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I installed the Enduro casing Argotal/Kryptotal on my Sentinel today, and it instantly felt better than either the Gravity or Trail radials in every regard. The number of basically un-ramped knobs on the Alberts, combined with the more compliant casing, seems to be a perfect recipe for increased drag, even at quite high pressures. The Contis roll noticeably faster, and have a (to me) much more comfortable sensation of leaning and then "catching" in the corners, with an easily available controlled slide, vs the extremely grippy yet somehow vague feeling of the Alberts.
Comparing Conti to Conti, it's extremely curious how much faster the Enduro Argotal/Kryptotal Re feel vs the DH Kryptotal Fr/Xynotal. I would think that tread pattern would trump casing in this instance, but the Enduro casing completely eliminated the sensation of drag I felt running the DH tires, despite having much more aggressive knobs. The Argotal is a very cool tire - at a glance, I would think that the tall knobs and wide 2-2 spacing would make them vague on hardpack, but the knobs are so well supported and put so much rubber on the ground that it feels more similar to the Butcher (one of my favorite tires). The taller center knobs also give it a slightly more "round" feel in the corners than the spiky look would initially suggest.
very surprised to hear, i switched for one ride as i was on borrowed wheels to the Krypto enduro fr/re and it was a shit show, sliding both up and down where with the radials i was just on rails, and speed wise i found the contis to be slower since i had to go slower not to slide everywhere
Doesn’t make any sense to me either! I tried all kinds of pressures on both casings for the Radials and could never get them to feel good in corners (though the Gravity version felt sublime over chattery stuff). I was also surprised how much I hated the DH casing Contis, given all the positive reception that variant in particular got. I will say that the Kryptotal Fr tread pattern seems flawed somehow, while the Argotal is an interesting best-of-both-worlds of the Hillbilly and Butcher for me.
I guess it depends a lot on riding style as well 🧐
Yeah I was thinking that too but how much does pressure/contact patch really affect puncture resistance? My bro-science thinking says minimally and puncture resistance is pretty much the casings job within acceptable pressures. I wish they would have tested this in the article. Even considering the pressure differences it’s still surprising as the radial casings (Trail Pro, Gravity Pro) are heavier than their regular counterparts. (Super Trail, Super Gravity)
So sorry for not keeping up with this thread, but I tried and failed. Can someone help me out?
is it worth putting sawdust in my tubless fluid? I don't have easy access to rubber shavings.
My favorite tire has been the DHR II for a few years, but this spring on the SL ebike I replaced my rear tire with Delium's "Rugged" and its been great. It may or may not be wearing faster than a Maxxis, its a bit early to tell. But I've loved it. Now I need to replace the front, and if I go with another Delium instead of a Radial will it be like riding a bike with a 69 HTA? Will I wash out and crash in every corner? Or will I have to run such low pressures to get grip I'll snake bite thru my Tannus?
I'm back from a substantial riding vacation and catching up on things. Going to respond to a few things in this post at once.
re: trail bike tires: I really do like the forekaster front, recon rear combo for my trail bike. I use that combo quite a bit for the XC Marathon style events that I do. My only complaint, is that I do tend to go through the rekon a bit faster then I would like when used as a rear in loose conditions where I end up drifting the back into catch berms. Recently, I've gone to just running a forekaster front/rear and while it's slightly slower rolling initially then the rekon, I think it's better long term and rolls plenty fast once it has 4-5 rides of wear on it. I do wish that I could get an EXO+ with silkworm or some sort of tread protection with both the forekaster/rekon. I have punched holes through the tread area on both of these in downieville and once in the santa ana mountains. They hold up well in general, particularly the sidewalls, but in sharp rocks I find them pretty vulnerable in the tread area.
re: DH/MT 2.5 DHR2: I just got back from my annual whistler trip. Typically, I would run a dh/mt 2.4 dhr2 in back and a dd/mg assegai in front. This year, I couldn't find any 2.4"s in stock, so I just rolled with the 2.5. I was a bit bummed because I typically find that the 2.4"s in back track a bit better in berms and are a bit more fun in terms of schralping corners. To my surprise, the 2.5 DH DHR2 in back was fantastic and was an overall improvement in performance, without giving up anything noticeable in high speed bike parky stuff. I ran 27 psi rear, 25 psi front with no inserts and had minimal rim strikes. Also, maybe I was just riding better than normal and staying off the brakes... but I swear that the 2.5" showed better wear after the 6 park days then I usually get.
