so I got a dual suspension mountain bike and use it as my do-it-all gravel bike (i’m just more comfy on it and just like it).
80%+ of my riding is on road commuting to work, and maybe 18% on gravel, and 2% on slightly rougher stuff.
I don’t wanna mess around with wheel changes as I have a road bike when I know conditions are A-OK
I choose the mountain bike in bad weather or when I am carrying stuff (I commute to work so sometimes bring in lunch or clothes)
I am not racing so I am ok sacrificing some road speed to keep mountain with knobs on there (so not interested in things like schwalbe with really tiny knobs). So if it’s a matter of saving 1 minute per hour, I would prefer the safest tires for all conditions. I just have no idea what the spread is on these.
I don’t really understand tread / knob patterns. Rene Herse marketing basically is saying you never need those side knobs on gravel or road because by the time you use them you’re too far leaned. and they are claiming their knobs are flatter and faster rolling on the road. but if i’m running into wet gravel I don’t wanna be wiping out - especially being as over-biked as I am.
so I have it narrowed to these 3:
Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge TC Tire
Maxxis Rekon Race
Continental Race King
wondering if anyone has experience with these / thoughts for my situation?
If you’re riding 80% or more on the road and only ~2% on MTB terrain, I’d go with the Rene Herse Antelope Hill. You probably won’t find a faster rolling tire than that.
I’m in a similar boat. I mostly ride a hardtail and have sold several bikes in the past year. I spend most of my time doing long rides that connect the 50-mile paved trail, scenic roads (50/50 paved and gravel), and local MTB trailheads. Since I’m spending a decent amount of time on singletrack, I’m using Maxxis Aspens, which are really light and fast rolling for a MTB tire.
I do wish I had a second set of wheels with those Rene Herse tires, though, for the days when I plan to stick to the bike path/roads. Living where I do, I really don’t think I need more than a fast XC hardtail, and the slick 2.2s would be really fun to have on hand.
The deal with knobs is they need something to bite into to make a difference. Rubber knobs are not going to penetrate pavement. It hurts, not helps. Same thing with very hard packed dirt, though less so. A fine tread might help a tad, but I’d be perfectly happy with a slick.
Same with gravel. It’s not really going to offer much lateral resistance…It will just move sideways under your tire if you lean hard enough.
Knobs are AMAZING in softer dirt. Basically if you can see your tread pattern in the ground behind you, knobs are making a massive difference. If not…they probably arent doing much if anything.
I’ve two wheelsets for my drop bar MTB bike, Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.2" for when I’m doing a lot of rough stuff and Contiental Ultrasport 28mm for everything else. The mtb tyres with knobs are much more dangerous at high speed on wet tarmac than the road slicks are on gravel.
Basically as per the other replies I’ll 3rd the fat, fast, slick option.
Schwalbe Thunder Burts are really hard to beat in both rolling resistance and in off-road capability. I’ve ridden all winter so far with a set of 2.35" Burts on my Epic EVO and aside from when actually riding muddy trails, those things are awesome!
I’d go with a narrower tire with the focus on road/gravel. Just because you are on a mtb frame doesn’t mean you need to run mtb tire sizes. I know the trend is “wider is better”, but I can’t see any upside to going bigger than a 45-50mm gravel tire unless your gravel is really chunky. I do a bunch of mixed surface training on my FS mtb (w/ a bunch on the road) and will typically run my leftover gravel tires. Much better fit for road/gravel and fine for most singletrack. A 47mm pathfinder would be my choice for road/gravel.
Mezcal is a durable fast tire that will have long tread life and the knobs don’t roll on pavement like something with taller knobs would. They aren’t particularly big, so 2.35 is probably the way to go. I ride it on snow and ice to lots of tarmac, and it’s pretty solid.
I ran rambler 45’s on my XC bike the last couple years doing training leading into leadville. Good on gravel, OK on single track, pretty slow on pavement (but good enough to hang with local group ride). They used to be my go-to gravel tire, so I’d run them into the ground as a training tire on the MTB once their gravel life was over. Pathfinder faster and wears better on road and smooth gravel, rambler better on the dirt/mud where knobs help.
