I don’t give much credence to the BRR puncture protection results. They don’t seem to correlate with real life anecdotal evidence well at all. Tread is puncture protection simply by the fact that there is additional material where there is tread.
2 Likes
Don’t they measure rolling resistance with a drum test also? That’s not exactly representative of real world riding surfaces.
Still haven’t gotten out on my new RX Pros due to bad allergies this week. Hoping to feel better this weekend to take them out for a rip.
My 50mm rx pro had a pretty significant “wobble” that didn’t disappear even when I removed, rotated, and reinstalled. Biketiresdirect did exchange for a new one.
It also went on the wheel a little “too” easy, but didn’t have any problems with using that tire at unbound.
Seems their QC or molds may be lacking a bit.
Otherwise, I absolutely love that tire. Had it up front and the traction while cornering gravel was phenomenal. I plan for it to be my front race tire for the foreseeable future. Haven’t decided if I may use it on the rear as well or possibly go with something else.
2 Likes
Definitely agree. It captures large differences in puncture protection well enough, but comparing stuff in the 25-45 score range is often not that useful. The BRR puncture score is pretty arbitrary:
TPS = sharp + blunt + ((sharp + blunt) * thickness * 0.5)
where sharp/blunt is the amount of force on the puncturing sharp/blunt needle. That said, anecdotal evidence of puncture resistance is also not great. Estimating low probability events is just hard.
1 Like
Depends where you live and what the course is like. In NM, most of the CX courses are like “easy” MTB courses on desert or forest single track and being on 45mm tires makes it fun. I have not been on 33s ever in NM. When I lived and learned to race CX in Ottawa 33mm were fine because it was mostly just mud or hardback smooth dirt.
Pirelli tires were discussed a bit here a few weeks ago and some landed on my doorstep around then… finally got a chance to test them some.
Pirelli Scorpion XC RC rolling resistance RESULTS
2 Likes
Not sure if this is the right spot to post but given its one of (if not the) fastest “gravel tires” on BRR I wanted to ask what everyones experience with the Conti Terra speed is?
I really have enjoyed it but noticed after taking it off for a bit and then moving it to new wheel there is pretty substantial wobble. I remounted it, looks to be seated fine, but after a sprint I can really feel the wobble. It almost seemed like a loose headset but I checked that. It MIGHT be the wheel but when I just spin the wheel by hand I can see the tire is wobbly.. A quick google search shows others have had this issue - I might reach out to Conti to see if I can get a replacement.
Anyway just curious if anyone else has noticed a wobble on their Terra Speeds?
On every single pair. It’s always where the two ends of the tire join into a circle. The join is on a diagonal. I’ve never felt it riding so never did anything about it (once I confirmed it was safe to ride). Almost always shows up on second mounting but can be there from the start too.
One of mine had the wobble.
Bike shop said replace it, I raced it till it was smooth with no ill effects. Just move it to the back so you don’t have to watch it. 
Look at @jkarrasch testing results. Terra Speed seems almost exceptionally slow the second you take it off the pavement.
Finally got out with my RX Pros last night after recovering from allergies and a crash. My 42 pathfinders measured right at 42 with my wheels, but these are sitting a bit smaller than advertised, but I’m alright with it. Front (the one with the pin hole I reached out to BTD about) goes soft after a few days. Rim is taped properly and no issues in the past with previous tires. Woke up this morning and psi back down to 15. Gotta double check the valve core but pretty sure I put a new one on.
The tires themselves are very nice. The 50 up front felt great ripping through some chunky loose gravel and fast on the packed down gravel/dirt.
I’ve found that with many tires if I mount them and pressure up, they often lose pressure pretty quick by the day after/coming days.
As soon as I ride them any small pinholes or other areas where air would leak seal up pretty quickly.
I’d definitely be a bit concerned if your RX Pro is still losing air like that, assuming everything else is good (tape, valve, etc) as you mentioned.
I’m sure this is discussed somewhere further back in the thread but I can’t find it: why does everyone seem to gravitate to RS and RX pro and avoid the mid-terrain ‘R’ version? Is it just that it’s not faster than the RX by enough to make it worth the slightly reduced cornering traction? I’d have expected quite a lot of R/RX or RS/R mullet pairings but it seems like riders mostly do RS/RX if they’re mixing treads.
Is there a reason to avoid the R?
1 Like
Outside of a race where you’re trying to maximize every little thing possible. I totally agree with you. The R’s are one of the best all round tires for gravel and even pretty dang fast road riding.
They’re also with 1-1.5w of their slicker RS sibling. Probably the best option for most people/situations.
RX is actually faster than R, basically making the R redundant. this has been confirmed by the Schwalbe reps, why… who know, even the Schwalbe guys were perplexed about it. BTW, Schwalbe does their own RR testing using a treadmill (not a round drum) with the ability to test different surfaces. I trust their assessment of RR more than I do BRR, note that they do not comment on the RR of competitors tires, only on the relative RR of their own models.
1 Like
Interesting. Their G One Speed Pro 29 x 2.35 claims hold up with what I’ve tested so far.
1 Like
Wild! The more you know 
Ben Delany’s interview with Conti product manager for gravel and MTB tires.
Interesting to hear him say he’s pick a 2.2 Dub RR over gravel tire for Unbound/Traka type races. But lot’s of “it depends”.
I was a little surprised to hear how little they seem to rely on any kind of repeatable structured testing, seem to lean heavily on rider feedback for tire evaluation. Maybe we weren’t getting the entire story, but that’s how it came across. Not that rider feedback shouldn’t be highly valued, just figured there were other more objective tests as well.
3 Likes
I read (somewhere) today that Schwalbe has a certain type of treadmill to measure their tire rolling resistance. That should seem like a pretty standard method for performance tire manufacturers.
2 Likes