[inner ted]

greetings

apologies in advance for the following wall o text & if this is redundant of another thread, but I couldn't find anything specific enough so here goes:

I'm 6'2" & 225Lbs & I ride a year old Transition Bandit 27.5 full suspension on my local trail (Sandy Ridge in Oregon - woot!) I like to catch air here and there & go as fast around bermed corners as by cojones will allow.

I recently invested in a fancy new rear wheel in order to go tubeless - I went with a Stan's Flow EX & have a brand new Conti Trail King 2.2 & I'm 99.9 % sure it has the Apex sidewalls.

First: I've had trouble getting it to seal. Put in at least 3 small bottles of Stan's sealant & it still would lose all air by the next day. The shop that helped set it up is at a loss & have even re taped and put in new valve to make sure, but nope - still won't hold air even overnight. Is this normal?

Second: On the final tubeless ride, the rear tire felt like it 'folded' during hard cornering & aggressive "dips" (g-outs?) several times. I've read about tubeless tires 'burping' but that is always described as sealant spewing out at the 'burp' spot. There was never any visible sealant leak. After this ride is when the above mentioned seal problem got so bad it wouldn't hold air over night.
Now I notice a significant wobble in the rear wheel like the wheel is out of true - but when I do my very scientific measurement (hold my finger next to the rim as it spins) I don't notice the rim being out of true... which makes me think the tire is actually warped now from the "folding".

I always run my tires well above 30 psi & have been trying to bring that down to enjoy the added traction. The traction is amazing... until the folding makes me all skitterish & now seems to have left me with a deformed tire.
I want to embrace tubeless. I really do. Are there better tires for larger fellows? Is the Conti fine, but just through my own fault of lowering the tire pressure too much, no tire could survive my girth?

cheers

 

[Tystevens]

I don't know about all the technical set-up issues. Mine were easy -- pretaped from the factory, a little Stans and off I went. So I can't help there.

But I have never liked the low pressure feeling, honestly. I tried mine around 25 psi for a few rides and was not comfortable with the squirmy folding feeling. The other thing you have to watch out for is running pressure so low that the rim contacts the ground. You can't pinch flat when tubeless, but you can do one worse -- you can ding the rim so it won't hold the tire anymore. Running at lower pressures, I had a couple impacts where I know the rim hit the ground, not hard enough to damage it, but ...

I'm happy at 30 front/35 rear. Haven't had a flat in years.

 

[inner ted]

you speak of damage to the rim; during all this play with pressure i bottomed out at least twice and chipped the paint from the rim - would that keep it from sealing tubeless?

thanks !

 

[JHH]

^^^It could.

I rode Sandy last summer - great riding there. I'm a bit heavier than you and ride Maxxis Ardents. I ride 27psi F and 29psi R. I don't notice the rolling you talk about unless I'm riding lower pressures then I stated. I'd check your gauge to make sure it's reasonably accurate.

 

[inner ted]

appreciate the feedback - I'm thinking of Maxxis or Hans Dampf for my next tire choice - I really like the Conti & think the folding I'm experiencing is my fault for running too low pressure. the only gauge I have is on my floor pump, which is old & I have no idea how accurate it is - I get them pretty hard (near 40 psi) for the ride up the road then let the air out for the way down & this is essentially a "feels kinda squishy" calibration... which has lead to riding with tires that are likely under inflated. I rode again last night and tried to go a bit "less squishy" in the rear - still felt it fold in a g-out, but I assume that the tire is just compromised now.

 

[Bttocs]

Sounds like you have a bad tire. Maybe from the get go. I would look into a waranty claim and get the tire replaced. I am 6'4" and 250 lbs and changed tires for this season. The tire makes a huge difference in what pressure you can run. I went from a Geax AKA tire (small knobby) which couldn't go below 25 psi and was best at 30 psi, to a 2015 Nobby Nic which I can run as low as 18-20 psi with no problems. I am still using tubes even at those low pressures. For clydes, large high volume tires with stiff side walls are the way to go. My Nics are 29 X2.35" tires and they are great.

Maxxis Ardents and Schwable Hans Dampf are very good tires. See the Dirt Merchants website for some tire test results.

