I'm pretty sure that Kenda does not make any tires that have low rolling resistance. I say this as someone who has tried a lot of Kenda tires, but also having seen many a rolling resistance test where their tires scored terribly.
jdadour wrote:Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H. Just as fast, better side knobs for cornering, better grip on dirt.
My experience was the opposite, although I admit to probably not having the best technical skills, and it was early in the year (not many outdoor miles) when I tested the Gravel H. Something just never felt right with the straight line stability / grip on the 700x40c tire compared to the SK. I went back to the SK in the 700x43c size, and will continue to use that for training / adventure miles, and probably run the 700x42c Pathfinder Pro for events since it seems to be the best combo of speed and no flats.
PizzaMinion wrote:The Kenda Flintridge Pro, for me, is better than the GravelKing SK.
This got me looking into Kenda, and I came across the 40c Booster Pro. Kenda claims it rolls even faster than the Flindridge, and in their TR casing they claim a weight of 371g! Anyone tried these? Seems too good to be true. Wish they were a little bit larger though.
I have the booster Pro's too. I actually went to school with the chemist who created the rubber compound for those tires. The Booster's roll fast, but as a fairly knotty tore they are not nearly as fast as the Flintridge Pro's or the Alluvium Pro'ss. The Booster is amazing for trail rides, rough gravel, single track, snow and even some ice but you'll feel it on the pavement.
So many good tires nowadays. I've got too many sets of gravel wheels and frequently rotate between several brands of tires, ie schwalbe, Panaracer, Rene Herse, Continental.
To answer a couple of questions posed above: Noonievut: The Snoqualmie's are really nice tires. The Extralights might initially weep at setup but that's fixed with 15 minutes of laying the wheel on it's side to seal the pinhole(s) permanently. I have 3 sets of Extralights and two or three of the 6 tires had a couple of pinhole leaks initially but none afterwards. The Endurance casings won't leak. I've had no unusual set up issues with RH Barlow Pass EL's, RH Snoqualmie Pass Endurance, RH Hurricane Ridge Endurance, nor RH Oracle Ridge Endurance. I did have a tough time initially getting the beads to set on a pair of Bon Jon EL's. Setup is mostly related to the rims and not the tires, anyway. RH tires are worth the price IMO. To echo Radouf's opinion, the RH knobbies are shockingly smooth rolling and quiet for knobbies.
If I had to choose one tire for mixed pavement and dirt/gravel riding for the rest of my life, though, it might be the Panaracer GK SS in 43c. To me, it seems to be a good all-rounder in a good size with good enough protection for midwest roads.
If I had to choose one tire for mixed pavement and dirt/gravel riding for the rest of my life, though, it might be the Panaracer GK SS in 43c. To me, it seems to be a good all-rounder in a good size with good enough protection for midwest roads.
I bought a pair of Gravel H 650x50; mine were 640.0g and 643.2g. A single Gravel M (bigger knobs) in 650x50 was 695.3g. I've seen other sites test the 700s and they're a little overweight compared to specs, but not out of line with other brands. The 650 spec weight however is just wrong. FYI
Very interesting. Havent weighed my yet, but will have to check that out. Have a pair of the M i can throw on the scale as well. If thats the case, I would say the weight gain is not worth it. Maybe since its the first iteration of the tire they have production issues they need to get fixed.
My experience was the opposite, although I admit to probably not having the best technical skills, and it was early in the year (not many outdoor miles) when I tested the Gravel H. Something just never felt right with the straight line stability / grip on the 700x40c tire compared to the SK. I went back to the SK in the 700x43c size, and will continue to use that for training / adventure miles, and probably run the 700x42c Pathfinder Pro for events since it seems to be the best combo of speed and no flats.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. I rode my normal 30 mile road/dirt fireroad route here in Los Angeles on both the SK and Cinturato Gravel H. The SK has good dirt grip, but when you roll the tire over on edge those low/small side knobs are fine but not the best grip. The Gravel H I noticed immediately it had better grip when cornering.
When you say 'slick gravel king', do you mean semi-slick? I ask because I didn't see a width in the slick line over 40mm.
Also, I couldn't find a G series tire by Schwalbe over 40, that is close to slick?
I have the Rene Herse Snoqualmie on my list but I worry about setting them up, sealant weeping, and other issues I read about.
Yeah, looks like to go bigger than 38mm in Panaracer, you'll need the SS (not the slick).
Schwalbe has tons of stuff in the touring category - all the way up to 60mm. Lots of Marathon variants, and the Big Apple was the first oversized tire out there - but that is 50-60mm
For Schwalbe Gravel, the allround is 35, 40, 45, 57mm sizes. Other G-one style tires come in a large variety of sizes too.
For that matter, I have seen the amazing Maxis Rambler in 38, 40, 45, 50mm sizes.
I bought a pair of Gravel H 650x50; mine were 640.0g and 643.2g. A single Gravel M (bigger knobs) in 650x50 was 695.3g. I've seen other sites test the 700s and they're a little overweight compared to specs, but not out of line with other brands. The 650 spec weight however is just wrong. FYI
Glad you mentioned something, because you are right! Just weighed my Pirelli H and M, both brown wall 650bx50, and heres what I got:
Gravel H: 650-660 grams Gravel M: 680-700 grams
That is wildly over weight spec. Hopefully they can figure out their manufacturing with this new tire, because otherwise its very well designed.
chas wrote:They have plenty of competitors, but I think at their price point they might be unbeatable. Only real negative is that they tend to throw up a lot of crap against the frame - especially on something like a crushed limestone trail.
