Teravail Ehline 29″ X 2.3″ Tires: At The Finish – by Guitar Ted
The Teravail Ehline has been tried for a gravel tire and now comes time for the final verdict. Is this a good tire for gravel travel? Can it do other things well? Where does this tire not hold up as well as something else? These questions have now been answered. Read on for my thoughts on this 29″er tire from Teravail.
First of all, if you missed the “Checkpoint” post on the Ehline, please check that out here. Now I want to add a little bit to the things I have noted about this tire. First of all, the Ehline has tenacious grip on anything with a harder surface. “Loose over hard”, a difficult condition of certain trails which many MTB tires fail on, is something the Ehline might just excell at. I did not push the boundaries of fast cornering and downhill speed off-road with these tires, but I’ve had enough experiences off-road to get a feel for the possibilities the Ehline may have there. So, if your tires have to pull double duty as gravel and MTB tires, I think that characteristic bodes well.
This trait came in handy on a local rustic road I test on which has a lot of rock embedded into clay, a fair amount of sand, and many off-camber sections in dried dirt where traction is hard to come by at times. The Ehline gripped well and propelled me through the area where deep ruts filled with rain water await those with less capable tires and skills. Only the deeper sandy sections threw the Ehline off line. (Pardon the pun) I would recommend this tire highly as one for those who like to check out the wilder roads and terrain that might overwhelm a narrower, typical gravel tire.
The Ehline also showed an ability to find a way to keep me upright on the loose-over-hard conditions if I did corner sharply. It wasn’t a secure feeling, but if you can allow the bike to drift a bit, the Ehline seems to eventually dig in.
At The Finish: The Teravail Ehline might just be the ‘Goldilocks’ tire of the three MTB tires I have tested this Summer. It was not the fastest pavement/hard surface tire, (Terreno XC), and it wasn’t the best crawler, off-road taming tire, (Hutchinson Kraken), but it was not so poor in the extremes that I wouldn’t use this tire. In gravel it does just fine until you get really loose conditions or deep gravel and sand. Then the tire might plow a bit and become difficult to keep pointed straight ahead.
The Ehline has impressive grip qualities, so if traction is a concern, this tire should have you covered. Gravel is handled well by the Ehline and it does everything else well enough that, in my opinion, it should be highly considered for those of you who use a mountain bike as a gravel bike and as a mountain bike. The Ehline, out of the three tires I tested in this category this Summer, impresses me as the best all-around choice.
Note: The Teravail Ehline 29″ X 2.3″ tires were sent to Riding Gravel for test and review at no charge. We were not paid, nor bribed for this review, and we will always strive to give our honest thoughts and views throughout.
