Anyone use these?

I need new tyres and have seen these for a decent price in the black chilli compound.

I’ve pretty much always used minions or occasionally A Mary/ Hans Dampf combo so wondering if anyone uses these conti tyres and how you rate them?

The reviews seem good but I’d like some real world feedback before buying if possible.

Love Barons in particular – where have you seen them at a good price?

Morning, I use Der Barons as my all year round tyre in BC compound. I really rate them. Grippy rubber, decent life and roll pretty well. But i’m no Gnar-racer!

The kaiser seems more mud suited with wider knobs I think so may be good at the moment. I just leave Barons on or occasionally chuck a Trail King on the rear for drier riding.

Where did you see them?

Cheers Chris

There seems to be a general lack of feedback around the webs on Kaisers and Barons. They’re not too expensive, a few people rave by them, and the Kaiser DH version seems to have a very reasonable weight, maybe light enough to be a HD enduro tyre.

Bike discount de have them for €38 each so about £35 which didn’t seem too bad to me.

They still seem to be shipping to the uk but it’s a €15 fee so I’d be buying them as part of a bigger order.

Der Baron is the best front tyre I’ve used recently. 29 x 2.3 with the heavy casing. Really confident and predictable in soft loam through to full mud in my opinion especially on the steep stuff in Wharny.
Kaiser works well on the rear too. Nice combo.
The issues I’ve had with them have been over getting a good seal with rims. On both WTB and Superstar rims, they just don’t seem to seal well consistently compared to other brands on the same rim. Have a friend who said similar – he just couldn’t get them to stay put and gave up on them in the end!

I’ve recently done similar and bought a Baron/Kaiser combo from bike discount. Both 29×2.4 bc compound.
Coming from a Magic Mary/HD so far the grip and feel is excellent. Baron on the front better than the Mary in loose crud and a noticeable improvement on wet roots and rocks. I was a big fan of the MM but im more confident with the baron.
On the back I reckon the Kaiser is slightly slower than the hans but not much. Drives and brakes really well, slight tendency to break loose in the slop but I dont mind this in a rear tyre.
As for downsides I’ve had slightly inconsistent sealing too, after a couple of rides the sidewalls were leaking so had to top up sealant. Also managed to put a small tear in the Kaiser sidewall just above the bead. To be fair Id been on a very rocky trail and hit it hard enough to ding the rim too. Wouldn’t seal so patched from the inside and seems fine now.
Overall would definitely recommend. In dry conditions might look for a trail king as a faster rear and try the Kaiser on the front.

29×2.4 protection apex-
I rate barons, but in an all roundy pretty good everywhere, but not astounding anywhere. I don’t actually rate them that highly in soft conditions, light mud with roots and rocks and hard underneath, they’re very good but find the volume and pretty low tread depth just doesn’t penetrate soft.

About a month ago I would have really raved about them, but then put on some dhr iis I had laying around in my garage, the vagueness in soft stuff disappeared, way more accuracy and grip.

They roll ok, carcass is a good trail casing for me, ie some stiffness but on the lighter end of what I can get away with.

I personally have no interest in the Protection Apex casing, but the stronger Apex ones seem appealing

Der Kaiser was always my go to rear tyre on my trials bike as the grip and puncture protection was unreal.
I’d happily run one on my mtb but I cover quite a few road miles going to/from trails which eats up black chilli tyres.

Quite like the Der Baron but I think it’s basically doing much the same job as the Magic Mary only a bit less well. Better grip on hard stuff, wet rock etc but quite a bit less good in the wet, especially on that sort of hashed up mixed mud-and-stone-and-bits that you get a lot of around here. I guess just because it’s more blocky, less spiky?

Basically tyres are really bloody good these days and it doesn’t quite cut it being just really good.

Continental have never really figured out tubeless either.

Thanks all,

I was pretty much sold on them (can deal with the sealant issues) until someone said the dhr ii was better 🤦🏼

Still dithering.

The tubeless issue is sorted – when they introduced new Mountain King etc a year or two back they revised the whole range and massively improved the tubeless compatibility. No longer a pain to seat/inflate.

Got a Baron front / Trail King rear combo on my hardtail – slightly prefer them to the DHR combo on my full suss, but I’d be happy riding either to be honest.

I’ve all manner of conti tyre combos, the Kaiser is the only one that I don’t have a place for on bikes I pedal.
Summer bike park duties it’s great (although several years since I’ve had a DH bike) but as a trail tyre I don’t see it as better than the baron or trail king for equivalent weight rubber particularly as its lower volume than those other two (well, it used to be and I haven’t had any Kaiser’s since the range refresh)

“ Continental have never really figured out tubeless either.”

The Rubber Queen 2.2 UST were faultless. The Trail King 2.2 Protection that replaced them when 27.5 arrived managed to be harder to mount, ate sealant, wore more quickly, punctured more easily and had less grip due to the stiffer but weaker carcass. It was bizarre.

I’ve heard that they changed all the casings fairly recently but as usual their whole range and naming system is completely impenetrable.

Haven’t used the Der Kaiser but have used the Barons and they’re great tyres. Have done numerous races on the HT and haven’t punctured either, the casing is great and considering the protection on offer they don’t weigh too much. The longevity of the tyre is amazing though – still running a Baron on my HT that I raced for a whole season on 2016!

I ran these for a few years, great tyre, always liked the hand made element and they were grippy.

But the first gen of these used to piss sealant out the sidewalls constantly. Conti did rectify this on the subsequent revisions but in my experience later models were only slightly less crap. I’d have to top up sealant far more often than the other usual suspects so I have gone back to my default Maxxis Minion and haven’t looked back.

Good tyre though. But no.

Can’t tell you how they ride but I fitted a set today tubeless and they went straight up and held air with no sealant leakage at all (and did so for the whole day. Just the right amount of tight. So 10 out if 10 for easy fitting.

“ Can’t tell you how they ride but I fitted a set today tubeless and they went straight up and held air with no sealant leakage at all (and did so for the whole day. Just the right amount of tight. So 10 out if 10 for easy fitting.”

That’s completely the opposite of most Continental reviews over the past decade, so I think that confirms that they have changed their casings, which bodes very well!

The best Black Chilli rubber is as good as it gets, it was always the casings letting them down.

You can drop pressure by 2-3psi due to the side walls. I really like the projekt barons F&R except in loose conditions.

The tubeless issues of porous sidewalls has been sorted mine held air without sealant as I like to pop the bead on without sealant first …sadly one of the Der barons has a massive wobble so bad it can’t be used and as it was a prize no warranty etc but sort from that I rate them .feels good on the frt in the slop

Also be mindful of ordering from the EU now there’s vat and duty added

Shouldn’t be duty for the black chilli ones. They’re german.

chiefgrooveguru
Free Member

The best Black Chilli rubber is as good as it gets

It’s a bloody shame tbh, if they just stopped making tyres and leased the rubber to other companies it’d be great but the best rubber (imo) is still used to make pretty average tyres. Imagine being able to buy a black chili Magic Mary or DHR2.

Coming from a guy who feels like Wild Enduros are too fragile and is on the verge of slashing Doubledowns, how do you guys rate the Protection Apex casings?

No issue with wild enduro or the conti protection system.

I’m guessing where/how/set up you ride is the issue is the issue not the actual tyre.

I can’t recommend continental mtb tires. Managed a total of 5 miles on two mountain kings at the marin track so not mega technical or dangerous to tires.
One tare on the sidewall and one tare on the carcas between the tread.
Waste of £100+. Went back to maxxis and not had a problem since.