One other change is that this year I ran no inset in back on my park bike. I think that the combination of the no insert, and additional air volume of the 2.5" was a better performing and feeling tire then the 2.4" with an insert. I honestly might be on a bit of an insert hiatus as I'm really liking the linear feel of the tires without the inserts. I'm firmly in the camp now that if you can't run low enough tire pressures to leverage an insert as adding performance/compliance/support to the tire (I'd say that this is 24psi and less) then you're better off without the insert.
I love trying new tires and I cannot wait for the upcoming maxxis releases. I just put a high roller 3 on the front of my bike for the completely blown out end of summer conditions we've got ramping up here in southern california. Only one ride in, but I'm already finding it's cutting through the dust/loose conditions instead of skating over to the top. So far so good.
Sawdust, cornmeal, beard clippings etc
Any of those will work 😎
Well just wanted to share some results on some tire durometer measurements that I have collected of some of the more popular tires in my collection.
Method: All tires were measured while sitting on a flat plate of steel to provide equal and consistent backing support. Nothing was measured mounted. I measured the Maxxis brand new out of the box and again after this weekend's Boondocks race at NorthStar, no change was detectable in the results, so I just added the miles that I was at after measuring yesterday. All measurements were an average of 3. The hysteresis of the rubber and the siping in the tread make it tricky to get consistent results, the conti rubber would take about 1-3 seconds to "settle" into its measurement, starting off about 3-7a harder than its final result, while the Maxxis would settle instantly.
I forgot to note but the butcher being measured are the brand new 2025 versions. I have some older ones that I haven't brought myself to toss yet, they are about 16% harder than the relatively new ones, 50a vs 43a. I was pretty surprised to see the measurement differences as the T9 and MaxxGrip feel pretty similar with the 'ol nail test, less than the 10% difference in stiffness that is measured.
Buuutttt, to really cap it all off, Conti is using a softer base rubber over a harder cap, at least from what I can measure with the Super Soft tire. I couldnt measure a meaningful difference in the soft rubber compound. The caveat of this test is the reality that these are not all brand-new tires, rubber will harden over time so I would take the absolute numbers with a grain of salt, with the exception of the MaxxGrip and the T9 Butchers. I have a buddy who is about to mount a brand new set of KRF and Argotal DH SS's on his bike for N* this weekend, I'll get some results of those and update the chart next week. Hope some of you tire nerds find any use/interest in this. Its fun for me as when I run out of talent I rely on setup to try and get me the rest of the way lol.
Please do some Schwalbe Radials next.
I managed to go somewhere with proper tech today. My opinion of the radials just keeps getting better and better. Also had a ride at the weekend with so much traction, I hit a sand pit and it felt like I had a motor in my front hub, even when I was two wheel drifting it was composed and comfortable.
The tech today was so good, it helped that I was borrowing the Ohlins coil off my bro's bike, but even with all the rocks and roots and stuff I never felt like my front was losing it, I had a couple times where my rear was skipping around, but it's not as sketchy when your front wheel is on rails.
IME tire pressure is the second most important determinant of puncture resistance, with casing construction at #1. Adding more air is the #1 way to avoid pinch flats on any given tire.
Bring me yours? 😂 happy to measure more I’ll be at N* until the snow shuts it down…
Just my own 2c but I’ve not punctured a tire in probably 20+years, knock on 🪵. But I don’t mess with less than DH type casings for the most part anymore. Spend a few years pedaling 40+lb bikes everywhere and you’ll feel like your riding an ebike every time you jump onto a trail bike with sub 1200g tires. But whatever 35psi in my minions…. 😆
I’m talking about punctures directly on the tread, not pinch flats. The test in the Enduro article was measuring punctures. Of course more air is more pinch resistant but my question is a different one. Is there really a huge difference between rolling over a razor sharp rock at 26psi or 30psi?
