Continental Tires New Gravity Vary delivers 5 new Tread Patterns for All Situations

It’s no secret that Continental have been creating a brand new line of Gravity mountain bike tires, with Continental Atherton’s Jim Monro and Continental Nukeproof’s Ronan Dunne each noticed racing the sharpied-out prototypes at Snowshoe DH World Cup on the again finish of final season. Continental are actually lifting the lid on the brand new vary which contains no fewer than 5 tread patterns, with three new casing constructions and three new rubber compounds to select from.

The brand new Continental Xynotal, Argotal, Kryptotal (entrance and rear-specific) and Hydrotal are changing Conti’s long-standing gravity tires. Say goodbye to the Mud King, Der Kaiser Projekt and Der Baron Projekt; they’re now not in manufacturing. 

Along with Continental’s DH racing groups, it was Gee and Dan Atherton who additionally performed an enormous position in creating the brand new vary during the last three years, and far of the testing was carried out at Dan’s Dyfi Bike Park in North Wales. Becoming then, that Continental ought to invite the worldwide media to Dyfi for a primary journey on the Kryptotal mixed-conditions tire. You may learn our first journey overview of the Kryptotal Entrance and Rear 29″ x 2.4″ SuperSoft DH Casing tires right here, or hold studying for a whole breakdown of the brand new Gravity Vary.

Atherton Bikes supplied Atherton 150 Path Bikes and Downhill Bikes for media to check the Continental Kryptotal Entrance and Rear Tires

Continental’s New Gravity Vary of Mountain Bike Tires

Left; Continental Kryptotal Entrance, Proper; Continental Kryptotal Rear

Between them, Continental’s 5 new tread patterns ought to, theoretically, excel in every thing from dry, hard-pack situations, proper by way of to wetter-the-better full-on muddy situations, and canopy each sort of path situation one may encounter between these two extremes. They’re as follows:

• Continental Xynotal, suited to hard-pack terrain, the place the bottom is dry and compacted
• Continental Kryptotal (entrance and rear-specific); the all-rounder, developed for combined dry-moist situations
• Continental Argotal, an intermediate tire suited to unfastened or loamy situations the place the bottom is moist or moist
• Continental Hydrotal, created for the wettest, muddiest situations

Left; Continental Xynotal, Center; Continental Argotal, Proper; Continental Hydrotal

All can be found within the 2.4″ width possibility for 27.5″ and 29″ wheels, whereas the Kryptotal Rear and Argotal tires are moreover provided in a 2.6″ width. 

Together with the brand new tread patterns come three casing choices and three compound choices, although, as you may think, there aren’t infinite prospects right here. The SuperSoft compound is at present restricted to the downhill casing tires, for instance, although that might change very quickly.

Continental’s nomenclature, or extra particularly, the symbols printed on the tires’ scorching patch, are rather less intuitive than some model’s tire naming programs. WTB, for instance, merely state on the aspect wall whether or not the tire is “quick rolling” or “excessive grip” in relation to the rubber compound used, whereas they state both “gentle” or “powerful” in relation to the casing development. Granted, WTB supply simply two compounds and two casings, whereas Continental are providing three compounds and three casings.

Whereas the recent patch is fairly cool, and does make the tire standout properly, it’s laborious to inform what precisely the tire is from the symbols until you’ve memorized what they imply. It’s probably not a problem, although; it’s all spelled out for you on the packaging. It is best to be capable to choose which tire is finest for you by asking, “What terrain am I driving?”, and “What bike am I driving it on?”.

Let’s get a more in-depth have a look at these new treads.

Continental Xynotal

The Argotal is Continental’s dry situations specialist. The centre tread space, made up of alternating twin and triplet blocks, has very pronounced ramps for selling rolling effectivity. On the edge, in-line shoulder knobs end up very near the sting of the middle blocks, stated to ship predictable cornering, permitting the tire to roll onto its edge seamlessly.

All collectively, the tread presents a big floor space to the bottom to demand as a lot grip as doable from compacted, dry terrain, whereas the knobs’ siping presents extra edges in opposition to which braking forces could be utilized.

The Xynotal is on the market in 27.5″ x 2.4″ and 29″ x 2.4″, in Path Casing with the Endurance Compound, Enduro Casing with the Delicate Compound, Downhill Casing with the Delicate Compound, and Downhill Casing with the SuperSoft Compound.

Continental Kryptotal

The Kryptotal is the one tire within the new gravity vary to get a front- and rear-specific tread sample, designed to be probably the most versatile tires of the vary that carry out properly throughout a variety of various situations from dry to moist soils. Extra pronounced ramping on the heart tread of the rear tire is claimed to offer it improved rolling effectivity over the entrance tire. 

The Kryptotal Entrance tire is on the market in 27.5″ x 2.4″ and 29″ x 2.4″, in Path Casing with the Endurance Compound, Enduro Casing with the Delicate Compound, and Downhill Casing with the SuperSoft Compound (learn or first journey overview of the latter right here).

Whereas the rear will get two variations of the twin-block association at its heart, the entrance tire will get alternation twin- and triplet blocks, the latter of that are stated to assist with entrance tire-specific maneuvers equivalent to cornering.

The Kryptotal Rear is on the market in 29″ and 27.5″, each with 2.4″ and a pair of.6″ choices to select from. Get them in Path Casing with the Endurance Compound and Enduro Casing with the Delicate Compound. The Downhill Casing variations of the Kryptotal Rear are solely out there within the 2.4″ width, with the Delicate or SuperSoft Compound.

