Is a MTB tire the fastest and best tire for Gravel racing?

Just to clarify, I am not referring to the clip-ons, I am referring to the actual handlebars.

ENVE makes an AR bar (for road or gravel) and the SES Aero (for road). I have both, but I use the AR for my gravel bike and the SES on my roadie.

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My bad, I thought that was the whole system with the aerobar bolt ons. With or without the stem, I personally wouldn’t worry about running a road bar on gravel. Adding aerobars without some shock absorption is probably fine, but the redshift stem is certainly going to reduce forces on the bars

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Did my first gravel race (Currahee Mountain) since this thread started and I got back on the bandwagon. Was planning on using 2.25 Racing Ralph front/2.35 Thunder Burt rear (both Super Ground), but forecast rain made me second guess and go with 700cx48 Tufo Thundero in the rear for mud clearance given that I’d done this race in the past and it’s been pretty muddy.

Unfortunately it didn’t rain so it was waste of swapping and I got a puncture in the rear and lost some time plugging it and getting going. Otherwise the Racing Ralph in front was great. Gave me enough of a confidence and handling boost on the really rough stuff and downhills and I didn’t feel like I was losing much on the pavement or smoother sections. I’ve got a smaller Thunder Burt coming so I can go all in and not worry about the weather/mud clearance. The Thundero was fine but I think I could have let fly just a little more on the downhills with a bigger and faster rolling tire. I think the Thundero is a good tire but slower than the Thunder Burt.

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Has anyone run the Thunder Burt 2.1 on a rim with 30mm internals? Curious about whether it could fit a Rudy fork. Thanks!

I got you…
6mm clearance all around.
Nextie AGX w/ 30mm internal, 2.1 Thunder Burt Super Ground.

IMG_3214 Small

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Amazing news. Thank you!

Is this going on the Epic? I’m dying to see your latest findings!

Definitely not going on the Epic… Aside from the even shorter axle to crown that would result in an even steeper HTA, I just couldn’t stand mixing boost and non-boost wheel sets, and running a 2.1" tire on the Epic seems like a waste when I can fit the same tires on other bikes… (Mosaic or Crux)
I’ve only ran this fork on my old Hakka MX, although I’ll likely be mounting it on the Mosaic at some point.

understood! And yes, I do recall you saying that already further up in the MTB dropbar Geo thread, But given you’ve been running this for a while I was curious if you’ve had some sort of epiphany.

The last I heard about your epic set up, you were going to be trying out some Shimano set up, but I was curious if you’ve altered the geometry any further, from what you last shared.

Dang, that’s a sick looking bike!

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BRR is out with the review of TB Race and they are (according to their non real world methodology), slower than TB Ground. I just can believe Schwalbe would unknowingly do something like this. I think it speaks more to the BRR process shortcomings.

The Racing Ralph follows the same pattern, SG faster than SR - as a matter of fact the RR SG is almost exactly as fast the as TB SR.

It would be nice if BRR tested identical tyres widths when testing alternative casings and rubber compounds for the same tyre.

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Maybe it’s all about marketing lighter weight?

Joe

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Alternate theory, the bean counters at Schwalbe came in and asked all the product managers to reduce their BOM by x%, so they made a higher margin, cheaper tire, assuming most buyers care less about 2 watts and more about the marketing.

Also, to Joe’s point, nearly everybody can measure the weight of a tire. Nearly nobody can measure the rolling resistance.

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Schwalbe has (had?) a comprehensive tire testing suite: Being There: Inside Schwalbe Tires Testing Lab - Road Bike Action

I suspect the simplest explanation is that Schwalbe uses a different size and type roller, combined with the size difference between the two types of TBs/RRs tested.

Is the difference between a 2.25 SG TB and a 2.1 SR TB enough to account for 3.3w-2.4w increase in the BRR crr? Maybe, one example I noted is that going from 42->38 for the Specialized Pathfinder Pro is +3.5-2.7w.

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Anyone know if a 2.2 Race King will clear the Rudy?

Thereā€˜s also a 2.0 shield wall puregrip version of the conti race king. I can’t find much info on these tires but mounted them anyway. They were 60g heavier than the 2.2 and possibly a bit slower due to the stiffer sidewall. Was quite a fun ride regardless.

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Put the 2.2 RaceKing on my Cannondale SuperSix Evo SE, on 25ID front wheel. for the Traka 200.

Worked really well, rolled fast. Did rub through all the paint and some of the carbon under the fork though.

I wouldnt have noticed the difference on any area except the 3 big descents and massive potholes.

Would I run it again? Probably, in a dry, rocky situation. Any kind of mud really messes up the forks.