[jamis29er offline]

Ok so what is all the hype about these tires? I read lots of great reviews about The Captain, how the grip was awesome and the 2Bliss was great etc etc.

After installing one on the rear of my HT 29er and hitting the trails hard for a bunch of good miles, all I can say is:

Gimme back my Mountain KIng!!! 2Bliss, more like 2BS!!

The Captain is unpredictable and gets squirrely real fast. Sure he grips decently when climbing as long as you are not turning, and descending is fine as long as you aren't turning. But get on the sidewall at all and the side lugs blow free and bam you are done.
I have tried different pressures and there seems little change. I'm dissapointed by this tire.
Tubeless with Stans the tire bleeds air through the sidewall quite freely.

My Mountain King never dissapointed me and gripped in all but the worst stuff. It just finally wore out and was starting to slip as the knobs wore down. Think I will buy another one.

Any other recommendations for good rear tires?

[Jared13 offline]

Sorry to hear you don't like your new tire.


After looking at the tread patterns, the Captain is open in the transition between the tightly-spaced center knobs and the shoulder lugs. I think that's called a square tread design (or something like that, it's been a while since I read about it.) With the open design, you get great center traction and great hard-cornering traction. Anything in between leaves something to be desired. The center knobs are tightly spaced for lower rolling resistance.

The Continental King, on the other hand, has a more rounded tread design with more evenly-spaced lugs. This provides good traction all around but could have less "bite" when cornering hard.

[bonkedagain offline]

The Captain is a round design, not square. Panaracer Fires are square, for example.

I've done about 4500 miles on Captains. They do seem to break loose a bit more than a square pattern, but, on the other hand, they transition back and forth between turns really smooth. So... I guess you go with what works best for you.

[Jared13 offline]

Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology. The Panaracer Fire XP Pro look more "rounded" to me than the Captain.

By square and rounded, I'm talking about the tread having a gap between the side lugs and the rest of the tread. After looking at the Captain again, I see it's not as gapped as I thought it was. The row between the center tread and the side lugs are closer to the side lugs than I thought.


This is what I mean by "square"


This is what I mean by "rounded"



Two extreme cases, but it makes the gap a bit more obvious.

Between the Mountain King (top) and the The Captain (bottom):



I would say The Captain is more "square" than the Mountain King because the rows are more defined. But, I could be completely off the terminology, sorry about that.

[bonkedagain offline]

On a "Square" tire the knobs get higher (deeper) as you move away from the centerline. A rounded tire usually has uniform knob height from the centerline around to the sidewalls.

[Jared13 offline]

On a "Square" tire the knobs get higher (deeper) as you move away from the centerline. A rounded tire usually has uniform knob height from the centerline around to the sidewalls.

Awesome!
Thanks for the info man, I didn't know that part of it! (But it makes perfect sense, talk about a "duh!" moment )

[TrailBlazer01 offline]

I recently got two new tires done in tubeless for my hard tale.
The front is a Specialized Ground Control
The rear is a Specialized The Captain Control.

The front tire is incredibly good (Ground Control), it's mind blowing good.
The rear tire (The Captain) is not so great.

I agree that in a straight line its good but turning is not great.
It also wails loudly on pavement, esp at speed.
The sound it makes alone is reason for me to dump it!

I did use a Specialized Hard Rocker (HR) on my rear and it didn't have as much traction but it was quiet and transitioned to corners very predictably (good).
The HR was easy to slide the rear when I wanted or hold tight and stay up.
The Captain feels like there is a spot during the the transition that has no grip and it's not easy to predict.
I have accidentally slid The Captain on my rear many times when I didn't expect or want to.

The Ground Control is a-whole-nuther-story, it's grippy as heck - on all terrains and works great below 30psi and corners like a dream and transitions smoothly and predictably with no drop in traction all the way over.

I will give it a few more rides but I am sure I will be putting the Specialized Ground control onto my rear tire to match the front.


May not easy to tell from the photos, but the "Ground Control" knobs are taller and very tightly spaced and there are 2x more of them compared to "The Captain".


The Specialized The Captain Control:



The Specialized Ground Control:



I just notice that the Ground Control has almsot the same tread pattern of the Hans Dampf!



Both highlighted in the "best tires" review here:
http://www.bicycling.com/mountainbikeco ... hans-dampf
http://www.bicycling.com/mountainbikeco ... nd-control

[jamis29er offline]

Tires are a crap shoot when it comes to choosing which to buy. Check the reviews, talk to people on the trails, choose, spend your money (tires are not cheap) and hope that you made the right choice.

Find what works and stick with it! Unfortunately experimenting with tires is beyond my budget.

The Captain is not a tire I would recomend to aggressive riders but each to his own.

Just replaced the captain with my old standby, a fat-ass Mountain King in the 2.4 width, tubeless on the rear of my steel HT 29er. What a difference. Conti is not as fast as the captain but man does she hook up and hold tight even in a crazy lean-over-high-speed-descending-corner-OMG-I'm-really-gonna-die-this-time type turn.

Ahh tire love.

[mtbgreg1 offline]

It also wails loudly on pavement, esp at speed.
The sound it makes alone is reason for me to dump it!

The question is, what are you riding it on pavement for?

Just asking!

[RoadWarrior offline]

Hey; pavement is how some of us get to the trails. Beats a T-660 getting 6.5 MPG at $4.00 a Gal.

[mtbgreg1 offline]

Hey; pavement is how some of us get to the trails. Beats a T-660 getting 6.5 MPG at $4.00 a Gal. :mrgreen:

OUCH!

[TrailBlazer01 offline]

lol

[Jared13 offline]

It also wails loudly on pavement, esp at speed.
The sound it makes alone is reason for me to dump it!

The question is, what are you riding it on pavement for?

Just asking!

I would think the loudness on pavement would be a good thing.
People will get out of your way so you can get to the trails that much quicker!

[fleetwood offline]

Anyone tried the Specialized Purgatory?

[RoadWarrior offline]

Purgatory; more aggressive tread pattern than the Captain. Good all around moderately aggressive tire.