Currently building up a new Allied Able with Zipp 303 Xplr SW wheels and this will be my first opportunity to run wider MTB tires on Gravel. For context I live in Northern MI with a lot of sandy seasonal roads that I train and race on (BRX, Coast2Coast, and Thunder Bay Thriller) Looking at 2.25 tires like the Aspen St, Thunderburts, and 2.2 Race Kings, looking for advice from those who have run them and which ones you prefer.
Out of those 3 options, I’ve only ridden the race kings on gravel. My point of comparison is against other gravel tires, but I keep coming back to the RK’s. For how I race and for most of the courses I do, they are awesome. The only negative for me is that they are a little slower on pavement than some of the smaller gravel tires, but the grip and rolling resistance on gravel more than makes up for that for me (pavement is not where I’m winning or losing gravel races). I’ve been testing tires this winter and almost pulled the trigger on the TB’s, but the feedback I keep hearing is that they aren’t as grippy and they are more prone to flats compared to the RK’s (and only marginally faster rolling). I’d still like to try them on some tamer courses to form my own opinion, but I’ve already wasted too many $’s on tires this year that I’ll probably never use.