Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
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Contienental Vertical Pro tyres
It seems that everywhere you look people are using Continental tyres. In fact the Verticals have been cited by MBR magazine as being one tyre they would leave on their bike year round, and us here at FanyLion can see why.
First appearances are deceptive. Despite being labelled a 2.3, these tyres aren’t as big as a 2.1 WTB Velociraptor Race: which is the correct size? The Vertical Pro (£25 each for Kevlar beads, rather than about £15 for the standard steel beaded Verticals) has the advantage of sidewall protection, a grid of red protective (Kevlar?) gives extra confidence in those rock gardens.
Once on the bike, the slightly square edged profile gives indications of the tyres being good at cornering, and the small knobs mean there isn’t a lot of rolling resistance like some other tyres such as the aforementioned Velociraptors.
Out on the trails these tyres feel at home on every surface. I personally only have a Vertical Pro fitted to my front wheel (using a Gravity Pro for the rear) so can only comment on front end preformance. The endless edge technology means there is always good grip available, coupled with little roling resistance, a trade off not normally achievable with MTB tyres.
On loose surfaces, the slightly narrow profile increases traction by reducing the footprint and leaning the bike over lets the side knobs with the endless edge technology bite and give superb grip. In mud, although not as good at sheddding as pure mud tyres, the Verticals do manage to get rid of some mud and the small knobs bite through maintaining grip.
On hardpacked or rock surfaces the soft rubber of the small hexagonal knobs grip like glue and the tyre inspires confidence. The only area where this tyre falls short is on snakebite resisting properties, due to the slightly smaller section size. Come on Conti, let’s have a bit more volume, maybe a genuine 2.3 size, and we will have the perfect tyre. Though that would mean less performance in the mud and on the loose stuff, so maybe this already is the perfect tyre? Suggest you get some and decide for yourself. In our opinion, they’re great.
Looks/styling:: n/a
Design features/materials:: 8/10
Value:: 8/10
Performance:: 8/10
Fany fact
After a day’s ride, ensure the pub you're in has enough steak, if not, leave.