Mountain Kings II or Panaracer XC Pro??

Cr3do

Hello all,

Just wondering what the best tyres is out of these 2. Mainly for a mixture or off-road terrain and trail riding.

Panaracer Fire XC Pro Folding 2.1
http://www.merlincycles.com/bike-shop/t ... tubes.html

Mountain King II RaceSport 2,2
http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k/a42257/details.html?

Thanks for the help.

Anonymous

I have the Panaracer XC Pro tyres and while there amazin for mud I found them too grippy for all round use, I went back to the Schwalbes and I had a huge speed increase, I find theres too much rolling resistance with the panaracers, I think there a tyre for a purpose but I wouldnt run them again as a permenant tyre.

cooldad

I believe Schwalbe make more than one tyre.

@Cr3do - any reason for those two in particular? What sort of riding do you do?

Cr3do

cooldad wrote:

I believe Schwalbe make more than one tyre.

@Cr3do - any reason for those two in particular? What sort of riding do you do?

No great reason, just seem to be the ones I've seen recommended the most for general all round use?

Ive been doing quite a mix of riding; mud, grass, gravel, rocky, types of terrain. Will be hitting some trail centres in the near future like Lee and Cragg quarry and Llandegla, hence the reason of getting better tyres.

Any recommendation appreciated, thanks.

YeehaaMcgee

The Mountain kings are a peculiar tyre. I absolutely love them, and they are unquestionably the best tyre I've tried on the terrain here in Snowdonia, by a long way.
However, others don't get on with them at all.
So they seem to excel, or suck, with no real in-betweens.

cooldad

Problem is, do a forum search and you'll find just about every tyre, and permutation recommended as the best ever.

cooldad

For example
viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12860282

YeehaaMcgee

I know if I was looking for a safe bet, I'd probably be looking at Maxxis Ignitors.
That may not help.

cooldad

That's what I use, but no one else seems to. I thought they just made them for me, specially like.

YeehaaMcgee

Oh. I hadn't realised.
Would you be ok if I bought two of them for my second bike?
I know a lot of riders who swear by them - but generally speaking those riders do tend to ride more trail centres than anything else.

ElliesDad

I recently changed the MK2's that came OEM on my bike to Panaracer Fire XC Pros. For me the XC's are much better, when pumped up to 55psi they offer little rolling resistance on tarmac and when dropped to 35psi they are much grippier than the MK's on trails they also perform well in mud. By comparison the MK's slid all over the place in the wet and were almost laughable in muddy conditions.

cooldad

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Oh. I hadn't realised.
Would you be ok if I bought two of them for my second bike?
I know a lot of riders who swear by them - but generally speaking those riders do tend to ride more trail centres than anything else.

I think I could allow that, tell them I sent you.
I don't get to trail centres very often and mainly ride natural singletrack, but it is the softy south and not particularly rocky so I suppose it's similar to the S Wales trail centres. The runs down are just a tad shorter.

cooldad

ElliesDad wrote:

I recently changed the MK2's that came OEM on my bike to Panaracer Fire XC Pros. For me the XC's are much better, when pumped up to 55psi they offer little rolling resistance on tarmac and when dropped to 35psi they are much grippier than the MK's on trails they also perform well in mud. By comparison the MK's slid all over the place in the wet and were almost laughable in muddy conditions.

OEM tyres are generally wire bead and rubbish compounds, so not really comparable to aftermarket folding bead, black chili compound.

YeehaaMcgee

ElliesDad wrote:

I recently changed the MK2's that came OEM on my bike to Panaracer Fire XC Pros

OEM tyres never compare well to aftermarket ones though, they often run the lowest quality compound, and are the cheapest possible option.
The black chilli compound from Conti really is some peculiar stuff, the tyres squeak constantly on any hard surface, like a kind of squeaky-clean glass in your hands, and grips tenaciously, even though the rubber feels strangely plasticy.

cooldad wrote:

I don't get to trail centres very often and mainly ride natural singletrack, but it is the softy south and not particularly rocky so I suppose it's similar to the S Wales trail centres. The runs down are just a tad shorter.

Never ridden a S.Wales trail centre. Lots of terrain here is a strange kind of slippery marshy stuff, with a razor sharp rocky, jagged bedrock, and the MKIIs grab it like limpets.

cooldad

The S Wales centres are fairly smooth, not very rocky, and drain well. You would hate them.
Not even any sheep for mid ride R&R.

