Continental Race King for street trials?

[Swoofty]

Calling all you 26" street rollers out there. Anyone tried the Conti Race Kings, front or rear? I've tried the Cross Kings, but the edge knobs are too abrupt and don't hold odd ledges well. I'm currently running Maxxis Ikon rear and Michelin Pilot Slope front.  The Ikons are great, too expensive at the moment and the Slopes are very quick wearing and hard to find.

[Ali C]

I found them a little too lightweight, I had to run pretty high pressures and it made the bike feel pretty harsh. I also tore a sidewall blasting a pumptrack berm. Grip was pretty average too.

[manuel]

Yeah - they are very very thin, and the rubber is pretty hard. I also found them to be pretty massive compared to a similarly sized(labeled) maxxis

[John Shrewsbury]

Tread is terrible on the race kings, I found it Just breaks off after 1 or 2 rides. I have a couple of pairs of ikons to test out this year. But atm I’m currently running the schwalbe racing Ralph’s (tubeless) There great grip and decent weight around 600g.

Edited March 8, 2022 by John Shrewsbury

[Swoofty]

Thanks fellas. I'll look into a Racing Ralph or an Ikon for the front then. Cheers!

[Daan]

On 3/8/2022 at 3:37 PM, John Shrewsbury said:

Tread is terrible on the race kings, I found it Just breaks off after 1 or 2 rides. I have a couple of pairs of ikons to test out this year. But atm I’m currently running the schwalbe racing Ralph’s (tubeless) There great grip and decent weight around 600g.

Keeping this topic alive I've broken the bead/casing on my rear Ikon after two months, as usual with all my Maxxis tyres. After a while they just start to wobble like mad. A shame it happened so fast on this one, since the thread is still good. And I did really like the Ikon, great grip and a really damped/soft ride. But, it was also a bit too wide for the Hex in 2.35; tended to rub the chain stays. With the wobble, it really started to dig into the frame, making it quite unusable.

So I just replaced it with a Racing Ralph 2.25 (super ground addix speed, who comes up with these names?). After mounting, it looks pretty skinny and low volume compared to the Ikon. However, first ride in, agree with you John, great grip! They also feel a bit smoother rolling and pivoting, maybe because of the rounded off tread. Pretty pleased with them so far! How are yours holding up?

[John Shrewsbury]

2 hours ago, Daan said:

Keeping this topic alive I've broken the bead/casing on my rear Ikon after two months, as usual with all my Maxxis tyres. After a while they just start to wobble like mad. A shame it happened so fast on this one, since the thread is still good. And I did really like the Ikon, great grip and a really damped/soft ride. But, it was also a bit too wide for the Hex in 2.35; tended to rub the chain stays. With the wobble, it really started to dig into the frame, making it quite unusable.

So I just replaced it with a Racing Ralph 2.25 (super ground addix speed, who comes up with these names?). After mounting, it looks pretty skinny and low volume compared to the Ikon. However, first ride in, agree with you John, great grip! They also feel a bit smoother rolling and pivoting, maybe because of the rounded off tread. Pretty pleased with them so far! How are yours holding up?

That’s great the Schwalbes are doing the job, I really love running them. Just wished they did them in tan wall.  Im currently use them as a backup tyre or during winter time. But yeh the tread works really well for rolling and grip.

I’m on maxxis ikon 2.2 tan walls atm and they feel great as well.

 

[Sam Song]

I also want to bump this as I am trying to set up a streety trials bike for the first time. 

How are people able to run such light rear tires for street trials riding? I get that it is beneficial to have a light rear end to have a more equal weight distribution front and back but don't you also land on sharp edges like you would for pure trials riding? 

If you want a low rolling resistance rear tire for street riding, wouldn't a balded Kaiser or a Tryall tire give you that while keeping the same puncture resistance?

