Originally Posted by
Wooden Tiger
That is EXACTLY what the owner of the LBS told me...handling up front and the low rolling resistance in the rear. What concerns me about this is that by going with a "slicker" tire on the rear, I'm going to be fighting with grip on steeper climbs. It just seems like it would be a questionable strategy to throw a tire with less grip on the rear.
The climbing comment is actually really interesting. I was running the xking in the rear with a tube in it and was pinch flatting it even at 35 psi initial pressure. At that pressure the tire could not conform to the ground too well and I was having issues of the tire bouncing around when climbing up rocky loose stuff. For more hardpacked technical climbs the tire gripped pretty nicely with only minimal amounts of wheel spin when I really put the power down.
I just converted to tubeless (last night) and haven't ridden them yet, but now that I can probably run at 25 psi or lower, I think the xking will do much better.
Also, even though the xking is a "faster rolling" tire than the MK, it still has a lot of tread. Definitely enough to allow for good conformity to the trail at the right inflation pressure.