YeehaaMcgee

by R&R I take it you mean, roger and roast?

cooldad

Yup, in whichever order you want if you prefer a bit of sheepcrophilia.

jayson

Ive used both but suffered a ridiculous amount of punctures with teh MK's and when switched with XC Pro's i never had another one.

XC Pro's are in my opinion the best all round tires aslong as you dont plan on gettin into really sticky mud where they dont really work very well, they'll pretty much excell in most other conditions though.

YeehaaMcgee

What other tyres have you used to compare the XC Pros to?

jayson

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

What other tyres have you used to compare the XC Pros to?

Me? cinders, trail rakers, mountain kings, michelin something or other, high rollers, bonty xr4 and a handful of others i cant remember. For me the XC Pro is the best all rounder but it doesnt excel in any one thing especially mud as i said.

cooldad

I believe those Michelin something or others are amazing.

supersonic

Just having a convo on the worst ever tyres on FB - Spesh Captain/Fast Track and Fire XC Pro are current winners!

Thewaylander

supersonic wrote:

Just having a convo on the worst ever tyres on FB - Spesh Captain/Fast Track and Fire XC Pro are current winners!

For me personally so far.. nobby Nic's god damn i hated them lol

YeehaaMcgee

jayson wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

What other tyres have you used to compare the XC Pros to?

Me? cinders, trail rakers, mountain kings, michelin something or other, high rollers, bonty xr4 and a handful of others i cant remember. For me the XC Pro is the best all rounder but it doesnt excel in any one thing especially mud as i said.

Fair enough. It sounded a little like you'd only compared two tyres!

It's not surprise that someone would love one tyre, which would be hated by another rider. Conditions vary dramatically across the country.

Good Old Bakes

Didn't want to start a new thread for this but I've just ordered 2 of these from Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290713525855?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I think I've made a mistake in thinking these were the XC version but someone at work says they're not. Now I realise that it doesn't say XC on the description. Does anyone know what type these are and how they differ from the XC version? They're probably exactly the same in all honesty I bet. Thanks.

cooldad

They are the harder compound, not the exception (softer) but very decent tyres and they are the light folding ones. They are for XC. Doesn't make much difference except the softer ones are a bit better on hard dry stuff.

angry_bird

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

I know if I was looking for a safe bet, I'd probably be looking at Maxxis Ignitors.
That may not help.

I've found ignitors to be my favourite tyre as things go as an all round sort of tyre, I find plenty of grip in corners, behaves predictably, not too high a rolling resistance really. Have been thinking about MKIIs for more of the not motorway trail centre welsh proper mountainy riding type stuff though...

Personally I hate Panaracer Fires, a mate uses them and I can't understand why, I mean I suppose they look a bit like you might expect a tyre to look, round, rubbery, knobs on them, but they don't seem to be good at much at all other than going round and round and not being very grippy, but he likes them... each to their own and all that.

I think it's fair to say that when it comes to tyres a lot of it comes down to building up confidence with certain tyres and knowing how to get the best out of them.

Good Old Bakes wrote:

Didn't want to start a new thread for this but I've just ordered 2 of these from Ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290713525855?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I think I've made a mistake in thinking these were the XC version but someone at work says they're not. Now I realise that it doesn't say XC on the description. Does anyone know what type these are and how they differ from the XC version? They're probably exactly the same in all honesty I bet. Thanks.

Those are a decent choice, doubt they'll weigh the 520g claimed though, probably closer 580g mark not that it really matters much in the grand scheme of things. They're just a harder compound like cooldad says, still decent tyres that should do a good job for you, hopefully, maybe, possibly.

cooldad

Not sure about the weight as I don't weigh my bits, but I use 2.35's and according to one of the weight weenies type sites they are around the high fives, so the 2.1's could well be low fives. I have one knocking around somewhere but as my drug dealing days are over (joke for njee and others without a sense of humour) all I have is a bathroom scale that's in the airing cupboard as it's too depressing to actually use.

Good Old Bakes

Thanks for the replies guys. Whatever they weigh, they surely can't be heavier than my current Land Cruisers, which weigh in at about 900g each. I'm not at the stage yet where I worry about extra grammage or paying double the price for softer compound tyres.

YeehaaMcgee

cooldad wrote:

as my drug dealing days are over (joke for njee and others without a sense of humour)

Try it in the road section - I hear they're all junkies there.

cooldad

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

cooldad wrote:

as my drug dealing days are over (joke for njee and others without a sense of humour)

Try it in the road section - I hear they're all junkies there.

Yeah but they do silly drugs, not fun stuff. Pointless.