Gravel Bike Tires Vs Road Bike Tires

Shallow tread patterns such as those featured on the wtb riddler or the maxxis rambler have proven to be outstanding all rounders.

Gravel bike tires vs road bike tires.

It was mentioned earlier that the frame design for a gravel bike allows for larger tires. You can mount a tire up to 55mm onto a gravel bike. There is no perfect gravel tire but i have loved the specialized pathfinder pro tubeless as a one stop shop road training and texas gravel tire colin strickland rolling away from the field to. While the difference between the label width and actual width of gravel bike tires aren t any more reliable than what you find on road bike tires what i ve seen is that gravel tire label width appears to associate best with 19 21c rims.

This tire is going to be suited best to the rider who is looking to take their road bike on some gravel trails perhaps maybe you don t have a full fledged gravel bike yet or maybe you re just testing the waters to determine if you like it before you invest in a more dedicated rig. The first tire we are going to look at is the panaracer gravelking folding tire. Mountain bike tires designed for muddy conditions have more space between the knobs to prevent mud from tightly packing the treads. Tyre widths of 37mm to 40 mm are the preferred choice for all round gravel tires as they provide the best compromise between off and on road performance.

At the 2019 test more than half of the 26 road bikes we tried were aimed at mixed terrain and we could have easily filled all the road slots with new models of these wide tire relaxed geometry. You might keep one set of wheels with 25mm or 28mm tires for when you want a road bike type of experience and a set of wheels with 35mm or wider tires for when you want to ride on gravel or paths. Mountain bikes are usually equipped with knobby tires which are well suited for gravel. Combining technology from continental s existing road and mountain bike tyres the tubeless ready terra speed and terra trail gravel tyres share a 3 ply 180 tpi protection casing and blackchili.

You probably won t be able to mount any tire that s wider than 32mm. How about the case of the road bike. The forks and frames of gravel bikes have a huge clearance in comparison to road bikes. Over the course of 12 months roadbikereview tested 23 gravel road tires to find out which were the best for tackling the road less traveled.