Hello there. My first pick would be the Schwalbe G-One RS, but they are out of stock, so am looking at the G-One Speeds. I have a Monster X type gravel bike optimized for 29x2.0 tires, and currently have the G-One 28x2.0 Overlands on it, after the first year with the RH Fleecer Ridge tires. I'm liking the Overlands. My question is, I had another wheel set built, as where I live I end up doing a fair amount of road riding. So I want to put a more road friendly tire on the extra rims. I am 6'4"/255, old, and am not speed racer, but wouldn't mind picking it up a little. So I am debating between 35 or 40's to put on the new rims. I had G-One All Arounds in 40 on my older Waterford, and that was to get the biggest tire I could fit, to so some gravel riding. But this is for road hauling ass. Does anyone have experience with both? Any big guy input? I am also wondering what a 35 would look like in a fork optimized for 2.0. Thank you all. Great site.
The difference between 35s and 40s on pavement is going to be negligible. What is more important is the actual tire you get. In other words a slow 35mm tire is worse than a fast 40mm tire. Because of this I would stay away from the G-One speed which has been tested to be very slow in the newest Speedgrip compound. Probably the best would be to look at some of the fast road tires that are available in 34mm. The Schwalbe Pro One(its hard to find in 34) and the Vittoria Corsa. The Continental Grand Prix Urban in 35mm looks pretty good too. For 40mm tires with a little bit of tread the Gravel King slicks or Challenge Strada Biancas are fast tires. I wouldn't worry about how they look in your fork, you'll hopefully be riding your bike not just staring at it. They will lower your bottom bracket, but on the road that's usually not an issue.
Thank you, lj. I believe the rim, Astral Outback, has a lower limit of 35mm. I am kind of partial to the Schwalbe's, so will continue the search. By the way, I am always staring at my front tire🙂
I agree with ljsmith that the quality of the tire matters a lot more than the size. I've found the 34 mm Corsa N.EXT and 36 mm Strada Bianca Pro excellent on pavement. I weigh around 165 and run those between 40 and 50 psi. You'd probably do better between 60 to 70 psi, which is well under the maximum.
If you want a larger and/or Schwalbe tire you might look at the 40 mm Marathon Almotion. Those aren't quite as fast as the two above but should be more durable. Also the new Marathon Efficiency will soon be tested by BRR. I bought a pair of those in 40 mm and found them a bit stiff but they'll probably last longer than I will.
The 38 mm RH Barlow Pass Extralight is certainly fast but IMHO too fragile for road use. I got constant flats with those. The GravelKing slick is a little slower, a little tougher, and a lot cheaper but tramlines.
BTW you can always cover ugly tires with beautiful fenders. I haven't used these but they look cool: http://xelo-fenders.com/
CaptMike wrote:Thank you, lj. I believe the rim, Astral Outback, has a lower limit of 35mm. I am kind of partial to the Schwalbe's, so will continue the search. By the way, I am always staring at my front tire🙂
Theres so much variation in tire sizes that I don't think 1mm difference is going to matter. A 34mm tire should be fine on a 25mm Outback rim. Many road bike rims made for 28mm tires are using 25mm internal width these days.
Had fenders on my Waterford, and I believe those are some form of Marathon. I took the fenders off when I put the 40 All Arounds on it. Now it is my indoor Zwift ride, as I spend most of my time on the gravel grinder. I think I am going to go back and take a look at the Marathon line again. I get a head ache looking at all those Schwalbe tires. Thank you all for the responses.
Before I got a proper gravel bike, I ran the G-One Speed tubeless in 30mm on a Cervelo R3. Those were fast but grippy tires. The little knobs aren’t great for mud as they pack up easily, but they were otherwise very impressive.
A few years ago I had the OneStar V-Guard G-One Allround in 40 mm. I agree they were fast and grippy but on pavement they wore down quickly and got too many flats. Of the currently available G-One variants only the RS scores well for speed on BRR but its wet grip and puncture scores are low.
Regarding rims, the 2022 ETRTO standards permit a 28 mm tire on a 25 mm rim so you should have no problems with a 34 mm. I'm running a 34 mm Corsa N'EXT on a 25 mm rim.
Seems to me that it depends on what you mean by "I had another wheel set built, as where I live I end up doing a fair amount of road riding." and "am not speed racer, but wouldn't mind picking it up a little.". because what terrain are you going to hit? You can't beat a road bike with 25mm tires for speed. 😉 Conti 5000 for "road hauling ass", and will probably be fastest, but I wouldn't want to ride those on gravel. I ride Conti 5000s on my road bike and can go a lot faster. I ride 40s on my gravel bike (currently Maxxis Ramblers, but I also like the Conti Terra series), and I sometimes ride that bike strictly road rides too, usually raising the pressure to 40psi and not worrying about speed compared to a road bike. Road bike 25mm fast rides, no gravel. Gravel? Gravel bike 40mm. Mostly gravel? 25-35-psi. Road 40 psi. Much slower than road bike, but I don't care. 😂
I would recommend Challnge Getaway Pro HTLR (they make 36 and 40), Pathfinder in 38, WTB Riddler 37, or Maxxis Rambler in 40.
