Looking at Rubber Queens, never used them but they seem very popular. I’m not keen on paying £33 each for chilli when non-chilli are as cheap as £10 and still get good reviews it seems (prices from bike-discount).

So I’m thinking can I get away with black chilli front and cheap non chilli rear? So £43 for a pair instead of £66. Any opinions on this?

Also, if you have experienced both, how do chilli rubber queens compare to tacky minions? (In terms of general grip and rolling resistance)

Far better than minion – roll a lot faster & last longer than a few minutes. My BC ones have last 9months so far with 2/4/5 rides a week – should get another 4 to 5 months out of them I reckon

My experience is that conti make two componds. Black chilli and black plastic. I’d say if you don’t want to splash out for chilli on the rear, fit something non conti.

In short: Yes!!

I run rubber queen bc front and a mk2 bc rear, grip is awesome and predictable. Wear appears very good so far, would definately recommend them.

Not worth it if you ride more than a metre on Tarmac.

I hated using a Rubber Queen on the front. I’d came from using Minion’s too…they soon went back on. I prefer the continuous knobs that most Maxxis tyres have along their edge. The Rubber Queen’s have more of a zigzag and I found that that can let go suddenly when leaned over.

Edit: If I ever fancy a change, I’ll be trying Schwalbe Hans Dampf’s or Bontrager XR4’s.

I have not tried RQs. But I currently have the cheap mk 2s 2.4″ on my HT, front and back. I agree with the black plastic remark as their sheer grip on hard surfaces is worse than the max pro maxxis I had before. This can be unnerving on the front when flat fast cornering on trail centre trails as I have had the front let go a couple of times, but I’m getting used to knowing where the limit is. In soft conditions sheer grip is a bit irrelevant as its when the knob pattern matters and the they seem good, feeling like high rollers but less clogging.

I’d put a black chilli on the front and a cheap one on the back. Back tyre drifts are to be encouraged 🙂

i liked them. they wear much slower than other soft rubber compounds. never had to fork out any money buying them, but would perhaps buy them if it weren’t for the flimsy sidewalls.

slashed so many whilst out in Gran Canaria (basically an island carved from volcanic rock) and ripped one soon on my return (admittedly rather rocks where i ride).

if you’ve got loamy soil i’d consider them. nice large volume and grippy. as said above the wear rate is slower than other comparable tyres; have been running a stanard compound HR2 this year and it has worn more than a RQ2.4 BC in the same period.

Edit: If I ever fancy a change, I’ll be trying Schwalbe Hans Dampf’s or Bontrager XR4’s.

Neither remotely as good as the Rubber Queen, or a Minion. Trust me!

Black Chilli tyres last ages for some incredible reason, despite being very grippy. Normal conti’s don’t grip anything like as well, though there’s got to be something in the Rubber Queen tread pattern at least as I’ve run a non Black Chilli Rubber Queen for a bit on the rear of my full sus bike, and it’s actually not bad. It’s not as good as a Black Chilli for sure, but it’s bearable on the rear of the bike.

mboy – Neither remotely as good as the Rubber Queen, or a Minion. Trust me!

Totally disagree…I felt like I was going to lose teeth with a Rubber Queen on the front. I had to keep letting pressure out to find anywhere near the required grip but then the sidewall would fold. The Minion I’m using has never felt like that (just a standard, 2.35 folding too).

If you are going for Rubber Queens I would definitely go for BC. As people are saying above though – Rubber Queens don’t suit every riding style or location. I can say I love them, they have worked well in the Lakes, Innerleithen, Glentress, Snowdonia, the Long Mynd, Cannock, Malvern, Coed y Brenin, Lee Quarry etc…,

I had a set for less than 6 months, initially I liked them as they roll really fast for a big tyre, but it was short lived they are not great when really leaning over they do let go pretty suddenly, so as someone above mentioned you let a bit of air out.

That became the next problem, my were totally screwed after a couple of hard sideways loads. They made my wheels look knackered as the tyre carcass stretched and became distorted to the point where they would no longer go through the frame! I sent them back to conti and got a refund, search about and you will find that it is quite common.

Since been on hans dampfs, so far so good. Better tyre for cornering, grip is the same however they don’t roll nowhere near as fast.

Love my chilli rubber queens , great grip , not the fastest rolling if used front and rear like me . Still laughing at a previous reply from onzadog ” conti make 2 compounds black chilli and plastic !!! Very very true !!!

Wow! It turns out that I’m not the only one that thinks the Rubber Queens corner badly. I thought I was alone.

I love my Minions and have ordered a 3C High Roller 2 for the front, which should be even better than the current Supertacky Minion 2.5

Been very impressed with the Rubber Queens (2.2 BC UST). Their only weak point seems to be handling deep mud, when it’s so deep that they surf on top and the top inch or so of mud just slides sideways with you. However they seem to keep up fine with riders on XC mud tyres in those conditions (whilst being less scary on wet roots), it’s only when chasing people on DH mud spikes that you lose out (got totally owned by a friend with a Storm DH 2.3 on the front a few weeks back).

I don’t know what the non-UST ones are like because the carcass is a lot lighter, but the UST carcass has proven stiff enough that I can drop the pressures to 20/24 F/R in the mud without them squirming, which gives a lot of grip without sending the rolling resistance through the roof off-road (though you notice it on tarmac).

Personally I suspect that the somewhat wiggly edge knobs of the Rubber Queen make it easier to handle on the limit because it doesn’t hold and hold and then completely let go, it’s much more progressive as you reach the limit of one section of the side knobs but an inch or so later the next section grabs the ground and holds. If it wasn’t I can’t see how I’d have managed to stay rubber side down in recent weeks!

FYI, there are lots of different black chili compounds – the RQ’s is almost as sticky as normal 42a whilst the X-King’s is more like 60a. Wear rate is very good on the RQ, very very good. The harder faster XK doesn’t seem to wear as well, losing small chunks off its smaller tread blocks. I gather the Baron is stickier still, the DH tyres even stickier, the MK between the RQ and XK etc. The non-black chili X-King is properly plastic feeling, utterly hopeless in the wet. The non-BC Barons and RQs I’ve poked at felt a lot softer than that but not as soft as the BC ones (and I doubt they roll as fast or wear as well).

I’d like to know how the Baron compares in stupid mud – I’m not sure it’s enough of a spike to be worth the effort swapping for, plus the UST one still isn’t out and I don’t want to have a tubelessing fight with a £40 tyre…