If you don’t currently own a gravel bike, either of these is totally fine. Some bike is better than no bike. There will always be some cool thing that might show up next year, if you wait till that’s no longer the case you’ll never be happy with what you’re riding.
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I said the same thing in another thread. A couple races get won on wide tires by guys who could win on pretty much any bike, and suddenly everyone won’t buy a bike that doesn’t have 3” of clearance. By the time those bikes are widely available, there will be some other MUST HAVE and you’ll end up never buying a bike.
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I tend to agree with this take. Also what happens when gravel tires starting coming out in 45mm-50mm range that start to show lower rolling resistances than XC tires. Will everyone just flock back to gravel tires and claim faster / more aero?
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FWIW I put my Seigla on the scale after I had it set up.
Seigla Ultimate - Medium with SRAM Red XPLR 13 speed
Enve 100mmm stem, stock bars were still on but will be switched out to ENVE SES All Round 38s
Enve G23 wheelset with 50mm Vittoria Terreno Dry TNT casing (each tire weighed 624gm), Tubolight gravel inserts and close to 4 ounces of Stan’s Race sealant per wheel.
XTR pedals
Two Arundel Mandible cages
Total weight - 19.0lb
I didn’t love the Terrono’s, at least on the 70 mile loop I rode. There was a fair bit of pavement the first 20 miles before it became mainly gravel. Terra Speeds 45s (536gm) would shave about 0.3 lb off the weight and likely a better fit for this course. Race Kings are going to be a better option as well when bigger volume is needed, such as Big Sugar. They are also lighter at 586gm.
As someone who’s a big fan of wider tires but not in any danger of being in the pointy end of a race, I’ll give you my perspective. I live in a very rural area (Central Vermont) with a lot of dirt/gravel roads, along with hard winters and a fairly brutal mud season. Combine these things, and we end up with lots of dirt roads with massive potholes, long sections of deep ruts, and lots of washboard that will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. I suspect most people living in northern climates have similar road conditions.
I prefer bigger tires because they’re a huge improvement in both comfort and traction in rough sections and they’re faster because you can glide over a lot of sections that would otherwise toss you around. For my purposes, the point is that they’re faster and more comfortable on really dicey roads. The fact that they’re faster on pavement is a nice bit of icing on the cake.
I rode 48c Thunderos this past summer and while they were very fast, I think ultimately I want something a bit bigger, so I’m planning on 2.1" Thunder Burts for next year, and at some point in the next few years I’ll probably pick up a new gravel bike that can handle 2.2" XC tires. I don’t see any need for a tire bigger than that, though. Based on my experience, my preference is somewhere between 2.0" (50c) and 2.2" on a real gravel bike. When I upgrade at some point, I’ll convert my current Giant Revolt to a more all-road build to spend more time on pavement, and then I’ll probably go with something 40-45c-ish.
But a lot of us aren’t just driven by seeing lower numbers on Bicycle Rolling Resistance or watching Dylan Johnson and making decisions in a vacuum. We’re experimenting ourselves in our areas and going with what works best. If I lived in an area where everything was dry and smooth, I’m sure I’d be making different decisions.
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Makes sense. I am from the Midwest and maybe I just never experience the gravel you do that requires these MTB tires. I used to ride 38mm and now find 45-47mm as the sweet spot. I guess for me if I want comfort and traction and think I need an XC tire I would rather just be on an XC bike and not a gravel bike. But thats going down a whole other rabbit hole…
Also anecdotal evidence but I just set my fastest times and took some KOMs on a gravel sector on Conti Terra Speed 45s. Had done this on larger tires before and ended up slower. So for me, at least in my terrain, XC tires dont ALWAYS seem to be faster - which some ppl (not you) tend to think.
Anyway I have no dog in this fight and ppl can run what they want but I personally find the whole BIGGER IS BETTER a bit annoying lol
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Terra Speed is a pretty fast tire so good validation for it with you getting the KOM’s on it.
