Continental Kryptotal 2022
Reviews / Tyres
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At a glance
Price: 59,95 EUR (starting from)
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Kryptotal model has the most aggressive tread pattern of Continentals’ brand new MTB tire range. Front and rear specific threads are available for 27.5 and 29” wheels, three different casings and three different rubber compounds. The tires are available in a 2.4” and 2.6” width.
The product
When Continental launched their new tires, we were keen to get our hands on a pair. With the Athertons on the development team, we were sure the German tire Giant would come up with some good rubber. As with many products, three seems to be the magic number in terms of compound and casing options.
The three casing options are:
Downhill: Most durable and reinforced carcass construction in gravity line up
Enduro: Durable single ply carcass construction with Apex to prevent snakebites
Trail: Comparable performance to the Enduro casing tailored for trail use cases
When it comes to rubber compounds, I am a big fan of the ultra soft and grippy ones. But I can imagine that it can be expensive if you ride a lot, or use an E-MTB for your adventures. To make sure everyone could find a tire to his or her liking, the big C went with these three options:
SuperSoft: The grippiest of the bunch, but keep in mind that you do pay the toll on pedally sections. Best used for DH only or if you prefer descending grip over rolling resistance.
Soft: The balance of grip and rolling resistance for gravity focussed use cases. High level of grip with a reasonable rolling resistance. Best used for Enduro riding, or mounted on the rear of your DH race rig if you want to get a better rolling resistance.
Endurance: Compound with balanced properties on grip and endurance. With the endurance compound a high durability in combination with good rolling resistance and grip is achieved. A Compound choice for trail riding or as a endurance focused compound for e-Bikes
Of course all of these tires are ready for a tubeless setup. Retail price depends on the compound and casing you choose, but starts at just under 60 Euros.
Out on the trail
Mounting the tires on our WTB I30 Tough wheelset was a breeze. Both front and rear felt equally easy to mount, and the bead popped without using a compressor. Halfway through testing we mounted the Rimpact inserts, which was an easy job with the Kryptotals.
On the rims, you notice that these tires have a fairly flat profile. While running the 30mm wide rims this was not a real issue, but something to keep in mind if you’re running anything wider. It will result in a very on-off feeling where grip suddenly disappears.
The tread pattern is nice and open, and performs best on harder and dry loose surfaces. On the muddy days the tires would still offer plenty of grip, but there are thread options like their Argotal or Hydrotal out there that perform better. We ran the SuperSoft compound with the DH casing and were pleasantly surprised with how dampened these tires felt. The compound really was able to filter out the tiny vibrations, while offering a great amount of grip especially in hard packed corners.
Pressure wise we could get away with 25 psi in the bikepark. Anything lower than that would result in the tires folding under pressure when you throw it in the bermed corners. Riding on rooty, rocky lower speed technical trails however I was comfortable with going as low as 20 psi. Ridden later with inserts, I could even use this pressure in higher speed bike park situations without the tire folding.
On the uphills the tires performed as you’d expect from a DH oriented tire weighing in at just under 1300 grams. For longer uphill sections I added some pressure to decrease the rolling resistance, which brought a good amount of improvement. As for the lifetime of the tire, not bad at all! Even the SuperSoft compound we tested lasted. Plenty of descents had and although you could see the wear and tear, we didn’t lose any knobs or slashes.
Verdict
The Kryptotals are a great new tire from Continental. The tread pattern works amazingly well in dry and semi dry conditions and even the softest compound lasted long, which is great as not everyone gets a sponsorship like the Athertons do. If you like tires with a very rounded profile, keep in mind the Kryptotals work best on a 30mm wide rim. Depending on where you ride, you can opt for a casing and rubber compound that suits you, with the amount of options to choose from I’d find it hard to believe there isn’t any combo to your liking. Thumbs up from us at IMB!
Buy Tyres onThis review was in Issue 72 of IMB.
For more information visit ContinentalRelated
By Jarno Hoogland
Jarno's life has revolved around two wheels ever since he swung a leg over his first BMX at age 4. After a BMX and DH racing career, he moved on to work for bike shops, distributors and brands before ending up in the editors seat at IMB. Based in the ultimate testing ground in the Swiss mountains, he runs his guiding operation and makes sure every IMB issue is filled with top notch content.
