Gravel tires for pavement

I use Gravelking SK (small knob) 38 on my cross bike to ride on the road to trails and parks. I have good luck with them for cross on dry grass, road riding and hardpack single track. Basically anything dry and not crazy loose they work well for me. The 38 width is good for early season dry bumpy cyclocross and can handle moderate roots and rocks on singletrack. On the road they are not real noisy, don’t wear too badly and don’t feel squishy in turns.

Just changed out my gravelkings sk 38mm for something a bit beefier*, but the GravelKings got me around built trails with no issue. Were great in France on the Paris Tours-esque gravel roads in the vendee in the summer too (and pavement in between) but after 3 years had reached end of life.

*Went Hutchinson Tundra, as I was changing coming into winter. I was close to going GravelKing SK+.

Seen a couple of people comment negatively on their tarmac cornering grip recently actually.

For me (central Scotland) that would be my Continental Terra Speeds if I’m feeling flush (they wear down quickly) or the Specialized Pathfinder Pro.

I’m starting to see more and more mentions of Pirelli’s lineup in all the ‘which gravel tyre’ threads so I might experiment with one of those if I wanted to try something different, but I have no personal experience yet.

Not sure what the gravel’s like where you are, but in all the events I ride around here I’d say 60+% of the riders at the side of the road fixing punctures are on Gravelking SKs (also they are indeed Gravelflings to an offensive degree!) I see some but not loads of WTB tyres down for puncture repair, but more worryingly I seem to hear a lot of stories of event-ending catastrophic cuts and slices to those tyres so I’m not sure I’d trust them in a crucial situation, even though all the ones I’ve tried ride well.

Pathfinder Pro if I had to place an order today without further research. It’s my bikepacking tyre - not as fast as the Terra Speeds but more robust, wears slower, and nearly as quick. Costs a bit more than the Contis but I suspect has a lower overall cost-to-run due to wear rates.

I use 38mm Gravelking semi slicks and I think they’re great. Most of my gravel riding is 40/60 dirt to pavement with mostly fairly well maintained dirt roads. I did do a gravel race last week with some light tech singletrack and did struggle a little bit, but didn’t die lol.

I like the look of them when my Riddler’s wear out they could be an option :+1: Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tyre review - BikeRadar

this is my experience as well. In 5 years of gravel riding I’ve had two punctures that I had to stop and plug and both were with a set of Gravelking SKs. I retired those after the second one. I should have known when I showed up to the group ride and everyone pointed at my tires and said good luck lol.

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Now you mention it I do recall that from when I first had them. Strangely, I don’t think I’ve felt that again since putting them back into service for bikepacking. Only thing I can think is different is I’ve got tubolight inserts in them now and I didn’t when they were new. It sort of seems counterintuitive since I’ve probably got even lower pressure now but I wonder if the insert somewhow changes the way in which the tyre deforms? Could also be size/rim specific? Mine are 42c on 21c rims (same wheels each setup).

GravelKings were also the most popular tyre for a while, so not surprised the most punctures either. fwiw, before a few holes on one ride that convinced me they were ready to be replaced, I’d only had one whole I had to plug in the coming up three years of use. Those were the normal SK, rather than plus, mainly on the mountain fire roads of Wicklow.

It was mainly a bit extra mud grip I was going for with a change, but I was going to go “plus”. Hutchinson Touareg seem to be the current popular choice I see.

Good point. I think they also come OEM on a lot of bikes so the likelihood is high that a newer rider running inner tubes might be on them.

Classic case of correlation/causation!

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I’m running these now. Super fast on the road with that center ‘track’ and fast compound. Lots of tread when you need it. Not a typical gravel tire, but it works well.

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Great to hear! I’ll check if they have these in stock. Their cross tire stock has looked like summer 2020 as of lately

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I had some Challenge Strada tubeless in 30c. I wasn’t impressed with how the tread was bonded to the casing.

For your needs, I’d pick something either for road or gravel. Anything smaller than 38c or so isn’t going to be good off-road. CX tires only work when you let all the pressure out. Good road tires without rolling resistance compromise, stop at 32-34c, afterward you’ll hit a 5w penalty (note: subtract 3w from BRRs numbers to compare them to road tires because of the tires) per end for something that can grip on a loose surface. You’ll loose another 3-4w aero at 20mph too, so you’re going to be working a lot harder on a group ride. A 32c GP5k, 34c Schwalbe Pro One, 32c Vittoria Corse, or Panaracer GK or SS would be the way to go. Older G-One Speeds with the OneStar 127tpi casing is good too. These will all be useless on anything rowdier than dry groomed hard pack dirt.
If you’re going to be doing gravel rides, optimize for that. Get something with cornering knobs. Conti Terra Speeds are best in class, but I haven’t tried the Schwalbe RS or Turfos. They’ll be fine for our road rides as long as you aren’t looking at your speedo.

This is just a spare set of wheels to put more time on the cx bike in-season. Have a road bike for my group ride and real road ride needs. Minimal to no interest in long gravel rides or races. In short, no concern for aero drag or increased rolling resistance. Just want something safe to get to the trails on

Hmmm…can’t really say I noticed anything, but I also have limited time on them so far. They are mounted on my back-up / travel bike, which I wanted as a bit of an all-road option when I travel.

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That review is why I decided to try them. So far, they’re exactly as advertised. Have yet to put a plug in them or any other tire-related issues.

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Folks are skipping over the important factor here. Try to pick something that relates to your CX tires. Maybe relates to the medium tire you use. IE, if you like baby limus tires, use the chicane or gravel grinders.

I use X-ones most the time, and find the G-one mud is a good comparison.

This way you can hop on some grass at the end of your mixed terrain/pavement ride and get something useful out of it.

If you just want something fast, the conti terra speeds are my go too, and also my gravel race tire.

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I agree, but have you tried buying challenge tubeless cx tires lately? Chicanes would be great, just impossible to get in the states. The only ones Ive seen available are the handmade ones, which are more than I want to spend on a F-around set of tires, and theyre an absolute PITA to mount their handmade tubeless tires

You might want to look into something like the WTB Expanse or the IRC Boken Plus. They have a smooth center tread for road and then get progressively knobbier as you go towards the sidewall. kind of a jack of all trades, master of none tire. I ride these on tarmac/fireroad/singletrack in SoCal. Boken Plus is more robust than the Expanse.

I’ve been using GravelKing slicks on my road bike as a road tyre for some time and not, to-date, noticed cornering grip issues. :person_shrugging:

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