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Clement MSO 36mm Tubeless Tires: At The Finish
The last update on these much anticipated MSO 36mm tires was in December. You can check that out here. Then Winter came knocking and I went off fat biking for a while….. Sorry! I happen to like other forms and styles of cycling as well, plus, the gravel roads, which were coated in snow and ice, really weren’t going to allow the remainder of this review to be representative of how this tire would normally be used. Well, now with that all out of the way, I can say that gravel riding has come back with a vengeance, so here now is my final verdict on these first ever tubeless ready Clement gravel road tires.
At The Finish: You can go back to read the previous post by hitting the link in the paragraph above, but I am just going to cut to the chase here. This tire hits many of the points one would want in a gravel road tire. It is reasonably light, rolls very fast, does tubeless really well on a couple of different rims, at least, and rides really, really nicely.
There is just one tiny complaint- they tend to lose lateral grip in deeper, loose gravel. Really, that is about my only complaint. Otherwise these tires are fast, supple, and smooth out the chatter really well for a tire this size.
Oh…..and speaking of size. The Clement MSO tubeless tire is rated at 36mm although it has measured 38mm ever since having stretched out a tad on the HED Ardennes+ wheels. There have been some questions from some riders as to why this tire wasn’t a 40mm tire, like its predecessor, but again- The feedback which was given to Clement from myself and by other racers was that by going a bit narrower, there would be weight savings without much downside on the ride and performance aspects that the 40mm version has. This has turned out to have been exactly the case with the MSO 36mm tires, as far as I am concerned. They are lighter, faster, and they do everything else just as well as the bigger 40’s do with tubes in them.
Other tubeless gravel road tires we’ve tried so far haven’t been significantly nicer than these, or as in some cases, anywhere near as good. The Clements are easy to set up tubeless also. The bar has been set pretty high here. I might choose the WTB Nano 40 TCS tires for stability in deeper, loose gravel over these, but that’s about the only place I feel any other tire outshines the MSO 36mm tire significantly. There are a lot of tires in the pipeline that we will be seeing in the future, but for now, you’d be hard pressed to find a tire that is as fast with this sort of volume, and one that rides any better than the Clement MSO 36mm tire does.
Note: Clement Pneumatics sent over these MSO 36 mm tires to RidingGravel.com at no charge for test and review. We are not being bribed nor paid for this review and we will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout
Discuss and share your questions or thoughts about gravel bikes, gear, events and anything else on the Riding Gravel Forum.
You mentioned in an earlier review that 42 psi front and 48 psi rear was working well with these tires. I’m considering these tires for the DK200 and I weigh about 170. Any pressure recommendations.
George, preferred ride feel is such an individual preference thing, but I have ridden these tires at below 40- up to 50psi, and I feel the lighter you are the closer to 40psi you’ll want to try. I outweigh you by a fair amount, so I think the lower end of that scale, but keep in mind that the DK200 generates really high descending speeds and all the water crossing spots are filled with big, irregularly shaped rocks that you’ll hit at top speed. Pinch flatting tubeless tires is hard to do, but I’ve seen it happen and it was at the DK200.
If it were me, I’d start out with 50psi rear, 48psi front, see what the course was allowing me to get away with, and adjust from that spot. Now that is what I would do, you’ll have to make your own judgement calls.
Any word on when they will be available? Thank you for the review.
I’ve heard that they should be out any day now. If we get any news on that which is different, I’ll update that here.
Word is that the MSO36mm tubeless will be in LBS’s hands by the end of this month. Thanks to a tip off on our Facebook page by a RidingGravel reader.
I’ve pre ordered a set from my local bike shop through QBP. Thay said they should be available March 11th.
Thanks Sean for the QBP tip. LBS checked for me and it looks like they are in tomorrow at QBP’s Pennsylvania warehouse. I’m up in Washington state and should have them Thursday or Friday of next week. Just in time for first fondo of the season.
How do you think these hold up now, when there has been several other tires to pick from?
Sadly i am not that impressed with these.
I rode these tires at DK 200 with 55 psi in the rear and 60psi in the front I had no flats and finished the entire race.
With only about 500 miles on a set of Clement MSO 36mm tires on my Fyxation Crusher, the center tread is worn smooth on the rear tire. I’d say 50% of my miles are on pavement. I’ve not had this happen this fast on a tire, even when all the miles were on pavement. They had just the ride amount of grip to rolling resistance to feel really fast and still hook up when I got them. My climbing on steep, slippery stuff has definitely suffered since the rear tread wore smooth.
I love how these tires ride (mine are set up tubeless on i9 UL235 wheels (23.5mm inner width), but I’m not sure I can afford them if they wear out so fast. Anyone have a similar issue or have better luck with Schwalbe G-One tires? They seem to have a similar tread.
@Dave- You might have better luck getting some responses by hitting up our forum on tires where there are a couple of threads already on the 36mm Clement MSO: https://ridinggravel.com/forum/?p=%3Fforum%3D494958
Thanks for the comment and for checking out RidingGravel.com
Just mounted a pair of the MSOs to Velocity Blunt SL rims and the installation was a breeze but both tires have a defect, a side to side wobble by the hot patch so back they go. My LBS where I bought the tires said they had a similar problem with another set of Clements that were not MSOs but tubeless ready. Has anyone else had this problem?