Continental Trinotal tires

It is probably fair to make some assumptions about the tires preferred by the majority of this site’s readers. We are talking about North Shore Mountain Biking, after all. And while there is a solid contingent of readers from other parts of the globe, as well as a broad range of definition for how we all ride, there are still some solid prevailing assumptions forming the bedrock of this place. Since most of us are fluent in Maxxis-speak, we can refer to this bedrock as “Maxx Grip compound, and nothing less than EXO+ casings”.

This, in turn, casts reviews of tires that do not fall under this purview in a questionable light. As in, what’s the point? Does anyone really care about XC rubber, or gravel tires, or tires that are not sticky and stout? Because, when it comes down to how WE want our tires to perform, sticky and stout is where it’s at. Anything less is, well, less. As in, less good. Less meaningful to the kind of riding we tend to gravitate (and gravity is a very big lever in this discussion) toward. Less applicable to our needs.

But I am not on/in The Shore. Nor am I at home in my familiar high altitude rocky graveyard of pedals. I am, once again, in Baja California, and I came down here with big bin full of tires to try and make some sense of the next three months’ sandy purgatory that I will be savoring. None of the tires I brought with me make much sense on The Shore, but they all hopefully make sense somewhere. Hopefully here. So, this is going to be a thing for a bit – Mike’s exploration of tires that absolutely will not cut it where this site is based. We shall start with, drumroll please, a pair of Continental Trinotals.

For a frame of reference, I weigh 190lbs ready to ride, am solidly in the EXO+ or Grid Trail casing camp, live almost entirely within the 2.4-2.6” width spectrum at about 21-24psi, and generally run a grade less sticky on my rubber given where I live. So, in Maxxis terms I am fine with MaxxTerra compound, and in Specialized-ese I run T7s. My tires generally weigh within spitting distance of about 950 grams. I love the stickier compounds for grip but also love how the less sticky compounds roll.

Okay, on to the Trinotal. Conti spooled up this new nomenclature a year or two ago, and the big sticky meats in that range, the Kryptotal, Xynotal and Argotal tires, are right at home in the dank north. Deniz (who it should be noted knows his way around going fast in your neck of the woods way better than I could ever aspire to) loves them. At the absolute other end of the spectrum is the minimal tread, speedy compound, supple casing, and featherweight Dubnital. It’s a straight up XC race tire, and in any conditions that involve sharp rocks, riders who don’t look awesome in skinsuits, or the need for some real traction, it is going to let you know this is not its jam in a hurry. So, given that Baja is festooned with sharp rocks, and that I am a solid 30 or so pounds upstream from any hope of looking good in a skinsuit, I opted to bring down a pair of slightly meatier Trinotals, as well as a pair of semi-serious looking Magnotals (which will get reviewed separately, later). This oughtta be “interesting”.

The nomenclature protocols that Continental uses looks outwardly confusing at first glance, but the iconography becomes pretty self-explanatory once you sit with it for a moment. I respect the lengths that Continental has gone to in building out this hierarchy, and think they ultimately did a pretty damn good job of explaining how and where their tires are intended to work. In the case of the Trinotal, there are two widths available, in two different casings, and two different compounds. I opted for “race” casings and “grip” compound, in the 29×2.4” flavor. Findings are as follows:

Holy shitballs, these are fast! 729 grams apiece according to my scale, which is 49 grams heavier than Continental’s claimed 680 gram weight, but still, damn. These are speedy sneakers. Part of that can be attributed to chopping roughly half a pound per wheel of rotating mass compared to what I usually ride. But also, daaaaang, these are supple and lively casings, and hoo-boy this rubber rolls out quiet, smooth, and fast.

While the Trinotal has a little more meat on its carcass than the Dubnital, this is still a pretty racy tire. The claimed 2.4” size measures out at 2.3” pumped up to 25psi, the profile is round, and there is not much in the way of side knob as the knobs give way to the sidewall. It has a hair more tread than a Rekon Race, and is about on par with a Specialized Fast Trak, but size for size is substantially lighter than either of them. And it’s fast. Not sure if I mentioned that already.

The tires these replaced were a Maxxis Aggressor/Disector combo, so the speed comparison is a little unfair, but replacing them with the Trinotals netted an immediate “two cog smaller” effect, and my dirt road trail approach average speeds went up by between one and two miles per hour. I swear, if more of us remembered how sweet light wheels and tires feel fewer of us would be caving in to ebikes.

That’s an easy enough claim to make when talking about spinning out dirt roads and smooth trails, though. The claim gets harder to back up as the ground gets steeper, rougher, and looser.

You can probably guess how this next bit goes.

The Trinotals are not a whole ton of fun once things get rocky. And they are not a whole ton of fun once things get loose. Once things get rocky AND loose, and you may or may not be struggle bussing around on a hardtail with drop bars, fun will definitely leave the chat. There are two defining characteristics to the singletrack available here in this part of Baja (oh shit, who am I trying to kid? The whole damn peninsula…): Trait One – Rocky. Trait Two – Loose.

Those supple sidewalls feel great when you can zone in on a tire pressure sweet spot, but there is not much margin for error. At 22psi, the sidewalls flexed way too much for confidence. I found that at my usual 24psi “getting to know each other” pressure, I could ping the rims a little too easily for my liking. Ultimately, I ended up between 26 and 28psi. At 26, they felt pretty darn good until I hit sniper rocks, then rim strikes were easy. At 28, the support felt about right, but the tires began to pinball in deflection. This is the double edged sword of these casings. They feel incredible when you hit the right pressure on moderate terrain; supple and lively and almost sew-up awesome. But that is a very limited window of awesomeness, and once you get outside it, you’ll be sacrificing rim and tire integrity, or you’ll be surrendering control.

If I was pinning numbers onto my skinsuit, I would absolutely line these up for race duty. They balance speed, feel and comfort really well in that context, and have enough meat to be considered a touch more legitimate than some similar weight tires. if I weighed less than 160, I might consider them as a good light trail tire on hardpack trails where I wanted to go fast and wasn’t expecting any rock gardens. Anything more hectic than that, and I would have to be prepared to ride very carefully. At 80-ish USD or around 95-ish CAD, that’s a consideration you’ll have to weigh very carefully for your own needs, depending on how harsh your terrain is, and how fast you want to feel if the terrain is benign enough to let it rip. Down here, in the land of cactus, hatchet shaped rocks, and a million flavors of sand, I will have to go fishing for something beefier in the Continental catalog.

I will shed a tear remembering how these tires almost made me feel fit for a few weeks, though.

Continental Trinotal Tires – 78.95 USD / 95 CAD