Tyres help and advice

lbalony

I am not liking the tyres on my bike.

They are Continental x-king 2.2, I thought they were supposed to be good tyres? Up at Lee/Cragg quarry the other day they was a little slippy and not as grippy as I was hoping or I was used to on my last bike which was Nobby Nics. When I first used Nobby Nics I could not believe how good they were. They gave me confidence but these just dont.

What good tyres are about? Does anyone have advice on what are good and what set ups are good i.e. one for the front and different for the rear?

Or should I just get some nobby nics again.

raldat

What compound contis are you running, race sport or regular. The regular are supposed to be rubbish (I have never used them). The race sport are fantastic and cheaper than the Schwables. I have not run them side by side but I have Schwables (evo) on my new 29er and I am super happy with them, but I was also super happy with my contis on the old bike. For me they are much of a muchness as long as you are running the good compound.

Of course nfor tread aggressiveness, I think the NN are on par with the Conti mountain kings. The Rocket Rons are slightly more aggressive than the x kings and the Racing Ralph's slightly more aggressive than the race kings.

I tend to run x king front and race king rear (on the new bike rocket Ron front and racing Ralph rear). When it starts to mud up, i move the x king to the back and put a mountain king on the front. 2 x mountain king when it is really wet. That is on the old bike. No idea on the new as it is a 29er. I have a mountain king for the front but have not used it yet.

WindyG

Have you tried different tyre pressures? with Maxxis Ignitors I ran quite low pressure when i tried the same pressure with Rocket Rons I found they moved around too much, increased the pressure both front and rear and the grip level was so much better.

lbalony

Thats a good idea tbh. I ran 35psi on the front and rear. Might try 30psi.

guandax

I've been running a Rocket Ron 2.25 on the rear for over a year now and think it's perfect - fast, excellent grip and loads of warning when it's going to slip. Had a Racing Ralph on for a while which was also good but it would slide away uncontrollably with no notice if pushed too hard on bends - freaked me out - it only lasted 2 rides before being replaced with a RR again. Only downside of RR's is they don't last that long. Running Kenda Nevegal on the front which will last as long as two RR's for me.

lbalony

Two tyres I have never considered. Thats good advice.

I have dropped my pressures to 30psi front & rear and seems an improvement so far. How low can I go though?

Northwind

Not being funny, but folks, how can you give anyone tyre advice with so little knowledge of what they'll do with it?

For the OP- what bike, what sort of riding, how heavy are you?

DCR00

I think the original question about compound is pretty relevent. If you have the "basic, not much better than plastic" compound, then your grip levels will be shoot. I have a Mountain King that i got from Halfords a couple of years ago and its a waste of a tyre. Washes out at the slightest turn of the wheel, regardless of pressure.

Switched to 60a compound on either Minion or Ardent, and you can run hard or soft and they tend to grip like a baby to a tit

lbalony

Northwind wrote:

Not being funny, but folks, how can you give anyone tyre advice with so little knowledge of what they'll do with it?

For the OP- what bike, what sort of riding, how heavy are you?

Hi. I ride places like lee/cragg quarry, gisburn, sherwood, dalby, stainburn, so a bit of a mix to be honest.

lbalony

DCR00 wrote:

I think the original question about compound is pretty relevent. If you have the "basic, not much better than plastic" compound, then your grip levels will be shoot. I have a Mountain King that i got from Halfords a couple of years ago and its a waste of a tyre. Washes out at the slightest turn of the wheel, regardless of pressure.

Switched to 60a compound on either Minion or Ardent, and you can run hard or soft and they tend to grip like a baby to a tit

I agree I could really know with what tyres they are. Even from Conti's website I cannot make out which X-King they are. They don't even look the same as in the pictures. Mine are Continental X-KING 2.2 but all in white. There is no way of telling which they are from this list and compounds.

http://www.conti-tyres.co.uk/conticycle ... King.shtml

Northwind

Conti's OEM-spec tyres are incredibly bad, if they came on your bike (which we might be able to guess, if you told us what it was ) then there's a pretty good chance they're awful. Mind you Nobby Nics aren't very good either.

From what you describe, what you're after is some sort of sensible trailcentry allrounder- x-king is designed as a crosscountry tyre and the good ones will be fairly up for your riding but the bad ones won't. Lots of favourite options- Kenda Nevegals, Maxxis Minions or Specialized's Butcher/Purgatory combo (on the more hardcore end of things), Conti's Rubber Queens maybe. Or you might want to go with something faster rolling, which is where the Nics and things like that come in- Ardents, etc.

Every tyre's got its comfort zone- frinstance, I'm using a pair of Specialized Butchers on the big bike. There is absolutely nothing they can't do, apart from roll quickly, so they're brilliant for hard use but bloody hard work for xc or big climbs. Hardtail's got a Nevegal 2.35 and a Slant 6 on it, which is a great trailcentre option but lacks the sheer grip of the Butchers. XC bike's got a pair of Karmas, which are also great but would be useless for what the big bike gets used for. Just a question of speciality. By and large, something's got to give and the idea is to make it something you don't care about much- with me, usually rolling speed.

But there's no best tyre- there are bad tyres and good tyres but if you put the wrong good tyre on it's still a bad tyre

DCR00

I can recommend the Ardent. I used to use Minions on my trail bike and they are really good, but they don't roll too well, so i swapped out for Ardents. They don't have quite the same levels of grip, but not far off, and they roll well.

What makes both tyres is the compound. Not long after i fitted the Minions i went to CYB and rode the MBR trail. The rocky section towards the end was under water the whole way and the tyres didn't even blink. I cant see me using any other brand of tyre TBH.

lbalony

Yeah they came with my Norco Sight. So OE. Think I need to purchase some new ones

kenan

Quote from the review of the Norco Sight 2 "Kit levels are fair for the price with the exception of the cheap compound Continental tyres, which were just horrible when wet" and "A lively, agile yet balanced and very capable trail bike with great kit. Just throw away the tyres" - http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... e-13-47153

I have a garage full of tyres and have a Continental x-king 2.2 in the protection/black chili and just don't get on with it. Rolls really well but I find for my riding it lacks grip and I only use it in the summer on the back of my XC bike.