Are they any good?

got a wiggle voucher to spend, and the X-king bundle deal with 5 tubes seems like potentially one of the few things worth buying from there.

Will I be able to get away with running tubeless?

Depends…I’ve found the cheap Contis to have a harder compound, so they’re not as grippy as the more expensive versions.

As for running tubeless, forget it. I tired this with X-Kings and ended up losing a lot of sealant through the mould holes in the sidewalls. Apparently Continental do their own sealant which solves the problem though, but everything else I’ve tried (Stans, Joes, Fenwicks and Slime) just piddles out without sealing anything.

I think the cheapie wired tyres also have the hard rubber. I do like x kings for the summer, but not for the current gloop.

I run the wired, cheapo X-kings all year round. I find them exceptionally good, but tyres are a very subjective thing.

What I do find though is that they are really sensitive to tyre pressure. Dropping / increasing by even 1 or 2 % PSI can make a massive difference.

Not sure about the cheapies, but I run the Protection ones tubeless – only needed a track pump!

Not sure about the cheapies, but I run the Protection ones tubeless – only needed a track pump!

Wire bead Baron here, little bit heavy, but climbs well in almost all filth.

I had my X king on the rear in the Alps last summer – worked a treat!!

I run the cheap wire conti mountain kings on my ss and can’t tell the difference between them and the more expensive ones on my full suss.

The wire ones were actually easier to go up tubeless than the folding as it was easier to get a seal on the bead.

The non-Black-Chilli often outlive the rider.

Your skid starts here…………

Fine for road and hardpack, but unimpressed elsewhere.

PaulD

I’m quite happy with the cheap wire non-BC MKIIs 2.4″ but I agree they don’t have particularly good sheer grip. They also seem rather noisy and squirmy on road. On the plus side, the tread pattern seems good for cornering, clearing and digging-into the schlock. I’ll put my semi-slicks back on when things harden up in the spring.

Haven’t used the wire X-kings but the OEM spec Mountain Kings I had were the worst tyres I’ve had since about 1989. Mind you the expensive, black chili ones I had weren’t great either.

FWIW I’m running mk2 with wire beads on both my MTB’s Tubeless with stans fluid and found them very easy to seat and inflate using a compressor, run em at 30psi with plenty of grippage!!