are you a roadie who started delving into gravel and off-road riding
today's video i'm going to go through seven things that you might want to consider
when choosing gravel tires because the information out there can be a little bit confusing number one
are you actually riding gravel gravel is a pretty loose term that's now used to
describe pretty much any type of off-road riding that's not on a mountain bike it's
probably going to be easier to explain this visually this is what i would consider gravel
but most of the time in the uk we're riding this more suited to a mountain bike maybe
yeah obviously there's a lot of difference and the best tire for the job is going to depend on what
you're riding chances are your choice will also change depending on the time of year as well in
a nutshell smaller novels and faster rolling for actual gravel bigger novels and slower rolling
for uk style mud tracks right away over the next few points i'm going to break
things down into different topics which will hopefully aid your decision process
is wider better this topic is a bit of a minefield and i'm not going to go into too much detail
because this topic pretty much deserves its own video here are the real basics though a
wider tire would generally be more comfortable because you can run it at lower pressures without
the risk of burping it or hitting the rim like pinch puncturing lower pressures up to a point
feel smoother to ride on rough surfaces a really wide tire like this mountain bike tire here this
is 2.3 inch will be less aerodynamic and heavier because there's more material in the tire in terms
of grip the more surface area of the tyre that you have touching the ground the more grip you're
going to have so a wider tire is going to give you more control and deform nicely when you ride over
bigger obstacles like big rocks and whatever other stuff that you may be riding over if you're not
riding over big rocks and big obstacles then the perks of a wider tyre might not be as important
to you so it might be worth going narrower for the performance gains if that's what you're into
generally speaking the bigger and more spread out that the novels are on your tyre
the better it will be at gripping through loose surfaces and in mud the bigger you go though
the slower rolling the tyre gets when these knobbles squash and deform they contribute to
rolling resistance which is why slick tyres are so much faster now if you've got tires with very
small knobbles the space in between them can get packed with mud quite quickly if you're riding
in wet sloppy conditions that essentially makes the tire more slick and then you end up sliding
everywhere so that's the benefits of riding a tyre like this this is a hutchinson toro so this is not
quite a mud tire but definitely not a fast rolling cross-country tire in the middle of an off-road
tire you've usually got some smaller knobbles down the center they aid in accelerating and braking
the knobbles on the sides are usually a little bit bigger and they're there to give you grip
when you're going around corners now you need to engage those when you're going around corners
so it really helps if you back the bike over as much as possible so you actually activate
them if you ride a tire like this in the mud for the first time it's actually a really
strange feeling because you'll be slipping out and then these side knobbles will cut in
and the bike will almost write itself it's a really strange feeling that you will
never come across riding road bikes so enjoy it's definitely a learning experience here's
a visual difference between a hutchinson kraken which is their cross-country tire fast rolling
made to be lightweight and quick versus the toro which has much bigger knobbles a little bit slower
and you can see the difference in pattern of tread and how much space there is in between the
novels compared so seeing as bigger noble tyres have more rolling resistance you might want to
mix and match your tyres so put a slower rolling but grippier
tire on the front of your bike but a faster and slightly less grippy tire
on the back because there's more weight on the rear wheel it's common to mix and match tyres
so you get the benefits of both generally it's a lot easier to maintain control of your
bike if your back wheel does start slipping and sliding around so another plus for this method
the most common size of wheel that you'll see on performance road and gravel bikes
is 700c it's quite common now though to see gravel riders using a 650b a smaller wheel in order to
squeeze in a slightly bigger tire because the wheel is smaller there's more clearance between
the inside of the front fork the inside of your rear chain stays and near your front derailleur
if you have one the clearance on this bike the villa yana with 700c wheels
is 44 millimeters but switching to 650b it means i can use these 47 millimeters long time viewers of
this channel might remember when i squeezed in a pair of mountain bike tires into this bike as well
but the clearance was so tight that you have to allow for like mud and stuff getting stuck
so it didn't quite work as well as i wanted it to
jury is definitely still out where the road tubeless is worth it but in terms of off-road
stuff tubeless is the way to go there's a reason why mountain bikers have been using
it for years you can run much lower pressures without the fear of pinch puncturing if you do
get a puncture it will usually seal it's worth noting that the quality of the sealant that you
use inside your tire makes a big difference so you get what you pay for i've been using stan's race
sealant instead of the standard stuff recently which is a little bit more expensive but it does
from my experience sealed punches better in a classic tubed system you've usually got a butyl
inner tube which sits inside the tire that's what inflates with air and then once that punches you
usually have to replace the tube or repair it if you have time with a tubeless system the tyre fits
on a lot tighter creates a seal and then you put gloopy sealant inside and that sealant will then
find its way into any holes that may appear while you're riding and seal them generally speaking
a tubeless system will be lighter although the amount of sealant actually put inside the tyre
will dictate that they also generally feel a lot smoother to ride and most tires these days are
tubeless ready if you do want to try tubeless you also have to make sure that your wheels are
tubeless ready too and then make sure you've got a proper layer of tubeless tape tubeless valves
sealant ready and tubeless tire have fun setting it up for the first few times can get a bit messy
unlike road tyres the direction you mount your tyres really does matter usually you
can trust the direction of the chevrons in the middle of the tire and there'll be an arrow
printed on the side of the tire but as i discovered recently that's not always the
case with more aggressive and mud tyres you often mount the rear one the other way around to the
front one you will see printed on the side of the tyre front and rear rotation the front and rear
relates the front wheel and rear wheel and the rotation is the rotation of the tire
this might seem obvious but i got caught out i imagine a lot of roadies will get caught out
and evidently a lot of mountain bikers on the internet also get caught up because i did google
this and it seems to be a big topic online so do have a check if you've got some new off-road tires
it's not the end of the world if you do put this back one on the wrong way though it
will be faster but just not quite as grippy because it's designed to cut in when you're
trying to accelerate through mud and loose surfaces and all of that lovely uk slot
so to conclude and the main message that i want to get across in this video is to look
at the surfaces that you're going to be riding and make your choice accordingly my recommendation
would be wide tire and big knobbles for the uk slot don't be afraid of using mountain bike tyres
on your gravel bike if they fit medium width and smaller nozzles for actual gravel like the stuff
you get in keel the forest all the stuff you see in america and in south africa you know proper
gravel and further to that if you're on like hard pack gravel tow path some paved sections
a wide road tire 30 millimeter row tire it's probably gonna be the fastest solution
tyre choice is always going to be a bit of a compromise if you're on a
changing surface but trying out different options and working out what works for you
is part of the fun thank you as always for watching please like comment and subscribe
please put in the comment section your opinions on this and if you have any questions we can get
a conversation going really appreciate you guys watching and see you for more videos soon you