It seems that some people keep the heavy rear tires for building street trials bikes and some are able to use lighter weight rear tires for street trials. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Sam Song

[Ali C]

Tubeless and inserts  

[Mark W]

3 hours ago, Sam Song said:

If you want a low rolling resistance rear tire for street riding, wouldn't a balded Kaiser or a Tryall tire give you that while keeping the same puncture resistance?

They'll still be much, much slower feeling than most of the tyres people use for street trials, and will feel pretty sluggish due to the sidewall and compounds too. I got a chance to try out some of the Conti MacAskill tyres when they were first prototyping them, and one of the sets was the same as the other tyres but in the Der Kaiser Black Chilli compound. Even with the rest of the tyre being exactly the same, that Der Kaiser compound tyre rolled noticeably slower and rebounded much slower simply because of the compound. The Der Kaisers always feel fairly lifeless which can be good in some ways, but it'll just feel like an anchor on the back of a streety bike. I suppose the Stiky Lite tyre might not be as bad, but the original Stiky wouldn't be a million miles off that same feeling too.

The other thing to bear in mind is when you have a wider rear than front tyre, if you're doing things on two wheels (such as carving into spins) it tends to make the bike handle differently. That's why most street trials bikes have matching tyre sizes front and rear as you get a more predictable ride from it. 

The last thing to consider is that most street trials setups will have way higher tyre pressures than you'd use on a trials bike, and part of that is puncture protection. You do also need it for stability too, but a lot of it is to prevent pinches. 

It'd be interesting to know what the Kenda Booster would be like. They're available in 26x2.2 and 26x2.4 in a few different compounds and casings from the look of things.

[Sam Song]

3 hours ago, Mark W said:

They'll still be much, much slower feeling than most of the tyres people use for street trials, and will feel pretty sluggish due to the sidewall and compounds too. I got a chance to try out some of the Conti MacAskill tyres when they were first prototyping them, and one of the sets was the same as the other tyres but in the Der Kaiser Black Chilli compound. Even with the rest of the tyre being exactly the same, that Der Kaiser compound tyre rolled noticeably slower and rebounded much slower simply because of the compound. The Der Kaisers always feel fairly lifeless which can be good in some ways, but it'll just feel like an anchor on the back of a streety bike. I suppose the Stiky Lite tyre might not be as bad, but the original Stiky wouldn't be a million miles off that same feeling too.

The other thing to bear in mind is when you have a wider rear than front tyre, if you're doing things on two wheels (such as carving into spins) it tends to make the bike handle differently. That's why most street trials bikes have matching tyre sizes front and rear as you get a more predictable ride from it. 

The last thing to consider is that most street trials setups will have way higher tyre pressures than you'd use on a trials bike, and part of that is puncture protection. You do also need it for stability too, but a lot of it is to prevent pinches. 

It'd be interesting to know what the Kenda Booster would be like. They're available in 26x2.2 and 26x2.4 in a few different compounds and casings from the look of things.

Great! Yeah thanks for the explanation

On the topic of Race Kings, they make it in "Shieldwall" trim that is even heavier than their existing Protection line. At 700 grams, it may have a sturdy enough sidewall for use in the rear. I will give it a try for my build. 

https://www.continental-tires.com/bicycle/tires/mountainbike-tires/race-king-shieldwall-system

 

[Daan]

Hm, I might try something else than Racing Ralphs again, damn, two big ass tears. And on closer inspection, many side and middle knobbies coming loose/half torn off. Meh.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Daan

[JakeRider]

On 10/6/2022 at 6:00 PM, Daan said:

Hm, I might try something else than Racing Ralphs again, damn, two big ass tears. And on closer inspection, many side and middle knobbies coming loose/half torn off. Meh.

Did you run over something and tear a tire like that? Or was it just worn out?

On 7/13/2022 at 4:55 PM, Sam Song said:

Great! Yeah thanks for the explanation

On the topic of Race Kings, they make it in "Shieldwall" trim that is even heavier than their existing Protection line. At 700 grams, it may have a sturdy enough sidewall for use in the rear. I will give it a try for my build. 

https://www.continental-tires.com/bicycle/tires/mountainbike-tires/race-king-shieldwall-system

 

I have one of these - it's a great option! I like them all. 

