It’s been a while since I’ve visited the forums here – too many life changes, house moves, and job changes in the last few years. Finally finding some time for mountain biking again and finding myself working/living 20 minutes from Swinley Forest’s new trails is somewhat of a blessing.

Anyway, back to the point -I’ve split the sidewall in my front Vertical UST and need to find a replacement pronto. The Conti Vert is now only available in old-fashioned wire beaded trim, so I need to find a suitable UST replacement. I’ve used Verts exclusively for the last 7 years on every trail imaginable and love the way they just don’t get in the way of riding the bike.

What’s the STW collective wisdom on a worthy successor?

Maxxis Ignitor? V similar tread pattern (apparently) and comes in a tubeless version. Couldn’t say for definite how close it is to the Vert in performance terms though as I’ve only used the ignitor.

Thanks for your reply – the tread pattern does look quite similar to the Vertical and the reviews seem to rate them highly.

Haven’t used tubeless versions but i have both the verts and the ignitors in good old fashioned tube type. My experience of them is that the verts are much better in the wet than the ignitors, but in the dry there really isn’t much between them in terms of grip. Verts seem to roll faster and are definitely quieter.

Not sure what type of trails you ride but i have used both in Nant yr Arian and Brechfa. HTH.

Thanks. I ride everything from the metalled trail-centre stuff (7 Stanes, Afan, Coed-y-Brenin, Cwm Carn, Coed Llandegla, Dalby Forest, Swinley etc.) to local (wet and boggy) woodland stuff, so I need an all-round trail tyre that’s also capable enough in the wet. The 2.3 Vert has been a fantastic all-rounder for me, and holds its own really well in the wet, muddy stuff.

I find the ignitors wash out in the wet if you know what i mean, they grip ok and then they suddenly let go. Never had this with the verts and like you say a great all rounder.

Hope you find an alternative.

I think conti are moving away fro. UST towards protection which is their name for tubeless ready tougher side walls. No idea if the do the vert in this though.

Is UST generally being phased out in favour of TLR? I can’t say I’m much of a fan of TLR type tyres. In my early days of tubeless, I tried lots of different tyre setups – most of them worked reasonably well, but many were prone to burping and suddenly losing pressure. Often after burping a tyre wouldn’t seat again properly and the bead would blow off during re-inflation. Can’t tell you the number of times me and my garage got covered in sealant!

In the end, I opted to go with full-fat UST tyres and never looked back. Never had a single puncture in three years of regular hard riding.

I’m tempted to give the Mountain King II a try – does anyone know how the 2.4 comes up in size relative to the 2.3 vert? I understand Conti have gone through a phase of proper sized tyres (the 2.2 Rubber Queens I got for my missus are mahoosive) and have now gone back to their smaller tyre sizing of old……

I still don’t understand why they stopped doing the folding and ust versions of the verts

They were great tyres

Have you had a look at the Bontrager XR4 or XR3?
Availible in a few different casings/sizings (come up on the larger side)