I introduced the new Mountain King from Continental last week, but in case you missed it here is a quick description.
The Mountain King is described as a high volume, lightweight all purpose tyre. It is available in 2.2 and 2.4 inch widths for both 26 and 29 inch wheels. The model on test is a 2.4×26 inch version, although when mounted to the wheel looks more like a 2.3.
Test Conditions
Ok, last bit of waffle before I tell you about the performance of the tyre. I believe its important for you guys to know the type of bike a product was tested on and in what type of conditions so you have a better idea of how it worked and weather it would be suitable for you. The bike used was/is a single speed Banshee Scratch hard-tail, built with durability and strength in mind i.e heavy! And the trails, steep extremely rocky downhills, which usually end in twisty loose camber forest sections.
Now for the tyre
The first thing you notice when you pick up the Mountain Kings is how light they are, they’re not the lightest tyre in the world, but compared to the Maxxis I usually ride there is a noticeable difference. Another impression was just how thin the sidewalls are, this and the weight of the tyre made me feel a little sceptical of the ‘Protection’ label on the side of the tyre. Mounting to the rim was very easy, and they seated perfectly first time.
My home is surrounded by ‘mountains’ only a short ride away. Within 10-30 minutes I can be off road in a forest or hiking to the top of a 10 minute brake fading downhill, problem is I have to ride along the tarmac to get there. With the old Maxxis the road sections of my rides was an absolute nightmare, but the Continental Mountain Kings are amazing! They just roll with no sigh of drag or slowing down! For me on a single-speed, dragging my self up a steep tarmac road is a real workout, but with the Mountain Kings I could actually take a break on the ups and roll up a while. Just to give you an idea of how much quicker they are on the road I waited for over a minute for my fellow riders after a 10 minute road section.
Now its all well a good saying they roll so well on the tarmac, but will this translate into a fast rolling off road tyre? Well the answer is yes! The start of our normal ride is down a fast twisty forest section, the surface is covered in loose gravel and sand with the odd jagged rock jutting out here and there and a few drops for good measure. I pedalled into the first section as I would do normally turned right then into the left, I was amazed just how much speed I had managed to carry through, on my old tyres I would have to get a few pedal tuns in here and there to keep the momentum, but with the Mountain Kings I was actually rolling so much quicker I had to use the brakes more. The next turn is to the right and down 2 stuttered drops with rocks placed haphazardly before and after. I turned into the corner and automatically regretted not leaning in to it more, the Conti’s were begging me to throw my bike in to corners faster and lower than my old tyres, it felt like riding a different bike! Down the drops and over the rocks i expected the walls to squirm and flex about, but nothing of the sort happened they just kept on rolling around the trees, through loose off camber corners and up short uphills.
The next section of the ride would be the true test (for me) of the tyres, the downhills are faster, rockier and have claimed the life of many a ‘lightweight’ tyre. The first section of the downhill starts as a 100 m sprint on smooth ground then over a small rock garden in to a left hander a straight a right then in to the super rocky section. I sprinted off remembering not to get to carried away, due to how well the Kings could roll, I got to the rock garden and manualed over, as I would do normally, turned down the left (still carrying too much speed) down a short straight, round the left hander and in to the super rocky section to the end before another uphill. I got off my bike squeezed the rear tyre and was shocked to still find it fully inflated and begging for more! The manual over the rock garden didn’t faze them and neither did the rocky section.
I’ll just skip the next downhills and tell you about the climbing. The Mountain Kings are directional specific meaning the tread is the same, but they are fitted in one direction for the front and one for the rear. By this time I knew the climb to the last downhill would be easier, just due to the weight saving and the rolling resistance, but actually climbing off road you can feel them digging in to the trail searching for every possible ounce of grip available.
I could go on to tell you about the rest of the ride, but lets just leave it there, as they performed flawlessly in every situation and didn’t let me down. Not only did they perform well, but they improved my riding experience, they let me throw my bike around, go faster in to corners and let me think about what was coming up in the trail next rather than ‘can I get a few more pedal turns in?’.
Another area in which they impressed was the fact that now my lardy Banshee has lost a few pounds I can actually do bunny-hops again without giving myself a hernia.
Overall I am thoroughly impressed with the Continental Mountain Kings and can’t wait to try another Continental tyre out on my full suspension bike.
As the title suggests this is a review of how the Mountain King performed in the dry, once the trails get gloopy and muddy we can test them in the wet.
Thanks again to Colmax, the distributors for Continental and many others here in China, for fixing us up with the tyres for test.
) so we’ll find out how they perform in the near future.