Interesting as i’m in the southeast too and for me, narrow mtb tires (2.1) are faster for me in the mountain like on something like southerncross. If you talking rolling gravel, like red clay in macon, true gravel tires are faster.
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I think all these comments are leading to - “It Depends.” On the average speed, how rough or smooth the surface is, tacky or loose over hard, muddy or dry, risk of flatting, etc.
Personally I’m looking for a setup where I have flexibility, and there are times I’d want the ability to run something like a race king.
Sounds like this might be a scenario where 650b might help, Even though Enve doesn’t recommend it?
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Pics??
Southerncross was where I started my whole experiment. I thought there was enough chunk to show advantage. Currahee, Shake n Brake, and Mulberry Mayhem/Death March were other races where I expected a benefit being the downhills are so long and rough or loose/rocky but it never materialized.
I expected Red Clay and the flatter smoother courses (Defunct SOG/Middle GA/Mayesville/3G/Standard Deluxe) would be neutral but they were only slightly less negative than the mountain races.
For flat stuff I’m having my best times and results on 700cx38r/42f while for the mountain races I’m still experimenting with 42r/47f with some forays in 2.1 on the front.
BRR has been responsible for a few meme tires. BITD everyone thought they had a world beater secret weapon with the Schwalbe Big Ones but I never saw anything materialize with those either. Conti Race Kings taking over that role today is pretty funny.
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Great info, thanks!
It seems that the sweet spot is 40-45mm
Rene Herse says that the whole drum testing without weight and real ground conditions is a bad idea.
This is a big rabbit hole. The only thing I know is when rolling down with my friends on any smooth surface my Rene Herse’s 44 knobby Endurance+ casing tires are TERRIBLY slow.
I don’t want to be changing tires all the time. Want to find the fastest tire on average for my use case, also I don’t want to worry about grip or punctures AT ALL.
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Rene Hearse makes a lot of dubious claims / statements…I would not put too much stock into what they claim, TBH.
Most likely…but again, it will be dependent on gravel conditions.
Well, don’t we all, Goldilocks? 
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Imagine 2 solo races:
- 35% Horrible Chunk, 65% Perfect Tarmac
- 35% Perfect Tarmac, 65% Horrible chunk
You have to ride both with the same setup. You care about the combined time only.
What tire do you choose?
The Endurance+ are really slow for not really much puncture protection because the rubber just isn’t as good.
I’ve gone all in on Pathfinder Pros (arguably a meme tire as well) because I’ve found the grip/speed/puncture resistance to be excellent for our race courses. I think there are probably better tires but I’m not convinced there are tires that are better in all three categories together.
Good hypothetical. I could really rack my brain with this. I’d go 700cx47f/42r and hope they both were “gravel” events so that most of the field would be on similar and suffer at the same points.
In the same vein, have some MTB events that are about 30 miles of rough singletrack and 30 miles of light gravel and I’ve always wanted to try and go with a real gravel bike on 42s to see how it shakes out compared to MTB.
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the fastest time for Deathmarch REVIVAL itt was on 50s (iirc, chad said he wouldn’t recommend narrower), then the next 5 people, were all on mtb tires. Have you done the DMR? Little frog is not great on gravel sized tires
Why would you ride a gravel bike on something with horrible chunk?
(Thinking like “big chief” in Truckee)
I did the event in 2017 on 2.35s and have done the 89-mile route solo both directions on 2.1s and 42s.
AFAIK the ITT record was on 40f/38r: ITT RIDER UPDATE: James Dunaway... - Death March Revival
But I don’t follow it super closely, just remembered this specific post bc it got me motivated to try it again on a regular gravel bike with 42s. The main thing I noticed, and this was the same at Southerncross, was that as much time as I could gain on the descents and rough stuff due to bigger tires was significantly less than the time gained on climbs and smoother rollers while on narrower tires. I don’t claim to have identified all the variables but for whatever reasons, I couldn’t capture my fastest tires and best efforts on MTB tires.
Oh I see it’s a different start point and longer overall but the same name. I guess if it’s called “Tennessee Gravel” one can’t have their route start in Georgia.
I’ve ridden the parts by the Ocoee scouting for Big Frog, but only ever done the DMR route from Mulberry Gap and Jack’s River.
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Cole Patton was on XC tires as well.
I think Dylan’s bigger issue was using almost 30oz of sealant. That much sealant will measurably increase rolling resistnace.
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He put half a bottle in each tire, so that was definitely a factor. However the Rene Herse with Endurance Plus was not a great choice. Even one step down to the regular Endurance cases is a much more supple tire, but he was prioritizing puncture protection so I guess that’s why he went Endurance+.
I do wonder who DJ would have done simply running the Pathfinder Pro 47s. He’s going to be one of the better LTGP pro’s in terms of descending, so I don’t think they would hold him back that much there. They might not be puncture proof, but are still going to be better than a lot of other gravel tires.
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42-45mm tire (depending on options available for your brand preference), likely with inserts depending on how and the chunk is.
I would lean strongly towards the Goodyear Connector Ultimate in 45.
Might have been better off running DHF/DHR than all that sealant. 
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Only photo I have of it when it was setup with 2.2s, if I set it up like that again I’ll take detailed photos of the clearance.
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I gotta say that looks really awesome.
Tufo Gravel Thunderos. Or say screw it and just run Ramblers.
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