Despite the ‘Protection’ sidewalls, on the rear I’ve had 7 punctures in 5 rides, even with what I consider rock hard pressures. Pile of cr*p on anything but tarmac or loam. Had enough and gone back to a heavy but solid Maxxis.

I have used a pair for several months and while not the best tyres in the world I wouldn’t say they were the worst. I have yet to have a puncture with them.

I feel your pain , I thought paying close to £50 for X King ‘Protection’ would be a some guarantee of longer life , not so.

Had a lot of tyre issues over the years , being a more well nourished rider doesn’t help.

Issues for me were flint slashing the tyres beyond repair , or the side wall pulling away from the bead – a single speed issue caused by your whole body weight bobbing up & down , because of the more out of saddle climbing / accelerating .

I have never managed 6 months out of a rear , sometimes only weeks.

Until now , check out Geax , the TNT variant if you ride tubeless , fairly light & bullet proof.

IME if a Conti has an extra buzzword on the side- “Supersonic”, “Protection”, what it basically means is that the standard version is really bad at this thing, and the upgraded version is adequate. So frinstance Supersonic tyres aren’t actually very fast, they’re just not as slow as the non-Supersonics, Protections are still fairly puncturey, etc.

I’ve had a pair on over winter and had over 15 punctures. Generally hawthorn thorns.
6 in my last 15 mile ride. Looking for something better at the moment. Not sure which brand/combination to go for. Still reading!

My Genesis Latitude came with OEM Conti Mountain Kings – MK1 versions – I had numerous punctures, and next to no grip – dreadful things – wasn’t enjoying the bike at all until I changed the tyres.

Bike is 100x better after changing them.

I know the OEM tyres are probably cheap, but for a manufacturer to supply a new bike with such sh1t tyres could really put people off.

Better call Stan!

Continental tyres are rubbish IME – the sidewalls are way to flimsy for any kind of rocky riding.

Will – I’ve been getting on well with Specialized tyres run tubeless round here – Butcher on the front and a Purgatory on the back. Think the control version are the ones you want.

@Dawson, think yourself lucky, you can spent thousands of pounds on an Orange and get the same tyres.

This has always puzzled me.

I can understand why a bike up to say, £500 might have crap hard oem tyres, but once you’re in “you could but a car for that!!!” Territory from non mtb’ers the really there’s no excuse for bad tyres.

It particularly surprises me that the tyre companies try to call vast ranges of tyre the same name – if you aren’t savvy enough to know about the different versions and naming subtleties you could easily write an entire manufacturer off based on a cheap oem tyre.

Schwalbe in particular should have a word with some of the people mis selling their tyres in the uk – the names are confusing enough already before you miss out the descriptive part and paste in the text from a different model…

Kenda used to be terrible for that, their OEMs were designed to look pretty much the same as their quality tyres, so people rode the crap versions but didn’t necessarily realise there was a better version available.

I suppose there’s an argument with expensive bikes that people change the tyres anyway- I’ve got a bunch of Specialized tyres that came off new bikes, and they’re ace.

I suppose there’s an argument with expensive bikes that people change the tyres anyway

That’s what I heard, they expect you to change so don’t worry too much about the standard tyres. Same as pedals. If decent tyres came as standard you’d still get just as many people saying ‘I don’t like X, why don’t they spec Y?’ Look at this site for example, everyone hates conti on this thread but love them on others.

What tyres don’t suffer hawthorn punctures btw?

They drag like hell. Hated them.

Should have pointed out of done the same route on a different bike with specialized tyres on earlier the same week and had suffered no punctures.

(and no they hadn’t just cut the hedge)

Tubeless?

Nope. Ground control I think they are. Came on a hardrock sport.

Not the best in my opinion. Triangular tread knobs are just daft if you think about it, absolutely begging to slice through mud giving no traction whilst still being as draggy as square treads on hardpack.

The sidewalls are condom-thin. I run a 2.4 on the front in the summer when grip is high as I paid good money for it and want to get use out of it, but never again.

weirdly (or not, depends I suppose) the OP is how I feel about Maxxis. Ardents particularly.

Whereas apart from Vapours [momentary pause, slight shudder] which were the only tyre I though was actively trying to kill me, I’ve never had a bad tyre from Conti. Love my M.K. mk1 especially

MKs Protection Black Chillis working ok for me here. No punctures, no slashed sidewalls, riding rocky Scottish trails at 25 psi. AFAIK the Protections don’t offer puncture protection, just stronger sidewalls.

IMHO 7 punctures in 5 rides can’t be blamed on the tyre. You are either riding through broken glass, or pinchflatting.

The Mk1s had triangular knobs, the MK2s don’t.

MK2s don’t feel that draggy to me.