 

[inner ted]

appreciate the info - I'll look into the warranty claim idea, I don't hold out a lot of hope for any remedy there, but it's worth a shot
cheers!

 

[masonmoa]

I'm quite a bit bigger than you and like to run the Conti's Trailking as my rear tire in the winter, but I run the 2.4. I think what you did was blow out the sidewall. I had the same problem with a Trailking a couple of years ago. Took it down a really rocky/chunky trail and somehow the sidewall just blew out. I thought I bent the hell out of rim, but it was just the tire that was shot. It held air and got me back to my car, but had to buy a new tire. Now I'm running a Hans Dampf on the rear of that bike with no issues. I also like the Minion DHR2 for my rear on my 2 other bikes.

 

[targnik]

I've read somewhere before that Conti tires can warp if run tubeless i.e. I think they like tubular support. I've also read that the Conti's are very porous, so tubeless is a no go (super glue?) I run a TK 2.4 Protection on my AM steed - up front & tubed... it's my fav front tire and no issues with warping etc. thing is bomb proof and still looks like it did when I put it on several months ago. Point? Tube it (in the future) if tire is stuffed, warranty it.

-------------------------------------
Opinions are like A-holes... everybody
has one & they're usually full of...??

 

[Sasquatch1413]

Are you positive that the tire is fully seated on the bead seat? If its wobbling it may not be fully seated and would explain the folding too.

 

[inner ted]

based on these last couple replies, i'm really leaning toward trying another tire manufacturer - i've enjoyed the downhill ability of these Conti's -- until they fold -- which could be a result of me running too low psi, but i'm curious about the performance of Hans or maybe Maxxis - curious that others opt to run tubes - does this somehow make the tire "stronger" ?

cheers & thanks again for all the help here!

 

[M320]

6'4 280#. Have run Conti, Maxxis, Schwalbe, Bontrager.... I think thats it. I ride notheast rocky stuff. Conti MKII I liked alot (w/tubes) last most of my first season (only a few ripped knobs. Bontragers rolled well, just didn't grip all that well (also with tubes). Went tubless - Maxxis High Roller II (front) Ardent (rear), Good combo, no issuse with torn knobs. Replaced them when the rear was about half worn (sucks when wet). Tried the new and improved Nobby Nic evos. Yeah...... destroyed them in 200 miles, (ripped knobs and split casing) $160 down the drain. Going back to Maxxis. Just mounted up Minon DHF and DHRII. Have about 100 miles on them so far and loving every moment. Rolls good for a big tire (same if not better then the NN). Grips like crazy and no issues at all with wear. Thats my 2 cents. Hope that helps. Will never go back to tubes.

Santa Cruz Tallboy Ltc

 

[Rock Garden]

Is it anything like the video below? This is a Mt King I had where the casing threads broke on. Rim is true, tire is junk. Seller replaced it under warranty....and the replacement is still in the box. I refuse to run them again because of that and horrible traction issues I had with them.

 

[inner ted]

to the video above - it's not quite that bad, but ya, pretty much. thanks for sharing that & your experience - relieves me a bit to know i'm not the only one. i'd like the seller to stand behind it, but this is the second Trail King that has failed like this - if it's just me running pressure too low, fine; but seeing others suffer the same problem makes me question them entirely.

& to an earlier response: im' pretty dang sure the tire is seated properly - i've double, triple and quadruple checked to make sure the bead is still where it's supposed to be and it is.

thanks again to everyone's response & help - you are all groovy

 

[TooTallUK]

If you're using those tires in most anything but mud, you're going to tear them up.

 

[inner ted]

my first set lasted nearly a year & that's with a 4 mile climb on pavement
i really have no complaints about how well the tread itself held up & while it may have been a bit of a slow roller uphill on the pavement, i really enjoyed it's performance, especially in the lower air pressure - which may have lead to all the problems in the sidewall failing - i'm just guessing here & since others here have complained of similar failings, i'm willing to agree with them.
what i really need to do is try another manufacturer & see how that goes

& if i'm super interwebz savvy, i'll report back !