Five brand new tyres from Continental

Say hello to The Family ‘Tal! The Xynotal, Kryptotal Fr & Rr, Argotal and Hydrotal are a massive revamping for Conti’s mountain bike tyres.

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By ben_haworth

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Five brand new tyres from Continental

Ooooh. This is relevant to my interests/addiction/fetish. I think maybe a shame that they haven’t included a really fast rear? The semislick options have got worse over the last few years not better 🙁 But otherwise looks interesting.

Lack of supersoft in the enduro and trail casings seems like a big mistake tbh- unless the soft is softer than other people’s soft? The maxxgrip exo dhr2 is such a standout, not everyone who wants a sticky front needs a super tough tyre. And that’s another thing that’s gone backwards over the years, it’s good that we’ve gained tougher useful carcasses but we’ve definitely lost out on lighter stickies.
I want to try the Argotal and Kryptotal front, in supersoft, and either enduro or trail carcass… But then the weight differences aren’t huge.

Interesting that the 29er and 650b dh tyres quote identical weights.

Interesting. I quite like thier compound and tread – but the carcasses have always felt so stiff.

Lack of supersoft in the enduro and trail casings seems like a big mistake tbh- unless the soft is softer than other people’s soft?

Perhaps supersoft on light/Flexi carcass is just a lack of support and high wear rate?

Some of those tread patterns look “familiar”.

I’m running Maxxgrip EXO DHF currently on the front of one wheelset and a Butcher T9 Grid Trail on another for fronts and agree soft tyres with lighter casings make sense but if I had to run a thicker casing I would.

What doesn’t make sense is only offering thicker casings with really soft compounds. They wear too fast and are painfully draggy!

2.6” in the rear but not front version of their F/R specific tyre…? I’d have preferred the other way round if anything.

Do they still explode off rims and puncture very easily? Last rode on them in 2010 when one on the front tried to kill me.

Hooray for a straightforward table showing clearly tyre name/ casing/ compound.

It’s good isn’t it! Compare with Michelin, where you leave their website knowing less about the tyres than you started out with

Shame they killed off the Der Kaiser, been enjoying that as a rear on my bike, lasting well, good grip in all conditions. However, old stock going cheap perhaps?!?

I’m pretty sure that the purpose of the Michelin website is to ensure you go away thinking you want exactly what’s immediately available regardless of what it actually is.

“I came looking for the wild Enduro but it turns out that the pro 4 not exactly what I need, though carcass, puncture protection, good wear, lots rolling and great in the wet and it’s also in stock with my local tri club! ”

Interesting. But the variations of what’s available make no sense to me at all. The Kryptotal seems to be the all round tyre but I can’t a Front in Enduro casing. (the version that seems to fit my riding) Weird.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a table error nick, much like the 229″ size of many of the tyres.

Unless of course this is a stealth way of announcing another new wheel size

Table is inconsistent with the product images. I think there is a 2.4, soft, kryptotal (names are shit) front. Though that suggests there wouldn’t be a trail version of that front, which is odd too.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a table error nick

Yes, that seems likely, I would have thought that would be the most popular compound and tyre choice?

A harder wearing compound with an enduro casing would be useful. Especially for e-bikes.

Glad I’m not the only person who thought this

https://conti-tyres.co.uk/mtb/kryptotal

Enduro/soft front kryptotal is available coming soon. Probably the sweet-spot tyre? Maybe a Trail/soft for the front would be good too, unless that is likely to lack support? Dunno.

Full range and what’s available right now here:

https://www.conti-tyres.co.uk/mtb/kryptotal

The names though.

They sound like Pokemon.

The names though.
They sound like Pokemon.

The germans do seem to have trouble with names. Remember they’re replacing the unfortunate militaristic connections of ‘kaiser’ and ‘baron’, plus the ‘rubber queen’ that they had to rename the ‘trail king’ because the Americans had were offended/had their masculinity challenged.

Striking similarity to the DFR DHR tread patterns there. Which isn’t a bad thing.

I’d like to see the rear Enduro/Endurance combo too. Unless you’re running the same tyres front and rear (and putting half worn fronts on the back) I prefer a harder wearing compound there.

I suspect these will be as good as the names are bad! Initial reviews from the usual suspects are very promising.

Nice to see another tyre in the Magic Mary / Shorty / Hillbilly realm with that Argotal, that front plus a Kryptotal R on the back would be a nice do anything set up for me.

I can’t believe quite how bad the names are. They make Schwalbe look like marketing gurus.