Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H Tires: At The Finish – by Guitar Ted
The Cinturato Gravel H tires are reaching the end of the review cycle here at Riding Gravel. You know what that means: It is time for me to give you my final thoughts on this lesser known option for gravel tires. That’s what that means. So, if you’ve missed the previous two posts on this tire, check out the mid-term review here and the introduction on the Cinturato Gravel H can be found here. Now without further delay, let’s get to the matter at hand here.
Ride Performance: Leading up to this final part of the review, I did several rides out on gravel ranging in conditions from buff, smooth hard pack, normal crushed rock, (for where I live), and heavy, deep, loose crushed rock roads. There were several commutes done on multi-surface roads and trails. This included streets, bicycle paths, crushed rock lined single track, dirt single track, and even some grass fields. Essentially, all the surfaces I could find at hand were where I tested this tire out. The only thing consistent in this varied menu of surfaces was that all of them were ridden in dry conditions. As I mentioned in the mid-term report- “….The Cintuarto Gravel H is NOT a mud tire!“
What I found was that I could rely on solid grip characteristics, a smooth ride feel, and anything waiting along the way that might damage my Cinturato Gravel H tires wasn’t going to slow me down. This led to the proverbial reviewer’s line about “forgetting about the part you are reviewing“. I know it is a well-worn turn of phrase, but what it means is that you just don’t worry about these tires and that they are going to do what you ask of them- within reason– of course.
At The Finish: There is, therefore, a lot to like about the Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H tires. I like the way the profile of these tires also allows me to be more stable in looser gravel. The wear characteristics seem better than normal. It just is a pretty remarkable tire in many ways. I even went as far as to say this in my mid-term report”….but the Cinturato seems well on its way to achieving high marks in this test.” I still feel that this tire achieves those high marks.
The one problem I do have is that these tires weigh quite a bit for what they are. For ‘general purpose’ gravel, dirt road, and rough paved roads, I like a lighter tire. Now if the Cinturato was a tire featuring an aggressive tread and leaned more into the MTB-lite territory, well then, that sort of weight (580+ grams) would make sense. You’d have those weight inducing knobs there, but the Cinturato Gravel H is not that tire. It’s got lowered tread knobs and is speedy on smoother surfaces, the sort of place where you’d want a lighter tire than a MTB tire.
So, when I compare these to the Teravail Rutland 700c X 47mm tires at just a bit over 500 grams each, it makes the Cinturato’s look portly. The Rutlands are perhaps slower in terms of rolling resistance by a small amount, but the Rutland does have some knobs there, and that makes them a bit more versatile on the MTB-lite side of the ledger. Don’t need knobs? Well, the WTB Riddler has a smoother center tread area and our test set went 30 grams a piece lighter than the Cinturato tires. Of course, neither the Rutland nor the Riddler were armored like the Cinturato tires are.
So, who is this tire for? My take is that these are for the rider who doesn’t care that much about tire weight because they are looking for an all-around tire that will be fast, tough, and ride well. They are the kind of rider that wants a bullet-proof, easy tubeless set up, a tire that doesn’t require baby-sitting in terms of air pressure retention, and a tire that wears well. That is a tough combination to get right, but I believe that Pirelli did get this right with the Cinturato Gravel H tires. Pirelli says in their tagline for these tires that they have “Unstoppable Performance“. They just may be right on with that.
You can check out the Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H on the web here: https://velo.pirelli.com/en/uk/product/cinturato-gravel-hard-terrain/700x45c/red
Note: Riding Gravel purchased these Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H tires for test and review. We are not being paid, nor bribed for this review and we always strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.