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Tried one on the front on the frozen but rough ground today. Felt like there was no off camber /leaning the bike over grip at all. Is this a typical frozen ground thing or just MKs in general?
old or new mountain kings?
Old
Just looked up the new ones - they look completely different. Is that saying something?
Of all the various things I disliiked about mountain kings that wasn't one.
The new MK is very different but then the old one's pretty old so that's no surprise, Conti have learned some tricks since hten.
If the ground is properly frozen then the rubber knobs on a tyre won't dig in - you'd need ice spikes!
MK's are designed for harder packed trails with some loose stuff, it's going to be hard to find anything to grip on rough frozen ground if you hit it at speed - ran 2.4 MK's in the Alps last year and had no problem with bendy side nobs (oooo er)
MKs work well when there is something for the spiky nobs to stick in to. So soft ground is best or loose over hard. Not frozen solid.
They came as OE on a bike i bought this year and I thought they were very poor tyres, little grip and very little confidence when pushed in a corner.
scotabroad - Member
"They came as OE on a bike i bought this year and I thought they were very poor tyres, little grip and very little confidence when pushed in a corner. "
The OE spec ones are very poor... To be fair they're not alone, OE Nevegals are mince too and I'm sure there's others. I reckon you need the black chili versions to get adequate performance out of the old Mountain King and even then they're not particularily great.
I didn't get on with the 2.2s but the 2.4s are better. The new MKs look like better for what i'm after.
The new MK 2.4 is pretty good I find. The race kings are rubbish though, one came with my bike and I tore all the sidewall on my third ride. Made out of paper I think.
black chilli mountain kings don't half wear fast tho.
"TandemJeremy - Member
black chilli mountain kings don't half wear fast tho."
Dunno about that, they weren't good enough to stay on my bike for more than a few weeks 
Went back to my nevegals, cheaper and better.
Got em cheap second hand and quite impressed - especailly grippy on wet grassa nd that sort of thing.- but the rear is not going to last a thousand miles which is a bit poor.
Which one have they renamed them 'Baron' now?
The Baron is a new tyre, bit of a scaled down Rain King.
I stopped using old style mountain kings for this very reason - completely in contrast to TandemJeremy i found them lethal on wet grass and anything that required the edges to bite hard. I never had enough confidence in the front to hold on. They were nice and fat though.