Continental Speed King MTB Tires

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list is $40 to $45.</div> <div> <B>Weight:</B> 600 g.</div> <div> <B>Actual Size:</B> 2.22” across the casing; 2.23” across the knobs at the widest point.</div> <div> <B>Source:</B> <A HREF="http://www.biketiresdirect.com/" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.biketiresdirect.com/">BikeTiresDirect.com</A>.</div> <div> <B>More info:</B> <A HREF="http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/themes/tires/mtb/speedking/speedking_de.html" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.conti-online.com/generator/ww">Continental Web site</A>.</div> <div> <B>Recommended?:</B> Yes, even more so now that I've been riding them a while.</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="496" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 38 ><NOBR><div> Ratings</div> <div> (1 is lowest, 5 is highest)</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="261"><div> Comments</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 38 ><NOBR><div> Traction, all conditions</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="32"><div> 3</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="261"><div> Sensitive to pressure; break early but recover well</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Ease of Installation</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="32"><div> 3</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> Requires a tire tool but not a gorilla</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="177"><div> Cost/Value</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="32"><div> 4</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> On sale; no bargain at list price</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="177"><div> Wear</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="32"><div> 4</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> Upgraded our rating - see <A HREF="#update_" TITLE="Continental Speed King MTB Tires">update</A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B>The Continental Speed Kings live up to their name. </B>I first noticed this as I crested a small rise on the trail at Versailles State Park. The bike accelerated much faster than it had with the OEM Nokkian NBT 2.3 tires. I also noticed it every time I stomped the pedals on my next outing, which was at Brown County State Park. The Contis didn't convert my Kona Dawg into a Yamaha YZ, but the increase in speed was immediately noticeable.</div> <div> Part of this is due to the Kings' relatively low mass. The front NBT hit 660 grams, used, while the Kings were 600 grams new. This is especially impressive since the Kings are wire bead tires and the NBTs were folders. The Continental Web site accurately lists the wire 2.3” Kings at 600 grams. Three other models, a puncture-resistant Duraskin, a foldable, and an ultralight Supersonic, are shown as 610, 560, and 500 grams, respectively.</div> <div> Part of the Kings' speed advantage is due to low rolling resistance. Rolling resistance is affected by many things, such as the durometer of the rubber, the type and number of threads in the casing, and the size of the tread blocks.</div> <div> I don't know the durometer of the Kings. Their thread count is 84, but Conti doesn't say what material is used for those threads. The Kings have small tread blocks.</div> <div> Those small blocks were part of the reason I bought the Speed Kings. The tread pattern reminded me of my favorite MTB tire of all time, the Michelin Comp S Lite. The Michelins had incredible traction in all conditions. It seemed I could have stood the bike upright against the wall and the tires would have held it there.</div> <div> The Speed Kings don't have quite the same traction, but they're close. They break away sooner and more abruptly than the Michelins did, but the Kings recover very nicely. Traction was dramatically improved when I dropped the air pressure from the mid-30 psi range to 25 psi in the front and 27 psi in the back, which is where I usually ran the Nokkians. The Kings can be used front or rear but their rolling direction gets reversed depending on their position.</div> <div> Unlike the Michelins, the Speed Kings seem to be wearing down their little knobs in a great hurry. The corners of the knobs are as badly rounded after less than 50 miles of use as they were on the stock Nokkians with more than ten times the mileage. In fact, the Nokkians have trickled down to my hardtail where I expect to get several hundred more miles of use out of them. In fairness, the Nokkians had much larger knobs. Still, the wear rate on the Kings seems excessive.  <A NAME="update_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><B>Update, October 2007</B> - with a couple hundred miles on the tires there is no appreciable increase in wear. Whatever initial concerns I had regarding rapid wear seem to be unfounded now. In fact the Kings have survived some pretty rocky riding without a single cut in the sidewall nor a single knob torn from the casing. And despite operating pressures normally reserved for tubeless tires, I've had no pinch flats. The Kings are proving to be among the most durable tires I've used, which is not at all what I expected after the first few rides. Their only weakness remains the broad expanse of smooth rubber between the knobs. This acreage is an open invitation to thorns.</div> <div> If you're looking for a lightweight, all-conditions, all-mountain tire, the Speed King is a good choice. And if you're looking for a tire with good all-around performance that's also very fast, it would be hard to find something better than the Continental Speed King.</div> <div> <B>Photos</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="2b98ada0.jpg" border=0 width="650" height="218" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Speed Kings have small, widely-spaced knobs.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="2bbc98a0.jpg" border=0 width="457" height="650" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Nokkian NBT tires (right) that came on the Kona had much larger knobs. Although the NBTs were only about 10 percent heavier than the Contis, they felt much more sluggish.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>