In theory, lower air pressure (or more supple and flexible casing) in a tire is less likely to be cut since it lets the tire conform and spread the load over a larger area of tire.
Yeah, if you're talking about center tread punctures, in that case lower pressure is better like notthatbryan said. Imagine poking an overinflated balloon with a pen and then poking an underinflated balloon. More pressure is going to stretch out the the balloon and hold the surface under tension, making cuts easier.
Sorry, I didn't open the Enduro Mag test, I assumed "puncture resistance" referred to pinch flats, as those are 90% of the flats I see in the wild.
So once again I’m back to being baffled that the radials with the same pressure as the traditional tires had far less puncture resistance, since they would have even more area to spread the load over. Maybe the testing method was flawed? I’m going mental over this because I’ve just swapped the front tire on my enduro bike from a Conti Kyrptotal F Enduro to the Magic Mary Trail Pro Radial. I’ve not had much time on the radial and only really in slow wet conditions but I do ride in fast dry rocky areas where anything called “trail” casing is asking for punctures.
I’m running the magic Mary trail in the front right now and I wouldn’t worry too much about it being worse with punctures than the enduro casing continentals. I’ve run both and they both feel about the same level in terms of puncture protection. I managed to puncture a kryptotal after around 500 miles with a nasty crash and I have about 200 on the magic Mary with no issues so far.
Measuring the sag given the pressure would be one way to even out the playing field... Even between casings.
Radials are weaker than bias plies, that’s why some car spares are still bias they take less material to hit the target strength.
I'm old (53) and I remember when I was a kid radial car tires were newish and bias ply tires were still common and I asked some older dude what the difference was and he said, 'the radial tires ride a lot better, the bias ply tires bounce a lot'.
This checks out!
I am a big believer in the radials, but there are definitely weaknesses to the Albert. I am VERY anxiously waiting for that prototype that is in some pics that looks like a HRIII/Butcher/Verdict but is in a radial casing. As soon as it's available I will be buying.
Most definitely. The Albert is a great 'trail tire', but not good for enduro/DH (which is why you don't see any of their riders racing on it.). It's an Assegai pattern copy, but you don't see any Alberts on the front of world cup racers's bikes, unlike the Assegai which is all over. It's slightly different, and those slight differences make it weaker when 'shredding'. Lower knob heights, knobs spaced closer together, etc. A few millimeters makes a huge difference in tread pattern performance. it's a great tire for everyday riding, but if lacks braking bite on fast/steep/loose. Also has weaker sideknobs and with lots of transition knob surface, it doesn't corner as well (if you like a tire that bites hard and you can feel it transition to the bite, etc.)
I’ve seen a few, considering there’s not many on Schwalbe regardless, with the Albert as a rear of front and rear both on Dh or EDR 🧐
Also, knobs are not lower than an Assegai, go measure them, I did.
And I think it goes hard as a rear tyre and rolls incredibly well for how beefy it is.
Was recently on very loose and dry condition around the sea to sky area and it might be the radials doing wonders but even crawling down steep double blacks I’ve had 0 wishes on stronger braking from the tyre
All summer and no punctures on MM trail super soft front 21psi, Albert trail soft rear 23psi. I'm 160#. I ride a fairly soft setup and ride fairly smooth so can get away with low pressures. This is on natural single track in the San Juan mtns in CO, not bike park and very few high G berms and corners. If I was riding flowier tracks with bigger berms and hits, I'd have to up these pressures for sidewall support. Still digging these tires. Great grip, fast rolling and a smooth ride.
The new dissector looks pretty good! The side knobs are beefed up and the transition is filled in. The center knobs look highly ramped like Conti Xynotal. Will we finally have a well rounded fast rolling rear tire option from Maxxis?
The new DHF v2 + Dissector v2 would be a pretty solid fast rolling setup.
Link: https://www.maxxis.com/us/tire/dissector-2/
Images from Enduro MTB Mag
Looks like a beefier forekaster.
The real test will be if the side knobs last more than 3 rides.
Zooming in on the third picture I’m going to say not
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