Tyres, you pay your money and take your choice. Don’t expect light tyres to be as rugged as heavy ones. Pay attention to the exact version you are buying, as there can be a big difference in tyres with the same name.

I’ve got MK2, 2.4 Protections. Was running front and rear. They’re by no means draggy, they’re not an XC race tyre, but for a Trail/AM tyre they’re pretty quick rolling.

They’re super grippy on wet rock and roots.

I wouldn’t run them tubed, but I don’t see why anyone would run tubes anyway these days.

What kind of punctures have you got? Snakebites? or single holes?

Conti Protections have a pretty thick wall compared to XC tyres, but like any tyre if you run low pressures and tubes, you’re in for trouble.

NickC – I’m with you on those vapours. Frankly terrifying.

I ripped a hole in a ‘racesport’ MK II last year, fixed it and it’s been fine since. Took the RS’s off for winter on the HT and swapped for a Black Chilli MK II on the back – 2.2, 29er, tubeless. No issues at all.

It’s not the fastest rolling or the grippiest but as an all round tyre, seems pretty good to me. Not running tubes but not even had to bung in any more stan’s juice since fitting them late Nov I think. Done a good few miles between Malverns (a bit rocky) and FoD (not very rocky at all).

I have the 29*2.2 Mark 2 Mountain Kings and love them. They arent as awesome grippy as Minions or High Rollers but they are much faster rolling. They are a bit heavy compared to XC tyres but this isn’t noticeable. Rolling resistance is what really matters IMHO for tyres and these roll really well considering the grip. This may be partly the huge volume which means you can run them at low pressures. I`m 12 stone and i run the front at 24 and the back at 28 and have never had punctures.

I mainly cycle on land rover tracks up and down hills, these tracks are all somewhat rocky, some of them with really nasty sharp rocks so im surprised how well they survive. Im not by any means a ‘downhill’ rider though so they arent taking jumps.

For what you might call aggressive XC or mild all mountain they are great. They are also much better than my XC tyres in mud.

‘Protection’ is just the sidewall. The tread area isn’t supposed to be flat-resistant, ime no more or less flat-prone than anything but heavier EXO or UST casings.

Supersonic tyres aren’t actually very fast, they’re just not as slow as the non-Supersonics

And ‘Supersonic’ is a daft named for a tyre, it’s just lighter.. it won’t be faster as such : ) Black Chilli rolls pretty well but faster, I can’t tell.

Conti OE tyres were made in India a couple of years ago and they never seemed to get the compound right. They’re not made there anymore.

Dunno what U guys have been running over 😛

I gave up on High Rollers High Prices and walls on the latest HR s are made from Durex rubber I recon. The latest Hrs are nt the same as they used to be.

Been running the Mountain kings all summer and well they re black DONT puncture and are every bit as grippy and fast rollers as the HRs may be not quite as predictable but I can live with that. 😆

jameso – Member

Conti OE tyres were made in India a couple of years ago and they never seemed to get the compound right. They’re not made there anymore.

They’re still shit though. I did a testride on a Five 29er earlier this year, with OEM rubber queens- crashed it on dry tarmac 😆

I bought fairly cheap Conti Trail King for the front and a Racing Ralph for the back and started the summer like that on my HT, they seemed fine to be honest… Only changed them because I felt their 2.2 width was too narrow, grip was fine but confidence led me back to what I know and trust which is Maxxis… The Contis are under the stairs but I’ll probably use them again at some point.

crashed it on dry tarmac

That wasn’t the tyres fault though was it 😉

Totally blaming the tyres 😆 OK user error for trying to use more grip than they had but you’d never expect them to have so little, they’re like something from the 80s.

Will never buy a continuous again. Just don’t like them at all. I suspect high end ones are ok but won’t risk it.

Predictive text eh!

Conti do have some brilliant tyres, the black chili Baron frinstance is, well, unrivalled really. But their OEMs are pants.

I used to swear by Continental Rubber Queens in Black Chili UST. Since the change to Trail King name, three of us have had three tyres that obviously left the mould with the tread on the skew compared to the casing and these same tyres have been hard to seat airtight too. Shame, because until then they had been faultless.

Don’t find my Mountain Kings too bad, but the definitely could be better. Worst tyres they made were the Explorers. They were shite. No grip and more rolling resistance than a tank track.

Look forward to trying some of the new Baron Projekts though…

I used to swear by Continental Rubber Queens in Black Chili UST. Since the change to Trail King name, three of us have had three tyres that obviously left the mould with the tread on the skew compared to the casing and these same tyres have been hard to seat airtight too. Shame, because until then they had been faultless.

Warranty replacement? I’ve heard Conti are usually good about that stuff.