The weather was overcast yesterday, but it wasn’t raining, so there was no excuse to get out and pedal around a bit. Chris called me just as I was getting the bike ready to roll, but there was still a lot of daylight left after our lengthy discussion of matters tactical. This was a good opportunity to evaluate the performance of the Conti Rubber Queens that I had just switched to. On the first outing at the Ditch, they felt slower, but this was offset by the better traction and ride. On the pavement, I could definitely feel the increase in rolling resistance from the size, weight, pattern, and compound differences between these and the Michelins they replaced. Climbing was hellaciously sluggish. At speed, they tended to want to stay in motion, but accelerating them up to speed was harder. Once at speed, there was a more noticeable gyroscopic effect in turns, where they resisted the steer into hard corners. There may also have been a little change in steering feel from the slight geometry change the larger diameter imparted, but I really doubt I can feel something that slight. They are still new with molding hairs all over, so I’ll give them more time to settle in before I make any judgments. Heck, from the computer data, they were faster than my last ride on Michelins!
D = 11.67 km (7.25-miles), Vavr = 19.5 km/h (12.1-mph), Vmax = 39.4 km/h (24.5-mph), T = 36-minutes
Yeah man, those casings are so big, it’s like riding a 29er.
Yeah, that sounds about right. I forgot to mention that those tires are like Ninja-quiet on pavement compared to most other knobbies that hum and howl like 4×4 trucks with mud tires.
They are pretty smooth.
The tread characteristics and how they hook up or don’t take some getting used to, but out on a smoothish cross country trail they do well. I’ve used them coming down St. Lou and it works okay in the rear. The extra volume adds some cush. Definitely need more bite for the front in a DH sitch though.
They also apparently wash out when Root suddenly stops in front of you for no reason…
Word!