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Out on Exmoor today with mate doing his first full ride on his lovely new white Orange P7. It's a cracking bike to pedal BTW. We hit some of the brilliant loamy, rock-strewn techy stuff around Wootton Common and Horner.
He was horrified by the Conti tyres:
"As soon as I hit a soft patch of mud, the wheels go in every direction except straight. That never happened on my old bike".
After 3 rear pinch flats, 1 front pinch flat (and over the bars) plus a tube detonation, he got too frustrated, gave up and rang his wife to pick him up. "I hardly ever got punctures on my old bike!"
It seemed to me they are designed for moderate XC use and not the full-on trail thrashing I see most UK riders doing. Why do Orange put these on their, otherwise great, trail bikes?
Just a though: could it be a rim problem?
I would say either rim problem or running tyres at low pressure?
On my hardtail I had 2.2 mountain kings front/rear and always used to hear how bad they were at everything. Mind you, i did get a few pinches when running 35psi.
However recently I got a rear Maxxis Advantage with the praise of other people, and find it ok on dry, but absolutely useless on wet/mud. It collects mud like mad and has zero grip, whereas my old mountainking used to keep going no problems.
Also found mountain kings pants in the wet. Rubber queens much much better (go a size down though - they're huge).
JxL, I tried ADvantage tyres at the start of the year and thought they were pants. I then let a bit more air out and they're fantastic, they just seem to need running at a slightly lower pressure than usual.
My mate had a problem with his new Remedy (it wasn't running Conti's) however 1.75 max tubes had been fitted to whatever his tyres were something like 2.35/2.5 caused no end of pinch flats.
[i]rim problem or running tyres at low pressure?[/i]
I don't think it's a pressure problem because we were putting in 40psi when we replaced each pinched tube. In fact we put in 50psi in the last one and that was probably what caused the inner tube to detonate when he rode through the ford. It made a really big bang!
But I have no experience of Mavic 717 rims so there is some doubt there.
I suggested he sold the Contis on here as I knew someone would like them 😉
Terrible tyres IMO way too fragile for anything remotely mountain like.
Tried some 2.4 ust's last year, they were fit for the bin in 4-5 rides(lakes). The casing is way way too thin and the grip is average. Never buy contis again, once bitten and all that!!
So who does make a tough but light UST tyre? Schwalbe certainly don't and it sounds like Conti don't either.
my MK's were shite too. swapped them after 2 rides
Schwable Fat Alberts are fantastic and the lakes rocky stuff but ain't that light but roll really well. I'm prepared to put up with the extra weight for the excellent durablity trade-off. Never felt like they were slowing me down. Maxxis highrollers lust are rated on the rocky stuff and are a bit lighter.
Put some air in them?
Ride [i]around[/i] big rocks?
Get out of the saddle when hitting boulders?
well been running them for the last 2 months without any riding issues other than they've worn out in the fastest time of any tyre I've run (rear just about has tread on it).
Roll pretty well, grip pretty well but no there not a mud tyre (even dealt with Dartmoor rocks ok)
Been pretty good, would buy them again if I can get em cheap, not paying full price though (2.2 LUST version)
which MK's are they?
As there is a big differance in performance between the Standard folding and the pro's. If they are OEM fit then probably just folders. Basically a differant tyre with the same tread pattern.
Tyres are pretty much always love or hate. I ran MK pro's on to bikes all of last summer no issue's at all, ghetto tubeless. And i ride some pretty rocky trails.
As mentioned above look at the tubes as well, spesh and conti tubes are good in the 2.1 + sizes. If theres a 1.8 to 2.1 size tube in a 2.2 / 2.4 tyre its going to be thin.
Oh and a Mavic 717 rim is pretty much the bench mark standard for xc rims these days, nowt wrong with them.
Cheers
paul
jamesgarbett - Member
So who does make a tough but light UST tyre? Schwalbe certainly don't and it sounds like Conti don't either.
I keep saying it, but UST tyres aren't supposed to be light. Why compromise? Maxxis Larsen TT USTs are the nearest to fit the bill.
Hutchinson UST everytime for me anyway. Might be 7-800g but I ain't gonna get pinch flats.
Love to try Rubber Queens but 2.2 folding have been on back order from my LBS since Feb! Tempted to lump Continental in the "do not touch with a barge pole" bin.
Nothing to do with the tyres, just lack of riding ability I'm afraid.
Not loving the MK 2.4s I've bought - too light and v.weak sidewall.
I did the Exmoor Explorer yesterday all 37 miles with a MK 2.4 up front with no issues although I was using the Protection version, maybe a bit stronger than the non-protection flavour.
In fact I haven't had a flat or pinch flat on these yet.............Oops I better put a spare tube in my pack coz I'm bound to get one now.
been running them 9 months now and they are super, just been faultless being ridden for 2 weeks on some seriously rocky routes in france.
you thought of going tubeless...?
I too don't like MK's at all, neither do 2 of my regular riding buddies
hated my MK's too, rubbish off camber, ok in really muddy condt but wet roots were lethal!!
i really like them too, i'm going to try a rubber queen on the front soon as someone has said they aren't great off camber and i would have to agree with that, very quick though for a 2.4
I'm currently running 2.4 MKs in protection flavour on my Heckler. They've been fine. Nice and grippy while being fast rolling for a tyre of that size. Used in the alps and round trail centres they've been great.
As with previous Conti tyres I've used, Gravities and Verticals, they are very pressure sensitive. They seem to need to be able to squirm a bit to find their grip so run them nice and low pressure (not gonna help with pinches though).
Not had problems with pinches in either 2.4 protection or in the folding 2.2s I had before. So they do work fine in some parts of the UK.
I'd check the sidewall hasn't gone in the tyre. 4 flats in one ride sounds like a torn sidewall or just hitting rocky terrain harder than the tyre is designed for (you don't say what tyres were on his previous bike).