Hard disagree based on my experience. I’ve got many, many thousands of road and gravel miles on my MTB running 2.2 race kings and 45mm ramblers and the ramblers are noticeable faster on road and tame gravel. Before I had a gravel bike, I raced gravel on my xc MTB and did a bunch of testing on different tire setups. Race kings are at least 15 watts slower at 20+ mph on the road and (at least on my bike). And they are about 150g per tire heavier. And ramblers aren’t great on the road compared to something like a Pathfinder. I’m a big fan of race kings and use them for XCM racing, but my experience (based on powermeter and speed) makes it very clear to me that they are much slower than a rambler on the road. I can hang on a fast group ride on the road with ramblers, I have a very hard time when I’ve got the race kings on. Gravel can depend on the chunk-factor, but ramblers are still noticeably faster on most courses. The OP is 80% on the road, I see no upside to running a 2.2 (other than MTB’s look kind of funny rocking 45’s).
I’m generally a fan of running a wider tire when in doubt, but the primary advantage of a bigger tire is ability to run lower pressure to absorb irregularities in the road/surface. If you don’t have a rough enough surface, the lower pressure of a larger tire doesn’t help and it’s just slower. Just like you wouldn’t run a 32mm pumped up to 70psi for singletrack, you wouldn’t run a 2.4 at 13psi for road riding.
Hmmm…interesting. I have a lot to learn about tires. Just assumed knobs = safer.
How will that hold up on a gravel ride? Roots, mud, grass, rocks…nothing like a single track course…i would not be cornering hard / fast - but want good braking grip if needed
A wider tire costs more aero watts at higher speeds. Wider can certainly be faster at slower speeds on rough terrain but it will cost you on smooth, fast dirt/tarmac sections. Horses for courses…choose wisely.
this might infuriate people but I can’t bring myself to put anything smaller than a 2.2" on this bike…just for looks. i’ll just pedal harder
also i read articles like “saved 15 minutes over 200 miles” with one tire vs another. i’m sooooo far from riding 200 miles, that doesn’t really apply to me. 40 miles on this bike is probably my upper limit and in that case it’s gonna be a Long slow distance / Zone 2 ride for me.
just really as long as a few tires are close to one another in speed, safety / handling is gonna be my #1 factor…then I guess #2 is getting fewer punctures (since that will be annoying on the way in to work especially)…then #3 speed.
Can we acknowledge that “gravel” is not a singular entity or experience? There is perhaps a wider range that people shove into that bucket than talking either road or MTB. On top of that people have different riding styles, speeds and preferences.
I can do a single “gravel” ride of 40 miles here and experience 2-5 different styles of gravel. Stuff like pure hardpack almost like concrete, to loose over hard, to mid size chips embedded all the way to fist size river rocks.
With all that, my handling skills & preferences, plus the desire & need to actually turn corners at speed, you can bet I am using my side knobs. I actually lean my bike hard at speed around here.
As ever, people and conditions will vary. Some people don’t need or want side knobs, but there are also people like me who definitely do. There are few one-size-fits-all solutions in this world and “gravel tire” needs certainly aren’t.
That doesnt actually address the question of, “do knobs help in ANY of those gravel types?”
I get you’re leaning the bike over and the knobs are touching the ground. But are they giving you more traction than a slick would? I’d argue unless there’s a type of gravel made out of something softer than rock, the knobs still dont really matter.
I feel like there’s got to be somebody put there that has done lateral G force testing on gravel with different tires. If not somebody should .
For what it’s worth, I’d put my money on a 45mm+ paper thin completely slick tire at low pressure for ANY rock based gravel for traction.
True enough that I didn’t offer a tire history that I have lived thru in 10+ years of riding our gravel around here. In that time, I have used a range of tires on the same mix of roods to feel the pros and cons of various designs.
Starting with the common range of CX tires (Bontrager CX3 knobbed mud, Bontrager CX0 file + side knob, whatever pure file I got with my first bike ages ago) to a handful of gravel tires with and without side knobs (Spesh Pathfinder, Terravail Cannonbal, WTB Nano, Bontrager TL2) down to road endurance tires for a race (Bontrager AW2 or 3?), I have been on enough to make a conclusion for my needs and gravel varieties.
With experience on that range of knobs (or lack there of) I know that I benefit from the presence of the knobs. On the tires with no or minimal side knobs, I’ve had white knuckle corners (especially on descents) that had levels of tire slip I don’t get with the knobbed ones I used. Stuff from minor slips up to 2-wheel drifts to the edge of scary exposed drop-offs and 3 falls (mix of bad bike & tire combo) that made if abundantly clear to me that I actually make use of side knobs.
My use may well be at the end of the bell curve as a result of our gravel + curvy roads at times along with my penchant for ripping descents so I accept that my preferences may not parallel that of many others. But I am confident that I make use of knobs when they are present vs minimal or not there at all.
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