I am not familiar with that particular race. How much climbing and how steep?
It sure feels like a fantastic tire for flatter terrain.
@webdev511 Wider the better out here. 
Cant speak for that specific tire in sandy/loose over hard conditions but I run the 2.35 fast trak. I prefer more grip in the rear. I’ve run Sworks Renegade, Maxis Aspen & Ikon. Those were all similar and often lost grip climbing.
My favorite all time is ground control but a bit heavy for racing.
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Yeah I found the same and it’s been said on this thread before. I done a side to side comparison with the 2.25 Barzo I was replacing a they were pretty much the same size on the same size rims. I haven’t checked again after a few rides, but very noticeable when I had 2.4s on before.
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I ran 2.2" race kings at Lutsen (which measure smaller than that on 25 mm IW rims) and they have been great the last two years despite the mud. I was riding a bunch of stuff that many weren’t, but I also think that comes down to technique too.
I do have Ray/Ralph on my second set of rims, but elected not to use them.
Still convinced they’re the ideal Leadville / Lutsen tire because of the Rolling Resistance, combined with good durability and traction (for that type of course)
I can flat any tire on kimmons if I tried hard enough! those pokey and perpendicular to the trail “lava rocks” are a recipe for flatting tires. I think I see more people fixing flats on Kimmons trail than anywhere else on the front range. I guess that would be because it’s so easily accessible and a great fun DH.
Out of curiosity I just compared the captain to the current renegade.
Looks like half the amount of intermediate knobs and tighter center knobs. Plus I noticed that is a control casing tire with dual compound, which they have never made before. Before t5/t7 has only been sworks casing which I hear is paper thin. I’m intrigued.
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I like the look of this tire, and specialized tires have been treating me well recently
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any word on new schwalbe rick availability?
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Signed up to be notified when they are available.
BRR results for the Aspen ST 170 2.4 are in.
Aaaaand of course… They tested slower than all those Schwalbes. On a drum…
All I know for a fact is that according to BRR the Kenda Rush were faster than the Aspen ST, but on my bike, in real life riding conditions, the Aspen ST are much faster than the Rush…
Don’t know what to make of this.
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What, you don’t ride on a steel drum? 
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Steel plates for a couple of meters on occasion, but drums are few and far between.
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And those pesky cattle crossings 
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What type of terrain do people find the Rekon Race to work well? I ask because I raced on it tonight and I found it to be very skittery. The course was lots of loose over hard pack, MN-style short track, not much tackiness to be found. I was on i28 Reserve rims, no inserts, 14f, 17r, and total rider-bike system weight was 205-ish lbs.
I’ve previously run Aspens on i36 rims with the same pressures and didn’t find them nearly as skittish. Maybe the significantly wider rims made that much difference? Or maybe Aspens are just better suited to this terrain?
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None, they aren’t that great and there are better options.
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Interesting how different tires on different riders handle differently. I’ve used the 2.4 Aspen and 2.4 Rekon Race on i29 rims and came to the conclusion that the Rekon Race cornered better on all dry surfaces for me versus the Aspen. I don’t ride MTB when the trails are wet.
I too find the 2.4 Rekon Race to be an amazing tire in all conditions including gnarly New England tech. They are almost like a trail tire for me and the side knobs bite when cornering. I also agree that it’s amazing the different experience people have with different tires.
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As a fellow 200lb rider - can you define “skittery”?
I ask this because I notice when I ran my rekon race tires under 19psi on my 30ID rims they tried to self steer/drive or just felt like they wanted to fold over on themselves making the lean very unpredictable.
Right now in dry conditions I run a Ray/Ralph 2.35" combo (I really need to put a review of these on here) at 21.0F and 22.4R respectively at down the trail weight of roughly 102kg.
On the loose over hardpack conditions I was racing, it felt like the tires couldn’t handle any amount of lateral force without immediately breaking loose and drifting. The effect was that turns had to be taken slower and with less lean, otherwise the bike drifted like I was riding over a floor of ball bearings. The course had a number of full 180-degree u-turns and I felt like I couldn’t accelerate out of the turn until my front wheel was nearly parallel to my frame.
The tire pressure is one thing that occurred to me as a potentially significant contributing factor. Since my new rims are 8mm narrower internally than the old ones, running the same pressures may not work as well. I’ll still probably swap to Aspens but at least then it’ll be a more direct comparison to my old setup and I can see if those pressures also cause issues for the Aspens on those rims.
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That is a great narrative!
I think you are on the right path with trying the Aspens and testing the tire pressure. When I would use the Rekon Race, unless I had full commitment to the lean and got on the side lug of the tire it would do as you described above. My current rear Ralph does the same thing also and if the tire pressure is too low it tries to “roll” or “flop” etc etc.
If you cant commit or get on the side of these tires, IMO they do not fare well in cornering traction.