Of course you can get the slick, the semi-slick, the short knob, the short knob +, etc...
I have the slick version and ride a lot on fine stone dust trails. Even with the slicks, I still hear a lot of pinging on the downtube and have to clean off a fair amount of goose 💩 too.
Having been through popular tires, my vote for really needing some knobs and amazing all around would be the Rene Hearse knobbies.
On the advice of others, value and some loyalty to friends who are Trek Bontrager staff I just got GR1s and am far more impressed than I expected to be. They should be considered if you want more than a slick and not full on knobbies.
I recognize there is some bias knowing the Trek engineering and product people but I don't just use their stuff. They make serious efforts to have great tires and with testing budget and resources I doubt others have. It's fun and crazy to see what they do before and after the products are released.
I love the ride of the GK's. I've had the SK, SS+, and original slick.
The original slick and SK ride great. The SK will throw up a good bit of gravel.
On the very first ride with my SS+ I went over something on the road and got a fairly large puncture. The Orange Seal Endurance struggled a bit to seal but it worked and the tire has been great for about 1,000 miles now. The original slick and SK both had puncture issues. The slick was used on my tandem and almost exclusively on roads. It has a very soft rubber compound which picks up glass that eventually would work through the belts/chords and cause a flat. The SK (not SK+) punctured badly on the Wild Horse gravel race. I think this was due to some sharp gravel typical of railroad beds. Bacon strip allowed me to limp back to the start/finish.
I've also been a long time fan of Clement/Donnelly for their CX and gravel tires. The MSO is my favorite but it's definitely sturdier and slower rolling. Oh and it throws up gravel bits too, so there is that...
So if you want a fast tire I would highly recommend the GK's but I have reservations on flat resistance. The MSO is a more sturdy tire but it's going to be slower.
I've used the GK+ slick and the GK-SK+. Both ride smoothly and have decent puncture resistance though the soft treads do pick up a lot of glass. So do the Soma and RH slicks I've used but I've not has that happen with Conti road tires, Schwalbe touring tires, or Pirelli gravel tires.
The GK+ is light and fast, feels like a road tire which is big enough for bad pavement and easy gravel.
One annoyance is the GK+ and GK-SK+ both follow grooves and ridges on pavement. It's a non-issue on gravel but disconcerting on some paved roads. The RH slicks also do this but to a lesser extent.
Follwing up, about three weeks in with my René Herse Hurricane Ridge knobbies: my initial impression of them being very fast rolling on firm or loose gravel, dirt and singletrack persists. The most surprising is that you don’t lose at all on overall grip and control. In this regard, they have way better predictability than WTB Resolute in my opinion. I also tested them on singletrack in muddy conditions, where they were good. Better wet condition ride than Maxxis Ramblers. But there was no miracle on wet roots and rocks that day.
The main issue I faced is that I already cut them twice! And that’s the Endurance casing. There are a couple reasons: my local favorite terrain is basically rocky mountain biking trails. Also, I am not a lightweight rider (at 185lbs) where RH knobbies really behave their best at lower-pressure-than-I-would-usually-run. Also for the first one, I have to admit that I was having so much fun bombing down some rocky descent that in exaltation I might have left my guard down for a second, and that’s when I half rolled-over a sharp babyhead sized rock, which cut open the sidewall. So this may be considered as user error; should’ve steered but with the sun coming down, the sheer fun and awe at the speed those were picking up, I just never saw it. Other cut was on the rolling surface. Never noticed it until I came back home to find my rear triangle caked with sealant. Bottom line is: amazeballs tires, but little underwhelmed by the Endurance construction. Will get the ultra-endurance ones for my next pair, which is probably needed given the gnarly nature of my riding environment.
If I get another pair of RH tires I'll get the Endurance Plus casing. A rolling test in the Autumn 2020 BQ found the Endurance Plus to be about 8% slower than the Standard or Endurance on a low-speed roll-down test. However at a steady 150 W input both on the flat and up a 5% grade the Endurance Plus was between 1% and 2% slower, not enough to matter to me.
I have the 38 mm Barlow Pass Extralight and the 44 mm Snoqualmie Pass Endurance. The treads on both are full of cuts. On the Extralight the cuts go right through and I get constant flats, on the Endurance they don't go through as often. For me any extra protection of the Endurance Plus would be worth the small increase in rolling resistance and weight.
more pavement than gravel= Panaracer Sk more gravel than pave = wtb riddler the tire is more squared off than rounded profile SK = good for gravel mostly dirt = former specialized renegade 1.8”
RH Juniper Ride with Endurance Plus casing here: Good grip almost everywhere & haven't had a flat yet, just did a week of riding MTB trails in the Dolomites.
I won't recommend them on anything other that rocky or muddy trails. On softer gravel or long tarmac straights their rolling resistance is quite a bit more vs my WTB Ventures and Ultradynamico race tires.