A 50mm Terra Speed would be an interesting product. It would come in bigger than a Pathfinder Pro 47, but still be compliant with the newer bikes being launched with official 50mm tire clearance.
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Are race kings faster than all narrower gravel tires on pavement? I understand they’ve been speculated as faster on rough terrain, but if they’re faster on pavement, then that seems like a design issue of the current gravel selection. Otherwise the TdF riders would all be on race kings as it wouldn’t make sense that tires sized between road and mountain, are slower on pavement.
Also makes me wonder if it’s actually the “larger is faster” or if it happens to just be the specific models (race kings/thunder Birts)
So you ask if RK are faster than gravel tires, then mention TdF? Those guys ride road tires.
Probability, at least for rolling resistance. The Race King Protection 29x2.2 (top) measure faster than lots of gravel tires. On par with the Terra Speed (bottom) which is generally considered a fast gravel tire.
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That’s exactly what it is. The issue is that Unbound (in the late 2000s) was a major driving force for gravel tire design with puncture protection given an outsize value due to the nature of the road surface. Gravel tire manufacturers have been slowly developing away from durability towards a better blend of speed/durability/grip. The new production Schwalbe gravel tires are clearly faster than the old, for example. I think we will see this trend continue, but not across the board.
The few gravel tires designed in the early 2010s that were generally unchanged over the years and ended up being tested by BRR are total dogs. WTB Resolute/Nano, IRC Boken, 1/2 gen Schwalbe G-One, etc.
Tires are much better today but still lagging their true potential. The average gravel tire should be much closer to the Extra Light Rene Herse tires but with better puncture protection and grip. We’re getting there, slowly.
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just a reminder that drum test =/= real world testing. but i see your point
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All good replies to my comment and basically what I was getting at.
The reason I brought up the TdF, insinuating road tires, is basically outlining that the race kings may be faster on pavement because of their very specific build, NOT because they are wider.
This seems to be the conversation to be had more often in the discussion of gravel tire widths. Race Kings are faster because they are race kings. If it was because their width, more mtb tires would be showing as much faster (as opposed to a small few). While there are obvious advantages to wider tires in rough terrains, it seems that more of the focus should also be on improving the technology in current gravel sized tires as on smoother surfaces, a 45mm SHOULD be faster than a 2.2.
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Lots of Lauf bros at Big Sugar today and I appreciated the give in the fork. FWIW.
Joe
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For anyone UK based, I have enquired with Lauf and apparently the brakes can be swapped over at the factory which is great news for me!
I haven’t tested it yet, but from Ashton Lambie, once an order is made email Lauf with order number and the factory will take care of it.
I’ve owned the original Lauf (with the leaf spring fork) and the outgoing Crux generation. The Crux seems much stiffer to me because it doesn’t have the sprung fork, which wobbles a bit in certain situations, like out of the saddle climbing. I can’t speak for the newer bikes with the stiff (unsprung) fork.
Glad they could accommodate you…great customer service.
The change is likely happening at the warehouse, not the factory. Trying to track one specific bike from the factory in Asia to the warehouse and then to the customer would be almost impossible (and lengthy).
Lauf could be doing all their assembly in Europe, I suppose, and having frames / components shipped from Asia, but that seems wildly inefficient.
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I thought their bikes are assembled in the US. (Not helpful if you are living in Europe.)
Yes my impression as well, assembled in the US for US customers. I’ll say Lauf has amazing customer service, very easy to get someone knowledgeable via online chat or email and they will take care of you.
I’ve been rolling on 2.25 RKs on my Seigla Rigid, and have to say it’s a blast. If I were in the market I’d be looking at tire clearance as my top metric, and the Lauf is still the king there. Add to that the unbelievable value and it’s a no-brainer. If I were ordering I think I’d get the rigid, though I have both forks and will swap the Grit on for some events.
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Yeah, the pricing is nuts. I really like that they make very opinionated bikes, anticipating trends.