New Season, New Tires, New Thread

[GravityDT]

Been running the Kryp enduro’s this spring as well on the Ripmo. Crazy grip in all conditions and they’re rolling really well too. Wear has been real minimal to date. Zero install problem on the WAO rims too

[SJG]

I was a total Maxxis nutswinger but have changed allegiances to the Kryptotals F&R, SS front and S rear as of 2yrs ago. They are a touch more slippery on wet stuff, but 98% of my riding is dry desert. Krypts are way faster rolling than DHF/DHR2, AND last 2x as long.

[Tailwind]

Short review on the Continental Dubnital.
I purchased the rapid race in a 2.4 and there are great things about them but overall I am not entirely sold.
The good - they are light at about 650 grams. The roll noticibly fast. Grip on compact dirt is very impressive a lot more than the specialized fast trak I was using before up front. Sidewalls feel good for such a light tire less wiggle than I had expected.
The bad - I have had them for 2 weeks and a number of the side knobs are pulling off. About 200-250 miles on them but they are wearing very quickly. I think as a rear it may be a 350-400 mile tire. The specilized Renegades I have used in the past are more like 700-800 miles.
They are also by far the scariest tire I've ever used in sand and decomposing granite style gravel. They are a very rounded shape even on a 30mm rim and the side knobs are much taller than the center tread. I can not tell exactly but it seems like on they ride like a narrower tire based on the shape and maybe the taller side knobs are prone to pulling when they find traction? I had these on a race last weekend on decomposing granite laid the bike down going pretty fast when it shifted unpredictably. I've ridden this soil type a lot but had five or ten close calls keeping the bike upright which is way more than normal.
On the right trails (high alpine Colorado for example) they would be incredible if you can accept the rate at which they wear.

[XtrPickels]

Interested re. Sideknobs. I ran RaceKings for years and would tear knobs off the regular version but was good with the Bernstein. Stinks they may not have resolved that issue.
Based on the BicycleRollingResistance tests, grip on hard surfaces should be really good- class leading for fast XC tires, so that makes sense.

I'm a little confused about your mention of shape. Are you saying the casing is round, but with tall side-knobs the profile is more square?
Are you running 2.4"s?

[Tailwind]

Yes running the 2.4.
This may not make full sense but I will do my best to explain what I have noticed. In most conditions they grip way way better than anticipated. Very impressive descending confidence in most soil.

They are quite round. Side nobs are deep but they are way around the casing so the overall shape is still round. On sand and loose dirt, I feel like it rides like a narrower tire based on the shape. IE it dives in a bit deeper and is less prone to floating. Riding on the western slope, when you hit sand, they float a bit less and get pulled around more. I'm actually totally fine with this as most chunks of sand are short and suck regardless. It is also only a little bit worse feeling in these areas.
The other sensation came from riding out at Buffalo creek and was essentially that in some instances in the loose granite, the side nob is the first thing to find traction and can pull unpredictably. It is possible that this is expanding on me just not feeling comfortable on the tire in loose soil and I was having a hard time balancing. It felt like in sections with some loose soil in the middle of single track, the bike is upright and the tire is skimming along and then the tire would have a side nob grab and want to pull the bike. Think of a concave trail section with some loose dirt deposited in there.
It may just be me and it is likely specific to loose over hard. I did the Hundo last weekend and crashed once and had 7-8 other close calls which is very uncommon for me. I lived in comfier until recently and rode out there a bunch and while every tire does this sometimes in that soil it was prononuned on the Dubnital.

That being said, I have not had this problem in other soil types. Good tire. Main complaint is durability.

[Name Redacted]

So I've got this Mukluk fat bike that I put a motor on. It is kinda cool, but the fat ass tires wear out pretty fast and I don't really need them to be so fat anyway since it is mainly for just riding around town in the summer. I have Rolling Darryl rims. What is a skinnier tire with a harder compound that I could throw on there?

[One (+) Sentence]

Im back on Schwalbe Albert Radials after a month re visiting the Assegai and DHR2 combo. I find the Schwalbe tires have better rebound characteristics, are quieter, smoother, roll faster, and have as much or more outright grip.

[Spencer123]

If I am running a double down Maxxis rear tire and want something similarly durable am I looking for enduro casing or downhill casing from continental? I feel like I am reading mixed descriptions of enduro being equivalent to exo plus vs some saying it’s closer to double down. Thanks!

[D(C)]

Conti downhill casing is the closer equivalent to Maxxis DD. Conti Enduro is more like EXO+.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Can someone explain to me what's so great about the new Continental tires? They all look slow. The cornering knobs look fine enough, nothing very spectacular. For those of us with No Rocks(tm) on our local trails, they look heavy, slow, and unremarkable. I'm not saying they necessarily look bad, just nothing to get so excited about. Also, that rear specific tire looks like a front tire. Is it the rubber compound?
I'm more excited about the mystery Maxxis prototype that looks like an updated DHF.

[Huskier]

Conti downhill casing is the closer equivalent to Maxxis DD. Conti Enduro is more like EXO+.

Eh, little tougher though. I've borked & rolled my share of EXO+ as a rear, enduro conti I've yet to slice or tear a lug despite my best efforts and sidewalls seem to hold a little better. With the caveat that I've not yet exposed them to shale or pumice.

And re: what's better. I think in a nutshell they are marginally lighter and roll faster than they look like they should.

[jdadour]

I would second that. Im running Conti Enduro casings on my bike park rig, and they are heavier and feel more heavy duty that Exo+. They are probably somewhere between Exo+ and DD, leaning towards DD.

[Andeh]

Yeah, the Contis roll faster than they look. Enduro Magazine just did a tire roundup where they actually tried to do some lab testing, and their rolling resistance measured in watts is quite a bit lower than similar Maxxis offerings. I suspect quite a bit of that comes down to different rubber layup. Apparently even for their "Super Soft", they use a soft rubber core and a more durable outer, which is the opposite of how Maxxis does it (soft over hard). That makes the Contis roll faster and last longer, at the expense of being less grippy on wet roots & rocks.