I was doing that today on my rear tire but, just the left side outer knobs. I also shimmed my wheel by adding two thin washers on the left to just move over the tire more towards the right by maybe a mm. It seemed to do the trick and resolved the very slight rubbing I had yesterday on my left chain stay.
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I think this only holds true if they actually were faster, which they arenāt. Rene Herseās study was unpowered with overlapping error bars. Now if someone starting winning on a wheel size bigger than 700c, then things would get interesting.
DJ without a doubt has brought a lot of attention to running bigger tires for gravel but any of the available data supports that the TBās and RKās are faster than the majority of gravel tires. A number of the other proās clearly paid attention to this and are making the shift. As the season went on it seemed there were more and more riders trying to stuff big tires into their frames.
In 2023 Sofia won Leadville on Tracers, but this didnāt lead to Tracers becoming a tire of choice for the race. The comments were more along the lines of āshe won in spite of her tire choiceā¦ā. It was a really strange choice at the time but driven off her having had success on them during the Stage Race and thinking they were an advantage. She backed off this thinking this year and came out and said that they werenāt faster.
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A Leadville counter-example is dropbar MTBs - DJ rode one last year and nothing really happened. Then suddenly a few weeks before this yearās race Keegan hints heās running one and so are a few others.
Keegan didnāt set the record using them at Leadville this year but he opened up the conversation more, building on what DJ and others have been saying. How many drop bars at Leadville 2023 in the Pro field? 1-2? How many 2024? There were 2(3?) featured on Pinkbike with 2-3 more that werenāt known until race day.
This seems to have led to more elite/casual embrace of dropbar MTBs. Looking at videos and IG of Chequamegon there were probably a dozen dropbar MTBs in all fields, when again last year there were maybe 1-2.
Does this diminish next year or has another tool in the box been created that has lead to more demand? Certainly more people wanted dropbar MTBs from August of this year than they have in the past several years.
My point is, this wasnāt recognized until very recently. You can go back and read this thread and see how many refused to believe it because of whatever reasons. This belief is much more accepted today than it was 10 months ago, or really even 4 months ago.
Aero was a big unknown and DJs wind tunnel video from May of this year changed a lot of peopleās minds that were wholly convinced XC tires couldnāt be faster. The available data may have shown one thing, but people were not persuaded until someone repeatedly broke it down for them and demonstrated real effectiveness.
650b wouldnāt need to be faster, it would just need to be the same speed, controlled for tire size. So if 650bx42 was the same speed as 700cx42 it would be easier to demonstrate the value of a faster 650x53+ tire. There are a lot of gravel bikes that wonāt take 29x2.1/2.2 XC tires no matter how close the knobs are cut, but theyāll take 650bx53+ just fine. Unfortunately, even comparing the best tires in 700cx42/45 to 650bx2.1/2.2 I think and it seems the 700c wheel is faster. The hassle and unknowns in switching wheelsize are a big enough roadblock to keep people away.
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I donāt think comparing 650bx42 to 700cx42 matters much. I think the question for me is 700cx42/45 to 650bx2.1/2.2. Many frames support both of these option, tire diameter is similar, but the 650b allows fast RK or TB casing and lower pressure with increased tire volume. Sure, switching or adding a wheelset is a barrier, but people are going to be looking to replace frames/bikes to be able to run wider tires when the existing bike might be able to do so in 650b. When the dual wheelsize compatibility for gravel was first marketed, the idea was 700c for speed and wide tires on 650b for adventureā¦ but that was partly due to the idea that ~40mm was the fastest gravel tire size.
I guess weāll never know for sure until someone builds a gravel velodromeā¦ 
Meanwhile, Dizzle beat DJ using 45 Challenge Getaway XP
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And the winner had a 50mm rear and 2nd place was running gravel tires, not mtb tires.
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Has anyone tried mtb tires in the Gen 2 Checkpoint? Currently running 45mm that fit to about 47/8mm (G one RS on 25mm ID rims). Sure looks like there is clearance for more but curious what I can get away with.
Kudos to those recommending the terra hard pack, definitely an interesting tire and run at right tire pressure I reckon you get quite the contact patch.
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I was thinking about trying it. Trek really underrated tire clearance. We got a domane that says the max tire size is 32 but it fits a 42 easy
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Yes I easily got in a set of 40mm Terra Speeds on my Domane but they were undersized on 21mm rims comming in at 39mm.
Sweet mercy I would definitely run these in a 50, love the 45ās. Paul Voss and Tiff Cromwell were running what looked like a new RS tire from Schwalbe this racing season. Here is hoping these bad boys come to the broader market in a 700 size.
Theyāre available to anyone in 700. I got them from BTD
What does the āProā part mean?
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Interesting, seems like it is a US only thing. Not listed on the Schwalbe non US site but definitely listed on their US site. Also wonder what the Pro is vs the normal super race v-guard.
Good to see the 50mm range expanding. That said, Schwalbe tires are typically undersized, I would expect this to inflate to somewhere in the 47-48 mm range.
News from the XC thread:
Sounds like a fast Conti 50mm gravel tire is in the works as well. Hopefully itās not just a 50mm Terra Speed E25 but something faster. My hope is a Terra Hardpack Black Chili / New Speed King 2.0".
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Interesting. I have found it a bit mixed. The G one R came in right at 45mm and the G One RS came in at 47.5mm, both mounted on the same 25mm ID rim.
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Iām not sure. Probably means the casing is either faster or slower 
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If some of the major brands arenāt working on a 2.1+ gravel-specific tire at this point, they are missing a significant opportunity.
And yes, it would largely be a market positioning strategy, but it seems that a 2.1+ tire with a fast casing and less-than-XC knobs would be a winner for the gravel market.
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I use a 2.1 thunder Burt in the front of my gen 2 checkpoint, fits well enough. But too big for the back. The limiting part is the drive side chain stay, it bends on a tighter angle than the non drive side.
I run 48mm tufo thunderos, thatās as big as I would go on the back, and I have narrow rims right now (21 internal). But Iāll sometimes swap out the tufo for the thunder Burt in the front. Still trying to decide if it is the faster option, but with the way the pros are going I will probably run it that way more next year. Assuming I donāt replace the bike with something with greater clearance overall.
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A 52mm Thundero and Iād call it a day.
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