Despite the fact that Continental are launching the brand new Gravity Vary with 40 tires, it did strike us that there may very well be some lacking; an Enduro Casing tire with the SuperSoft compound. On this level, Alexander Hänke, the Product Supervisor accountable, had this to say, “With Launching our Gravity Vary we begin with a really vast and deep portfolio from the start. On this complete growth course of we created intensive toolbox with which we’re capable of give you new mixtures sooner or later. Enduro Casing with SuperSoft appears to be a really good alternative that we’re actively wanting into for the time being”. Preserve your eyes peeled, of us.

Continental Argotal

The Argotal is tagged as Continental’ “intermediate situations” tire, suited to unfastened, loamy trails which can be moist or moist. Its knobs are taller than these seen on the Kryptotal and Xynotal tires, serving to to dig into mushy high soil to search out grip on tougher terrain beneath. Its shoulder knobs are bolstered to withstand folding when cornering aggressively. The entire knobs are well-spaced to assist mud filter out of the gaps, sustaining these deep valleys between blocks.

The Argotal is on the market in 27.5″ and 29″ with 2.4″ and a pair of.6″ widths to select from. Get it within the Path Casing with the Endurance Compound, and the Enduro Casing with the Delicate Compound. The Downhill Casing choices for the Argotal are restricted to the two.4″ width, out there in Delicate and SuperSoft Compounds.

Continental Hydrotal

The Hydrotal is Continental’s devoted mud tire, with an excellent aggressive tread sample and really tall knobs optimized to dig even deeper into sloppy mud. The tread sees edges in every single place, in each course, in a bid to advertise grip in all instructions. Once more, the knobs are very properly spaced to advertise self-cleaning.

The Hydrotal is on the market in 27.5″ x 2.4″ and 29″ x 2.4″, solely within the Downhill Casing with the SuperSoft Compound.

Continental’s Gravity Tire Casing Constructions

All of Continental’s new Gravity tires are made up of a 110 TPI casing materials, chosen for its suppleness. Essentially the most strong casing is in fact the Downhill Casing, weighing a claimed 1,290g in 29″ x 2.4″. It’s 2-Ply, with a further 2 layers of material added beneath the tread space to create 6 layers of material right here, with 4 layers of material on the aspect partitions. On high of that, it will get an new Apex insert extending from the foldable Aramid bead bead up the aspect wall to guard in opposition to snake bit punctures and air loss by way of burping. On the skin of the carcass, a cross-woven chafer materials is added to guard the tire and rim space.

Within the middle-ground is the Enduro Casing, with a claimed weight of 1,125g for the 29″ x 2.4″ tire. This one is 1-ply, with an with a further layer of material added beneath the tread space to create 3 layers of material right here, with 2 layers of carcass materials on the aspect partitions. On high of that, extending from the bead proper as much as the sting of the middle tread space is one other layer of cross-woven material added to fend off cuts and slashes on the aspect partitions. This one additionally will get the Apex insert and chafer textile on the skin.

The lightest casing in Continental’s new Gravity Vary is the Path Casing, weighing a claimed 1,040g in 29″ x 2.4″. It is rather just like the Enduro Casing in its carcass development, however lacks the Apex insert.

What concerning the compounds, I hear you say. Properly, we don’t have a lot information to share on these. We did ask Continental for the Shore A scores; this was their reply:

“Shore Hardness is a element that we don’t talk about round our tires, merely primarily based on the truth that Shore hardness is a parameter for a standardized take a look at specimen that may be decided repeatedly. On a “actual” tire, nevertheless, we’ve influencing elements such because the geometry of the studs, the affect of the carcass and even the affect of the stress within the tire. Additionally, shore hardness is barely a part of the reality once we speak about compound efficiency. A really mushy compound doesn’t essentially need to generate excessive ranges of grip, different bodily parameters equivalent to rebound and e-modulus additionally play an vital position.Nevertheless, we all know that it’s usually accepted to equate the hardness of a compound with efficiency parameters. Because of this we’ve selected the nomenclature SuperSoft, Delicate and Endurance Compound” – Alexander Hänke, Product Administration Bicycle Tires | Mountain Bike.

What’s the precise weight of those tires?

Continental’s claimed weights for the brand new Gravity Vary are impressively gentle. I imply, 1,290g for a Downhill Casing 29″ x 2.4″… that’s severely spectacular. Examine it to Schwalbe’s Massive Betty 29″ x 2.4” Tremendous Gravity tire that weighs 1415g, or the 29″ x 2.4″ WTB Choose, Robust, Quick Rolling, that weighs a claimed 1,427g. Up to now, we’re in receipt of simply three of a doable forty tires, so there may be little we will do in the best way of verification. Our European Tech Editor Cory, weighed the next:

So, the entire tires we’ve in our arms weigh in a good bit heavier than Continental’s claimed weights. We’ll replace this desk once we take supply of the Kryptotal Entrance and Hydrotal tires on their option to us in Scotland.

Precise weight of the 29″ x 2.6″ Continental Kryptotal Rear, Path, Endurance is 1,253g, as measured by our Park Device DS-2 scale. Credit score: Cory Benson

Precise weight of the 29″ x 2.6″ Continental Argotal, Enduro, Delicate is 1,347g, as measured by our Park Device DS-2 scale. Credit score: Cory Benson

Precise weight of the 29″ x 2.4″ Continental Argotal, Path, Endurance is 1,079g, as measured by our Park Device DS-2 scale. Credit score: Cory Benson

Pricing & Availability

Continental’s new Gravity Vary tires have a beginning retail worth of 59,95 €. Worth will fluctuate depending on mannequin and variant.

ContinentalTires.com