Fairly new Continental Trail King 2.2 black chilli/protection etc.

Decided to stop sealing at the rim today.When I got it home took it off the rim to have a better look, appears like the bead over a length of about 150mm is mishaped / fraying leading to a poor seal at the rim when under pressure.

Just curious if anybody else has seen this.

thanks

Yes – I have had two do on my tandem. I think its the flexing of the very light sidewalls leading to fatigue in the ply threads where they join the bead that have caused it. the bead started to tear away from the carcass. You could see a herringbone pattern in the sidewalss from the flexing

Were you running low pressures?

Not that low (30mm internal rim) 24psi.

Thats low and will be the issue IMO – with pressures that low the tyre carcass is flexing hugely – look at how squished it will be with your weight on it. sidewall all crumpled. anything below 30 – 35 psi the carcass distorts horribly under load. there is a minimum tyre pressure marked on the sidewalls usually.

I used to use 26″ ust rubber queens and thought they were great.

New bike means new tyres. 650b trail kings in apex/protecrion/black chilli as they don’t do ust anymore.

What a bloody let down they’ve been. Two sidewalls gave up in as many months and now, the front tyre that’s been find for 3 months, today started to weep air out of the full circumference of the bead in both sides.

No more Conti tyres for me, they just don’t work.

Yeah I had a Mountain King folder that snapped the bead. Terrible tyre.

Have never had issues with other tyres at that pressure when running tubeless.

I’ve had one 2.2 650b Trail King fail in the exact same way OP, I think another has also just gone, I run them as rear tyres so they’ve been run at 35psi.

We’ve got a Mtn King here that’s done the same thing. I can’t stand them personally, much prefer the Bontrager XR2’s, Schwalbe Smart Sams and Maxxis Crossmax’s I have here instead (for those who tell me none of the above are good tyres for ‘X’ reason, we have slightly limited choices in Turkey)

Update, the 2nd tyre has definitely failed in the same way as the 1st. It wouldn’t seal tubeless and when I stripped it off the rim there is feathering along the bead that’s preventing a seal no matter how much Stans/Fairy I use.

I’ve got a spare which is on now cos it’s paid for. Such a shame cos I love these tyres, won’t be having another for the rear.

It’s a fair few years since I’ve used a conti tyre but my last set of verticals failed at the bead whilst the bike was in my van. Tyre held to bead by just a few threads. Mind you, as I say this was a while ago – the tyres were designed to have something called tubes in them and were in a weird size known as 26″

In the last 4 months, I’ve had one fail at the bead and two split a sidewall. In that time, none of the people I ride with on that terrain at those speeds have damaged the other brands they use. Before switching to black chili protection apex tyres, it’s been decades since I split a tyre. Conti tell me I’ve been unlucky. I think the unlucky part was buying £200 worth of their tyres in one hit and then replacements for the first two that failed. £300 on shite!

Had 3 ust black chili rubber queens ‘distort’ ie looked like wheel was buckled but the carcass had changed shape, first replaced under warranty, then the 2nd replaced under warranty and 3rd was refund, will never use conti tyres after those incidents, pretty shoddy in my view.

As for pressures above, I dont run any tubeless tyres, front or rear at more than 30psi on either hardtail or full suss so pressures not an issue in my view.

Mine has now gone back under warranty.

For “inspection” or to be replaced?

Continental, in my experience, have crap sidewalls that often deform, and are porous and generally hopeless for tubeless.

It’s a shame, becasue there’s a lot to like about their tyres, but they need to do the basics right.

Mountain kings 2.2 ,with tubes here and split at bead too ,but they are 3 years old now,bead broken when i had spectacular flat as a large blackthorn spine ripped into the rear tyre as i came out of a cutting locally.Back end of the bike just went awol on me,had to call the wife to collect me as fair way from home too.
Too bad i had to wait in the convenient pub with excellent guinness . too

Fairly new Continental Trail King 2.2 black chilli/protection etc.

2.4 MK2 here.

Echo some of the comments about Conti tyres.
Long time fan here but had a side wall tear recently and just not happy with their durability in general, knobs being ripped off etc, on their “protection” tyres
Looking at going for another manufacture, possible Maxxis…?
Looking for a X King / Race King type combo with better durability ?
Any ideas?

I don’t use Contis any more after a run of them coming away from their beads,this is on both Race Kings,GP and Gatorskin road tyres.Maybe I was unlucky and some batches had paper thin side walls, but I won’t be buying Conti again.

Thats low and will be the issue IMO – with pressures that low the tyre carcass is flexing hugely – look at how squished it will be with your weight on it. sidewall all crumpled. anything below 30 – 35 psi the carcass distorts horribly under load. there is a minimum tyre pressure marked on the sidewalls usually.

24psi is a perfectly sensible pressure for a Trail King 2.2 – whilst the pressures marked on Conti sidewalls are wholly inappropriate for mountain bikes unless you’re only riding on roads or well over 20 stone.

I’d expect them to replace the tyre under warranty.

Replaced without question under warranty new tyre on the way.

Happened on my road bike this summer, a GP4000S bead splintered leading to an exploding tyre. Now on Vittoria tyres on the road bike.

I had exactly that happen today, thought I just have shredded it on a sharp rock but it failed, about 80-100 mm in length, like someone had taken a grinder to the tyre……

Looked like this.
[/url]09-P1110476 by Richard Lockwood, on Flickr[/img]

Trail Kings. 5-6mm slit at bead. Looks just like the image about.

Used rubber queens for years without issue. Now on Der Barons.

Looking at image above i’d say it looks like bad combo of rim/pressure and the tyre is rotating on the rim under heavy braking leading to the rim acting like a saw on the tyre.