went Crossmark

Broonster

+ 1 for Crossmarks

CraziScot

Race Kings are great on the dry and hard, not to bad on gravel, assuming you are tubed, get the supersonics and they are silly fast, you'll outrun roadies on the tarmac with them! On the flip side any mud what so ever and forget about it, traction isn't great, they get skittish and if the mud is deeper that about half an inch, its like riding on sheet ice.

CraziScot

Race Kings are great on the dry and hard, not to bad on gravel, assuming you are tubed, get the supersonics and they are silly fast, you'll outrun roadies on the tarmac with them! On the flip side any mud what so ever and forget about it, traction isn't great, they get skittish and if the mud is deeper that about half an inch, its like riding on sheet ice.

peter413

Out of those, Small Blocks but as has already been said, I would go for the crossmarks

Northwind

Race Kings are pretty good but they're, well, racy. Quite small, they do pretty well in mud for that reason but they'd not be my choice for general use. Or race use tbh but they're decent tyres, way better than Speed Kings.

Crossmarks are good, but not as fast as the Small Blocks nor as good in the wet. Then again, wet chalk, I don't see SBs being any good at that either. The size of the SB is their big advantage, the 2.35 is still fast and reasonaly light (600g or so) but it's a proper big tough trail carcass so gives good volume and protection. Even the 2.1 is a decent size

It just depends what you want. SBs are a trail tyre that just happens to be fast enough to race on. Crossmarks and Race Kings are more race tyres that just happen to be good enough to be allrounders.

GHill

I fitted a small block 8 (2.1) on Friday and have put 40 off road miles onto it. It's fast and I haven't felt it losing grip when I didn't want it to.

Roger_Ramjet

Not sure why Crossmarks always come up in these discussions. I went from SB8 to Crossmarks and I can't wait for my new SB8s to arrive. The crossmarks are very slow and heavy compared to the SB8. My son is an avid rider and without prior discussion immediatly mentioned how slow and heavy the bike felt after a test ride. Another thing no one has mentioned which makes me wonder if they ever ride Crossmarks off road. The tyre seems to be specifically designed to lift dirt into the air and drop it into your shoe. I'm not exagerating. It's really bad. (on the weird side it doesn't lift water at all??) The SB8s are like having a new bike. When you first put them on it feels like your bike has some secret engine you weren't aware of. You literally fly with this tire. Downsides. You need maximum tire pressure (I weigh in at 200 pounds) or the tire rolls on corners and even then you get a bit of roll. Not great with broken glass and thorns but I use slime which works 9 out of 10 times. Also the tyre does wear down fairly quickly. But the advantages. wow they are fast!

97th choice

WTTF, that's a bit of a crazy topic resurrection!!!

peter413

Roger_Ramjet wrote:

Not sure why Crossmarks always come up in these discussions. I went from SB8 to Crossmarks and I can't wait for my new SB8s to arrive. The crossmarks are very slow and heavy compared to the SB8. My son is an avid rider and without prior discussion immediatly mentioned how slow and heavy the bike felt after a test ride. Another thing no one has mentioned which makes me wonder if they ever ride Crossmarks off road. The tyre seems to be specifically designed to lift dirt into the air and drop it into your shoe. I'm not exagerating. It's really bad. (on the weird side it doesn't lift water at all??) The SB8s are like having a new bike. When you first put them on it feels like your bike has some secret engine you weren't aware of. You literally fly with this tire. Downsides. You need maximum tire pressure (I weigh in at 200 pounds) or the tire rolls on corners and even then you get a bit of roll. Not great with broken glass and thorns but I use slime which works 9 out of 10 times. Also the tyre does wear down fairly quickly. But the advantages. wow they are fast!

First thing, what Small Block's and Crossmark's have you used and compared? There are so many different types designed for different jobs.

Secondly, I have never noticed excess dirt being thrown up but then dirt is always getting thrown up anyway so isn't something I would really notice. It's actually a good thing that dirt is being thrown up, means the tyre is clearing very well. It's how mud spikes work.

Thirdly, what you say about having to run maximum pressure or the tyre rolls, I'm the wrong side of 100 kg and don't have a single problem running 40 psi on the back with my 2.25 Crossmark, if anything I could drop the pressure even more if I weren't worried about pinch flats (and before you say it, I run the same pressure in dual ply DH tyres as well so it isn't because of the tyre). Never ran one on the front properly but my experiance with other 2.35 and 2.25 Maxxis' is good and they're similar carcasses.

And lastly, I'm not sure what you mean by fast wearing but I can usually get about a year from a Crossmark on the rear, only my Black Chili Contintal Baron's last better but they actually seem a little more fragile than the Crossmark, a few knobs are starting to tear and there are a few tears in the rubber as well, none on the Crossmark. So it sounds like the Crossmark quite possibly wears better than the Small Block's.

I realise I've written a fair bit there but it's all my experience with Crossmark's. FWIW, if I would only run one set of tyre's forever, it would be a 2.3 Specialized Butcher Control on the front with a 2.25 60a Crossmark on the back. Before I would have said a pair of Baron's because I had never found a front tyre I was truly happy with on hardpack but since trying the Butcher, I haven't looked back. I find Crossmark's to be perfectly fast, sure they aren't the fastest tyre of all but they still offer plenty of grip, I have never wished for more grip on most surfaces with the Crossmark, mud is really the only thing I would like more on but, as said in my second point, they clear very well so still offer a decent amount.