I have a TB 2.35" Super Race on my gravel bike/commuter (drop bar MTB). So it’s about 70/30 (road/offroad).
I have about 1700km on this setup. The rear tire has worn quite a bit, the front looks pretty good still. My guestimate is that i’m gonna get about 3000km of life out of the rear tire.
The TB rolls fast, is quiet on the road and has good grip off-road. However, when it’s wet, they give little grip on pavement. I slid out pretty hard in a corner on a damp road where I didn’t feel like I was pushing the tire.
I have a gravel event in a couple of weeks. After that i’m gonna switch it out for a wide slick to test out for commuting.
The older version of this tire was called the Big One and made (small) waves back in 2016/2017 but there wasn’t the infrastructure to ignite the sort of excitement we’re seeing now. I saw a few people using them on repurposed beach racing bikes at local events but that was all, before they faded away.
I’m curious to see if this makes it into the gravel influencer sphere and out to real life again - does such require it to appear on Bicycle Rolling Resistance first? Then of course the question is if 2.35" is too much compromise around the bike to appeal to the gravel racing population. How many gravel race bikes would this fit? Is it potentially faster by enough to outweigh the ease of fitting 2.1/2.2 Race Kings/Thunder Burts?
I didn’t really have a bike that would fit these BITD but I do now so it’s definitely on my shopping list whenever it gets released.
The listed 50mm G One Speed is the older slower model and it’s not clear if they’re updating that size to the Pro model. The G One Speed Super Ground did not test very well at BRR in the 40mm.
I don’t think it’s listed for sale - the 60mm G One Speed Pro Super Race, Race Guard, Addix Race appears to have a stock # of 11654585 while the older Super Ground Addix Speedgrip have stock numbers 11600975.01 and 11600996.02 for the 50/60mm versions. These are the tires actually listed for sale at the link, not the new Pro model. As far as I can tell.
If you click Addix Race here the only option is the 60-622 model right now. Would be great if they did update the 50mm model.
Schwalbe tire names really suck. I don’t even know how THEY keep track.
I’m currently running these and they feel really fast. Plenty of traction for midwest gravel. I like them way more than the Maxxis Reavers they replaced.
The weight difference has me believing the tire has pretty thin rubber. They had made it pretty thick, soft rubber. Now it should be about TT tire thick at around 1.1mm looking at the weight and the older slick. This is likely targeting sand racing.
I used to use the 30c G-one speed as my winter road tires, as they used to be basically a larger Pro One that didn’t spray water or attach to road debris as much…. Then they went e-bike casing/rubber.
G-one RS in black wall - that’s interesting to me.
I tried these (this version, at least: https://r2-bike.com/SCHWALBE-Tire-G-ONE-Speed-29-x-235-Super-Ground-ADDIX-SpeedGrip-EVO-SnakeSkin-TLE) last year and found they handled really weird. Being so large, but so light, they kinda bounced like basketballs. They also exhibited this weird wandering behavior – it was especially scary on hardpacked ruts. I actually had a big, high-speed crash I attribute to it.
I’m a big-volume, fast-rolling tire proponent, but something about these was really off.
Been really happy with Tufo’s Speedero 44. Before that I was on Terra Speed 45s, which rode awesome, but I had several punctures.
If you’re not set on schwalbe, rene herse makes slicks for gravelbikes in 38, 44, 48, 55mm which are really fast, especially their extralight variants. I run 44 and 55on two bikes and really like them. They are expensive though.
When running a 40mm tire on a 40mm rim do you have any problem with the tire sidewall being more exposed to damage from rocks? The new zipp xlpr wheels with 40/32 ext/iw has had a lot of forum chatter about the sidewall being exposed to damage and the tire being square profile instead of round making it poor cornering.
I’m thinking of running 2 configs, 45mm gravel tires and mtb tires, but may also run 40mm, so I’ve been debating what width of gravel wheelset to get, was thinking of the reserve 40/44 GR also which is 36/34 wide.
How are the terra speed 45s? Do you have the black or tan sidewall? Tan is thinner/faster per brr. I have terra speed 40s which I really like, haven’t had the clearance for 45s but my new bike will so debating which one, have been assuming 45 is better on a wide rim, by wide I mean 34mm+.
“The Schwalbe Thunder Burts don’t handle well,” Johnson said. “They’re extremely sketchy, but it was a risk I’m willing to take considering that this is probably the fastest tire that you can buy. I am not sponsored by them so that’s coming straight from heart when I say that.”
I post this as a FYI for people thinking fast rolling tires are the only thing that is important. Remember you got to corner too. The god has spoken.
TB as a rear tire for pro riders is common enough around euro mtb marathons (most are like tough gravel races).
TB at the front is so rare, I only see it in flow trail and hardpack heavy races and under very skilled pros. Like the ones who raced bmx when they were 3. And they keep crashing compared to other pros.
Of course there are sponsorships and not all of them have the choice.
His comments were in the context of racing at Leadville.
The Thunder Burt can be sketchy for MTB, but I can’t see how this applies to gravel. It’s got taller knobs than most gravel tires and the additional width provides more traction as well.
Going from Pathfinder Pro 47/Thundero 48/Terra Speed 45 to TB 2.1 or 2.35 was a big improvement in handling.
Sure, going from a Mezcal or DHF/DHR to the TB would probably be a big downgrade but I don’t think anyone is doing that. They’re going from ~47mm gravel to 2.1/2.2 MTB.
That doesn’t make any sense. I’ve lost track of how many “original gravel race” I’ve seen, I’m sure there will be a new one next year.
Regardless, it doesn’t matter, people will find out how much traction the TBs have on gravel, or not, immediately. Did you find the Thunder Burt sketchy for gravel? Compared to what?
Or not. My coach insisted that ardent race tires were much better than race kings or Thunder Burts for Leadville. Didn’t give brr or my field testing any credence. She said she had an 8 1/2 hour rider on ardent race so that’s how she knew they were the best. It was at that point I went rouge. It may not be that unrealistic to believe fast tires will continue to be an advantage.
