Looking at a pair of tyres for riding in Scotland, specifically trail centres and rocky mountain stuff. Toss up between a set of Continental X King 2.4s or Mountain King II 2.4s…

MK on the front, X-King on the back.

My mountain king 2.4 black chili protection tyres have worn out holey sidewalls after 1.5 months of riding. I think Continental tyres have awful sidewalls as my barons did similar. The UST ones do seam to be much better. Shame as they are good up until you get a hole in the side!

Rubber Queen 2.2 black chili UST. Same size as those allegedly 2.4″ tyres, roll as fast as the MK but grip better and much tougher sidewalls. Way more expensive but they wear so well that they’ll work out about the same cost and you’ll have had the pleasure of using really good tyres instead of sketchy ones.

Those Rubber Queens are quite heavy!

I ran a pair of 2.4 X Kings on my Turner and destroyed them in less than a month.Replaced them with 2.2 UST Bc Rubber Queens,obviously the X Kings rolled faster but the RQ is in a different league alltogether.Fantastic all rounder 😉 Can’t comment on the MK as not tried them. By the way the 2.2 RQ is bigger than the 2.4 X King so plenty of protection and grip in the rocky stuff.

Cheers Dave – how low could you run the RQs before they pinched?

No that heavy, weighed mine in @ 760g. They roll pretty well too. Best tyre I’ve tried. The MK 2.4 is 680g or 880g UST 😯

Are they the folders then? That’s about the limit for tyres for me. The wire bead ones are about 900g I think.

Run the front @ 25 ish rear depends on conditions. Run tubeless on Stans so no pinch flats anyway

What about the new race sport versions? Can’t comment on them cos i’ve only just received them but i’ve got a pair of 2.2 RQ racesports to replace the old style RQ’s.

Not UST but tubeless ready and weigh in at 650g. I’m not convinced they’re going to be as durable but time will tell, and conti do the same carcasses in MK & XK too. 2.4 MK is approx 660g looks pretty light!

lee – I used to use mountain kings and they were ok for same riding as you. Have found that Specialised Purgatory 2.3’s are much better all round, closely followed by Ardents.

Ahhhhh, the Racesport have paper thin sidewalls that’s what my X Kings were.The cords on the sidewalls were visible after one ride in Nidderdale 😐

Yeah i’m not expecting much having looked at them! Although having said that a lot of people slate the old sidewalls on the heavier versions but mine are just starting to go after 12 months, the tell tale x’s are forming but to be fair the treads are shot so they’ve done their time.

Although I don’t run tubeless so the sidewalls aren’t as much of an issue for me, and 35f/40r pressures is going to put a lot less strain on the walls than 25psi tubeless.

Yeah I wouldn’t go for the Race versions despite the weight saving, I know what Conti sidewalls are like at the best of times.

iainc – never been a fan of Specialized tyres, they always felt plasticky and didn’t stick too well.

I’m not that hard on tyres but they get shredded up here so I might just take a look at the Rubber Queens. Thanks for the tips guys!

Just for balance, no problems with the sidewalls on my Protection MK2 and X-King after a year, and some rocky enough trails in my area.

DO NOT BUY THE BASIC CONTINENTAL TYRES! Make 100% sure that they’re the black chili ones, made in Germany. The other ones are plastic rubbish which have hopeless compound grip (i.e. on rocks and roots etc) and wear faster and roll slower.

Yeah I’d heard this before about Contis – quality reflected in the price eh?

I have run a set of Mountain King Protections Mk1s 2.4 on my 26er for a few years now. They held up fine in Scotland / Alps.

For my new 29er I got the X-King RaceSport 2.4 as fancied the 120 gram+ weight saving per tyre. Running tubeless at around 22 PSI.

I got the lighter RaceSport versions because I thought I wasn’t that hard a rider and didn’t have any problems in the past.

First, I punctured the front tread with a 1cm slash riding over the stony / rocky middle section of a track. Stans sealed it, but was surprised it got punctured.

Then just last week, I took a ‘V’ shaped gouge out the tread on a fastish rocky landrover track in the Lammermuirs. The Stans had dried in any case (big bogie) but cut was big enough I doubt it would have sealed.

I have repaired it at home with a patch on inside, covered with Aquasure, and the outside also aquasured. Weeping a little Stans through a pinhole in the Aquasure, but holding up tubeless ok again.

IMHO the RaceSport versions are only good for short XC type races where you are not far from a pit, and you don’t mind blowing ££ on a knackered tyre, and the course consists of non-sharp stuff. As soon as you encounter recently quarried rock, or are far out from help, or where blowing ££ on a new tyre is painful, then the weight savings are really not worth it, as the durability is much, much lower.

I have just got a new set of X-King 2.4 Protection. I am going to continue running the RaceSports until they are wrecked, which may not be long. I expect to be fixing them up in the field, so have bought a repair boot / patch. For anything mission critical, the Protections will be going on.

I am running the X-Kings because speed / efficiency on harder surfaces such as dirt tracks and even tarmac are important to me. If I was purely off-road, then Mountain King Protections would be my choice.

Are all Black Chili compound Contis made in Germany?

Are all Black Chili compound Contis made in Germany?

Yes. If they’re made in Germany they’re always black chili, if not then they’re some weird teflon plastic.

Great, that helps find them!

Tonight will be my first ride on 29er 2.2 Race sport Rubber Queens. The sidewalls do look quite thin so it’ll be interesting to see how they compare to the 2.4 Exo Ardents they’ve replaced. I’m running them tubeless on UST rims.

I’ve been running 2.2″ Black Chili RQs for some time and am really impressed with them. They’re wearing well, aren’t that heavy considering their size (huge) and they seem to eke out a lot of grip. Added to this, they roll extremely well too, so somehow they’re the Holy Grail of tyres for me.

Downsides? Well, they’re expensive. Very expensive. And the sidewalls aren’t as tough as I’d like, I put half inch hole in one earlier this year. It’s been patched and stitched but Contis in general seem weak here.

always get mine from here best price and good service
+£5 postage

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k371/folding.html

MK on the front, X-King on the back.

+1

Black Chilli FTW.

Thanks whiter, beat the price I found. Don’t like buying outside the UK and not in my local, but at that price I feel justified 😕