Climbing
As expected, the Trail King does well going up steep, loose climbs. Continental recommends running the rear tire in the opposite orientation as the front; I tried it both ways, and lo and behold, Continental seems to know what they’re talking about in this regard. It climbed better in the recommended orientation, and braking was about the same either way.
The Trail King also did well on climbs because the casings are quite supple, especially for a tire with some extra layers in there. As I mentioned above, they’re a bit squirmy at speed. But for slower speed crawling over roots and rocks, the Trail Kings conform really well and get great traction.
This also holds true when things get wetter; they wrap themselves around slippery roots pretty nicely.
On smoother climbs, the large size and blocky tread pattern became evident; these aren’t fast rolling tires. Rolling resistance is a bit tricky to really accurately pin down, but my seat-of-the-pants impression is that the Trail King is a bit slower than a Maxxis DHF, but a bit faster than a DHR II.
Braking
Also as expected, the blocky paddles do their thing and slow you down quickly. Sometimes with paddley tires, I’ve noticed that they’ll tend to “step out” while braking into a corner, meaning that as you start to lean in, the rear tire will shoot out to the side. The Trail Kings were solid on this front; they transitioned from straight up braking to leaned over braking without any fuss.
Durability
Normally, this is the part of the review that I offer the caveat that I only have around 12 rides on the Trail Kings, so long term durability is indeterminate. No such luck here, though.
On my 12th ride, I tore a bunch of cords in the rear tire, which left it with a very significant wobble.
The tire in that video is on a perfectly straight rim, and the bead is evenly seated all the way around. There wasn’t an identifiable event that caused this—I didn’t burp any air, I didn’t crash, and I didn’t smash into anything noteworthy. There weren’t any visible tears in the casing. The tire was straight at the top of the trail, and about halfway down, the guy behind me noticed the wobble.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen to a Trail King, but in all other cases, it came as a result of a bad burp or weird crash. On the upside, this happened three miles into a twenty-five mile ride, and the tire made it the rest of the way without issue (other than being wobbly).
Regardless, it seems that the high thread count casing may not hold up all that well. While it saves weight and makes for a supple ride, the smaller threads used in a high tpi tire don’t seem as able to withstand moderate abuse as the thicker (and heavier) threads used in tires that use a lower thread count material.
Tread wise, the Trails Kings are holding up well. They’re not chunking out, and the wear rate is in line with a mid-compound rubber.
Bottom Line
Some people like drifty tires, some people don’t. Of the tires that fall into the non-drifty category, the tread pattern on the Trail King is one of the best I’ve ridden for soft dirt. I’d like to see Continental strengthen up the sidewall a bit because, aside from the durability issues I ran into, they tend to feel a bit squirmy at speed. However, that same suppleness makes for a tire that does a really good job of conforming to roots and rocks.
The Trail King 2.2 Protection Black Chili was my favorite rear tire. Like you wrote, it just stuck, climbed amazing, braked well, and rolled quite well for what it was… and it could handle loose over hard valley trails and soft high Sierra trails. A rare feat. It thought I had finally found my perfect rear tire.
But the side knobs dissolved in 10 rides. :(
P
Did the knobs on your Trail King wear at an accelerated rate?
P
In the short time I was on the Trail King before the casing died on me, the knobs seemed to be holding up about average; similar to a Maxxis DHF, better than anything Schwalbe. They showed some wear, but nothing super concerning. But my ~12 rides were mostly in soft dirt, and didn’t include a ton of rock, so the knobs led a relatively easy life.
“On hard dirt, the Trail King was less compelling. The tires were very inclined to get caught in little ruts and dragged off line, and the balloon-ish casing felt pretty vague.”
Totally agree with the above, I’ve been experiencing my tire loosing grip in the middle of turns a lot these season, too much rain in the spring washed out the trails, nothing but hardpack, dust over hard and sandy in some spots right now!
What do you like to ride for tires in these conditions? After a nasty wipeout I decided I need new tires, I’ve been happy with the trail king 2.4 on my sb66 for a season, so was thinking I’d try xking 2.4/race king 2.2. I’ve really concerned to use anything too aggressive since I don’t think I’m gonna find too many good conditions this season, if I do I can always use trail/xking combo! or put back the trail king combo.
Hey Marcel,
It’s always a tough call when you’re looking for an aggressive tire that’ll corner well, but when there’s a lot of hardpack involved and a big knobby tire is kind of overkill. Lately, I’ve been liking a tire like a Maxxis Minion DHF 2.4 up front with something like a WTB Riddler or Specialized Slaughter in the rear; they roll fast but still corner reasonably well. Those semi-slick type tires definitely give up some ground in the braking department though.
I’ve used 2.4″ TKs for years. First on my 26er and now on my 27.5 bike.
I’ve noticed that are much less vague on a wider rim. I now run them only on 35mm rims. They are laser precise with more sidewall support.
The newest 27.5 x 2.4″ TKs I got seem like they are narrower than the older 26er version. On the same width rim the older tires have a much rounder profile. The new 27.5 tires are more squared off. I prefer the feel of the rounder tire.
I find they wear very well. No knob tear. They just evenly wear out which is great.
Through 6+ sets of TKs I’ve never had a failure like you describe. They’ve been bulletproof through lots of BC riding and weeks in Moab/Sedona. Having said that it’s happened to my buddy twice and we ride the same trails. The only difference is I ride a bit smoother/lighter than him.
Until this latest set of 27.5 tires that seem smaller I would have told you I’ll be riding TKs as long as they are built, but I’m not as stoked about the square profile. I’m not buying new rims to make ’em work so I’ll probably try a different tire on my 27.5 bike once these wear out.
Great review. Thanks. :)
Continental tpi:
Continental does NOT use 240 tpi fabric in their mountainbike tires. Just like everyone else they use 30~100 tpi fabrics.
They list their TIRE tpi as the total number of threads per inch, thus, like most mtb tires, this has casing made by folding a layer of 60 tpi fabric over the beads. On the sidewalls there are 3 layers of 60tpi, for a total of 180 threads per square inch of TIRE, and in the middle there are 4 layers of 60 tpi fabric, adding up to a total of 240 tpi of TIRE.
Every other brand just calls this 60 tpi.
Also, when listing the tire width, please list the tread and casing width separately. One width number is useless.
I posted above that I didn’t have TK casing failure issues that Noah described in his review. Sadly I have to post an update and take that back. Since Dec 2015 I’ve blown out 3 rear TK casings to the point they were unrideable. Of those 3 failures one was an operator error jump landing onto a square edge rock that I can’t blame the tire for. The other two failures I don’t recall any specific incident that would have caused them beyond lots of riding on rocks and roots.
Interestingly all my failures were with the 27.5″ x 2.4″ TK. I’ve run many sets of 26″ x 2.4″ TKs with no failures. Additionally my 120lbs less aggressive riding GF has never had a TK fail in either size.
I’m looking at the Minion DNF in 2.5″ width and Vittoria Morsa in the 2.3″ width. They both look about the same volume/size as the TK in 2.4″. At least as accurately as I can measure with my eyeball.
I’ve tried other 2.3″ – 2.4″ tires that were all significantly smaller volume than my TKs and I didn’t enjoy the feel of the smaller tires.
cheers,
Vik