[Daan]

9 hours ago, JakeRider said:

Did you run over something and tear a tire like that? Or was it just worn out?

Besides that huge tear, it was tearing off knobs left and right, not really worn out, so probably just absolutely not suited to trials abuse. Haven't had that with other tyres, so must be something Schwalbe, or at least this tyre. Trying the race king protection now.

[AdamR28]

Do you have any videos of your riding Daan? You seem to bust a lot of weird stuff (I'm the same on MTB!) and I'm intrigued 

[Daan]

Hahaha oh shit busted! My style with everything seems to be a bit 'more power than technique', but I felt my trials riding was definitely getting a bit smoother lately. Don't know man, maybe it's my weight (93 kg or so with clothes) that's a bit much for these little parts? Or maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist expecting and noticing too much?

I do have some fairly recent practice clips of me torturing my bike: https://photos.app.goo.gl/croG2YU9idAu2bKKA

 

 

[AdamR28]

That's a lot of power then, you're a big dude! That may explain things, especially combined with a keen eye for detail.

[Daan]

That keen eye can be a bit annoying sometimes You also have me curious though Adam, with busting weird stuff on mtb. Any good stories?

[AdamR28]

Not really anything too exciting... I just seem to go through rear hub bearings at an alarming rate, plus pedals. Bloody pedals. I think I've finally cracked it with some Shimano XTR, but I was wearing out the bearings / bushings in posh pedals really fast (like... under a month). SRAM DUB BBs wouldn't last any longer either. My home setup using a Hope internal top headset cup and 41mm bearing on the left, a Chris King 42mm headset bearing fitted into a reamed out Hope cup on the other side, and a pair of Echo crown races is still running well after almost a year though, thankfully.

My theory is that these components were designed for and tested on "normal" bikes, but singlespeed requires massively higher loads. You might climb at 30rpm rather than the "usual" 90rpm, so to make the same power output you need to apply 3x the torque, meaning 3x the load...

 

Waffled on a bit there 

[Daan]

Aye a fellow single speeder Don't get me started on bearings haha, but that sounds like a proper hack setup you've got there with some nice and large bearings! I guess single speeders a a particular (peculiar?) kind of breed

[JakeRider]

On 10/13/2022 at 12:00 PM, Daan said:

Hahaha oh shit busted! My style with everything seems to be a bit 'more power than technique', but I felt my trials riding was definitely getting a bit smoother lately. Don't know man, maybe it's my weight (93 kg or so with clothes) that's a bit much for these little parts? Or maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist expecting and noticing too much?

I do have some fairly recent practice clips of me torturing my bike: https://photos.app.goo.gl/croG2YU9idAu2bKKA/

 

 

It's not bad at all! I don't have that level either.

[Daan]

On 10/13/2022 at 3:18 AM, AdamR28 said:

You seem to bust a lot of weird stuff

Well, here's another one. Don't know if its weird, too much power, bad luck or a production fault with that weld right there, but it's a first for me: Broke my Inspired Hex yesterday, quite catastrophically. Fortunately not broken myself!

[signo97]

3 hours ago, Daan said:

Well, here's another one. Don't know if its weird, too much power, bad luck or a production fault with that weld right there, but it's a first for me: Broke my Inspired Hex yesterday, quite catastrophically. Fortunately not broken myself!

i have the same frame, i’m scared 

[AdamR28]

A frame that has lasted The Man Who Breaks Everything 3 years will last a lifetime for mere mortals 

[Mark W]

There is that, but if you are concerned just keep an eye on things. Alloy frames don't just snap, there will always be a crack there first, so keep an eye on/around the welds at the higher stressed parts of the frame and you should be able to spot things before they get that far.