Pathfinder is my favorite tire. It seems roll fast, very durable, and pretty inexpensive. I think the only knocks is that it doesn’t feel as supple as other tires I mentioned. I just bought both 36mm and 40mm Challnege Getaway Pro HTLR after reading how well it performs in bicyclerollingresistance.com. It looks pretty good…at least on paper.
I just pulled this thing out of my shed, cleaned it up, and put a few miles on it. It's on 25's. I have gotten too comfortable on my gravel bike to want to go back to the lower bars on this bike (did I mention that I am old🙂. I have a whole lot of miles on this, but after riding it recently, have decided to sell it. It's not that I want to break any records, but I was doing anywhere from 25-70 mile rides on the Fleecer Ridge tires, on roads, and just want something around the 35-40 range to pick up the pace a bit, if the whole ride will be on the road. Unfortunately, it is mostly flat where I am located. If I want to do the forest service/gravel/two track roads, then I will go with the bigger tires. For the most part, if I want to ride those roads, I have to drive to them. Whereas, out my door, except for my road, it is road riding. So I just want to be able to swap back and forth quickly, hence the extra wheel set. I appreciate the input. I don't know if I need to get below 35's, but 34 maybe? Thank you all.
CaptMike wrote: I just pulled this thing out of my shed, cleaned it up, and put a few miles on it. It's on 25's. I have gotten too comfortable on my gravel bike to want to go back to the lower bars on this bike (did I mention that I am old🙂. I have a whole lot of miles on this, but after riding it recently, have decided to sell it. It's not that I want to break any records, but I was doing anywhere from 25-70 mile rides on the Fleecer Ridge tires, on roads, and just want something around the 35-40 range to pick up the pace a bit, if the whole ride will be on the road. Unfortunately, it is mostly flat where I am located. If I want to do the forest service/gravel/two track roads, then I will go with the bigger tires. For the most part, if I want to ride those roads, I have to drive to them. Whereas, out my door, except for my road, it is road riding. So I just want to be able to swap back and forth quickly, hence the extra wheel set. I appreciate the input. I don't know if I need to get below 35's, but 34 maybe? Thank you all.
Note latex tubes are used for the width test, whereas butyl tubes are used for the "gravel" test, so add two watts for the latex tube results to normalize the testing.
Then there's this... https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/specials/grand-prix-5000-comparison Those results show at about the same comfort level the RR is about the same. Then there's the drag aspect that isn't included there. For me, when I want maximum speed, I'll stick with my road bike and 25s. For gravel, I ride 40s. 😉
FWIW I had been riding on 25 mm tires for 35 years before decaying pavement and a decaying body prompted me to try something wider. I started with 28 mm and noticed a small improvement, then went to 32 mm and noticed another small improvement. 32 mm was the widest that bike could accommodate and since it was 30 years old I decided to replace the bike. I started with 38 mm tires then went wider and wider till I got to 48 mm, the largest which would fit. Those experiments included a variety of road, gravel, and touring tires. After all of that I've come to the conclusion that the construction of the tire matters more than the size but the construction also determines the available sizes. For my conditions and preferences:
Racing tires (GP5000, etc) are fast but I find 32 mm insufficient for comfort on bad pavement.
Lighter training and light, slick gravel tires (Corsa N.EXT, Strada Bianca Pro, GravelKing, GP Urban) from 34 to 38 mm are a bit slower but a lot more comfortable.
RH Extralight slicks in 38 and 44 mm are a special case. They're fast and comfortable but expensive and fragile.
Heavier training and touring tires (Gatorskin, Marathon) tend to be somewhat heavy, slow, and stiff but durable.
Larger gravel tires (40+ mm) with any tread pattern are heavier and slower than I like for riding on pavement.
Bottom line: I've been happy on bad pavement with the right tires between 34 and 38 mm. If I only rode on good pavement I'd use a 28 or 32 mm racing tire. For a combination of pavement and easy gravel I'd consider the 40 mm Strada Bianca Pro.
For road riding, why not a road tire? I have a spare wheel set, and for winter here when the dirt is often wet/icy/snowy, I ride the road some. On my spare wheel set I put on Vittoria N.EXT tires in 32 mm, tubeless, these are great, and probably a little more durable than the top level Contis, also found on sale for <$100 a pair. With 32s you are set for even bad pavement, and some really light gravel at the right air pressure-I tend to use Silca's air pressure chart for finding my pressures, it is very detailed.
My eyes started to glaze over with all the choices, and numbers. I went with the G-One Speeds in 700x35. It's snowing out, so no test ride today. I'm surprised how "fat" they look on the rims. I will drink a few beers later, and re-assess that. I really appreciate all your input. It makes it a lot easier to do your own wrenching when there are such knowledgable people willing to provide their input. Merry Christmas to you all.
