Got a Continuous Mountain King 2 in Racesport guise…thinking of going tubeless – is this tyre capable or will it fail?

I know not a lot more about tubeless so just wondering if my current tyre choice will prevent it from being more than an idle thought in my head.

Everything I read about Continental suggested they aren’t great tubeless. I was considering Mountain King 2’s in 2.4 black chilli with protection sidewalls.

Apparently they’re quite porous and seep both air and sealant out. Some reviews suggested if you persevered they would eventually seal but it was hard work.

My only experience of tubeless so far are Maxxis tyres with exo sidewalls and they seem to go up easily and they were both staying up even before I put the sealant in (on DY Swiss E1900 wheels).

Ta…I’ll leave it as a thought then.

Protection will go tubeless – little effort scrubbing tyre and doing turn/shake to get it set up, but once set up is pretty good.
Racesport is not supposed to be tubeless, but I think probably will work, but only hold air for about as long as a race.

I’ve got Trail kings (black chilli variety) and they’ve been spot on tubeless, no weeping or leakage
They’re were an absolute B to get on the rim, so flicking tight

Race sport may be too thin in the sidewall too and if you get a hefty slash then that could be sealant everywhere and a flat tyre for good.

I had racesport X kings set up tubless a few years ago. They didn’t last very long before getting cut to the point where they wouldn’t seal.

Racesport are tubeless ready, but they are also what they say on the tin, a race tyre, you save weight but that comes at the price. The sidewalls are paper thin, provide virtually no support, take an age to seal and are not durable.

OK, sounds like a bad idea…

Unless they’ve changed recently, Racesport versions are now the only MTB tyres from Conti that aren’t tubleless ready.

Protection and PureGrip models are bothe tubeless ready. PureGrip was recently introduced on the cheap steel bead options too, so the only ones remaining non-tubeless ready are the RS models with their thin sidewalls and non tubeless bead design.

Protection, apex and racesport are the carcase, and when I tried them 3 years ago racesport were marketed as tubeless ready. Puregripip and blackchilli are the rubber used for the tread.

iirc the blackchilli models are “handmade” in Germany and the other variants are made in asia. Some seem to think that the “handmade” manufacturing process is the cause of the continental inconstancy, although I have never had any problems it seems to be reported frequently enough to suggest it is real.

All PG tyres now use a tubeless ready carcass and bead, as do the Protection models. RaceSport didn’t – certainly not 3 yrs ago (I used to sell them for a living) – looks they’ve modified the carcass saying that they have a tubeless ready base now, but still just a standard “universal” bead – recent reviews suggest that they don’t work, so would depend on how recently made the tyres are and what rim they’re mounted to. The packaging says RTR if they are intended to be used tubeless.

Edit – just checked their newest catalogue – PG steel bead tyres got upgraded in compound only – still not RTR. PG folders are RTR, as are all Protection variants, but not Racesport.

Racesport are ok tubeless, had a couple of them and they’ve been fine but I was never that happy with them purely because I didn’t think they would be ok.

Weirdly I only use them on the trail bike. Racing I only use conti protection, bizarre I know but I’m buggered if I’m going to be dicking about putting a tube in 4 hours into an 8 hour marathon. I’ll take the 500g penalty for bombproof tyres.

Couldn’t get the sidewalls to seal properly, lot of sealant coming through even weeks afterwards.

Then slashed the sidewall and bead on the most inocuous rock ever, so off to the bin with them.

Couldn’t get race sports to stop weeping with Stans after weeks. With Stans race stuff (more expensive) sealed first time, barely weeped and were fine on a 100 miler till I ripped a side wall!

How frequent does sidewalls get ripped? This does appear to be a more frequent issue with tubeless, or certainly it appears to be…

Dick – more frequent on lightweight race tyres that weren’t intended to be run tubeless! 😉

You probably hear about it more on tubeless set-ups as it can be terminal on a tubeless set up depending on severity and location of tear. On a tubed set up, you can often patch the tear with a tyre boot.

Have been using Conti Race King Race Sport tyres for about 6 years on my XC bikes.  This involves some off-road training, lots of 100km marathons and a few 12hr & 24hr solos.  I’ve never had a puncture on race sport tyres, and have only ever had 3 instances of pressure loss. I’ve always set them up the night before a race (not advised).

Instance #1:  45min into a 100km event. Fortunately my CO2 got me to the pit area where I topped up with some extra sealant and had no further issues.

Instance #2:  WEMBO 24hr world champs in Italy last year. I limped back to the pits and swapped bikes. Cost me 7 minutes.

Instance #3:  Training ride on tar/dirt public roads.  Very slow leak on rear RK.  Also happened on my front Ikon 3C EXC (not EXO protection) on the same ride.  Bit more air in both and they were fine for the remaining few hours.

I’ve agonised over potential tyres for this year’s 24hr solo worlds to avoid a tyre issue.  Will possibly still use a Conti RK Race Sport on the back again. The fact that I’ve never punctured one suggests they’re strong-ish, and it’s tempting to take advantage of the time saving over 12,000m of climbing with 200g less rolling mass. It would be quite a few minutes.  One thing I’m keen to try is the thicker version of Stan’s No Tubes sealant. That and setting the tyres up 5 days before a race.

One other thing to consider is that, in comparing the various Race Sport models, the <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>X-King</span> casing is more robust than the Race King casing.  A little added insurance perhaps.

6plus years on conti and the only tire ive had that weeped was the original baron 2.3.
I run protection casing on the trail bike and apex on the gravity bike. Protection mk2 and xking on dt rims often needs a compressor to mount, apex ttpically by track pump.
The protections are light enough as a high volume trail and race day tire, conti wont ship us racesport casing as its essentially raceday only rubber.