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.

You probably won t be able to mount any tire that s wider than 32mm. Mountain bikes are usually equipped with knobby tires which are well suited for gravel. 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.

How about the case of the road bike. Mountain bike tires designed for muddy conditions have more space between the knobs to prevent mud from tightly packing the treads. 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. 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 forks and frames of gravel bikes have a huge clearance in comparison to road bikes. 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. Many of the new gravel bikes even give you the option of two different wheel sizes.

The first tire we are going to look at is the panaracer gravelking folding tire. 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. Not all bikes will accommodate the huge riddler 45 but if your rig does installing a pair will expand your riding horizons. Road bikes often have smoother tires to reduce resistance and enhance wear.