This weekend will be the first time taking the thunder burts on gravel. Had only had them on pavement this far. 60 mile ride/race with 2000’ climbing. Race is Sunday but looking like quite a bit of rain. I’m still recovering from a crash in November (fractured scapula) - so I may just go do the course tomorrow at 100% effort to test my fitness and try the new tires off road. No need to go through the mud/risk for a local C race. We’ll see if the weather changes.
I’m not sure that I’ll have that objective of data riding without a comparison on the same route solo on different tires, but we’ll see.
I’m not too thrilled on the comments of the fragile walls as I value durability a lot. One flat that doesn’t seal quickly destroys some watts savings, ten fold if you lose your group. I am only 157 lbs and running just over 4 oz of orange seal, so should be sufficient.
I have ThunderBurts on my 650b wheels and last spring did a ride that had a fairly long stretch of mud / slop. Gotta say they weren’t the best in those conditions. Slid out a couple of times while my buddies rode through cleanly.
So if you are worried about them in mud, you might want to make a different choice (at least based on my experience).
Sorta been on a testing spree with gravel and mtb tires the last few months.
Local gravel racing where I am can be a mix of rough forest road climbs, hard pack flat ag land roads and smooth tarmac.
Currently on a set of 40mm Terra Speeds on my aero wheelset, and a set of Hardpacks on my “rowdy” wheels. I’ve also had wtb raddler’s and Maxxis ramblers on those rowdy wheels. Hardpacks all the way in anything rough, loose or wet.
The hardpacks ARE noticeably slower than the terra speeds on anything flat or climbing. Heavier feeling too.
Have a set of Caracal races, and 2.1 thunderburt’s on the way. I also intend to test the G-One RS when I can get my hands on them.
Yeah I’ll likely hit the route tomorrow before the rain comes in and just forego the race.
Do you have suggestions on a decent mud tire? I don’t really have clearance for mud anyways so would probably throw on something smaller or use my old diverge for mud.
Yeah, I have a bunch of experience on the 2.2. I’ve beat it up on two trips to Leadville and two mud pit events at Lutsen and a bunch of training too. Only reason I’d pick a Burt instead is more sizes.
Edit - Pretty sure I let you know about the 2.4 RK in the Race Tire Thread too
I don’t, unfortunately. The gravel trails we have around here are packed sand / dirt with kitty litter on top, so they drain really well. There are just a few sections on the lower half of the trail system we ride that can get sloppy, so I really don’t have a need for a mud tire.
I have swapped summer Thunder Burts for Racing Ray+Ralph combo for the winter mud. They are 2.1, so I poke the mud out with a stick every now and again and use protective tape on the frame where clearance is tight.
The G-One RS Pro 50 is probably the best candidate there. Will be interesting to see how it tests on BRR.
I’m very excited that the Burts tested so well. I’ve been running them for a while and really like them, but from the earlier testing (and particularly the poor performance of the Hardpack) I was worried that they simply weren’t big enough. I can’t fit anything bigger so this test result makes me very happy (although it does mean I don’t have any excuses to get a new bike!)
Rene Herse makes gravel tires in 44, 48 and 55. I ride 44 Extra light slicks on my GRoad bike and the 55 slicks on my commuter and they both feel (and the 44 EL tested) super fast. Somehow those tires never come up in those discussions and I haven’ seen anyone else, besides Jan Heine, make claims about how fast they are. Is there a reason for this? Maybe due to cost?
Most of the discussion in this thread seems to center around the pointy end of challenging gravel races, so that means riding surfaces that are rough, rocky, and generally tough on tires.
My understanding is that the Extralights are kind of like the Conti GP5000s - very fast and kind of fragile. So they work great on pavement and “champagne gravel”.
But RH tires are notoriously difficult to run tubeless and the sharp, rocky nature of many of these courses leads many people to choose something more durable.
Once you move past the Extra lights to their other casings, RR and other aspects of the RH tires become more average, so you can consider lots of other tires that are better tubeless and have different tread patterns.
I ran the 44 snoqualmie pass tires most of last summer in the standard casing. Here in MN, the gravel I ride is mostly pretty smooth and those tires were really fast on pavement and gravel. Not as good on grass that isn’t totally dry or sand. That all makes sense. No punctures or issues with them at all. These 44’s are also lighter than a Schwalbe g-one RS in a size 40 which I also tried and prefer the Rene Herse.
Got another good one knocked out… Peyote XC Race 2.4 v Thunder Burt 2.1 on rough gravel. Not quite as bad as the rough Emporia gravel but enough to know more than a 40 mm tire might be good.
What is your deduction for what causes the inflection point between the Peyote and ThunderBurt from Cat. 2 and Cat. 3 gravel? I would assume the wider tire is simply better at absorbing the bigger impacts of the chunkier stuff…
This is the kind of data that I’ve been really interested to see for a while. Will be very interested to see how the Aspens fair here as well, especially since volume is really on their side.
This also shines a slightly different light on the notion that Race Kings are that much faster than other wider MTB tires when you consider real terrain and not just the drum test.
Looking forward to additional data and thanks for taking this on!
Can you provide your total weight (bike+you) and tire pressure for each tire at each category of conditions?
I did my first “gravel” ride on my thunder burts last weekend on what was probably 35% pavement, 35% category 1, 25% Category 2, 5% category 3. I was at 24 psi rear and 22 psi front, at a total weight of around 185-190 lbs, and it didn’t feel ideal. This is my first time riding gravel on tires other than 38/42/47mm pathfinders, and it left a bit to be desired, purely from a feel perspective. I wish I could put a better finger on it whether I needed to go up or down. I need to spend more time on gravel and messing with the pressure. I do feel that the front needed to go down a bit as it wasn’t the most confident inspiring in corners.
