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Fresh Gravel: Clement MSO 36mm Tubeless Ready Tires- The Clement Pneumatics company was one of the first to market a gravel specific tire with their MSO and USH tires coming out in the Spring of 2012. The MSO immediately became a favorite of many gravel going cyclists and the tread pattern in conjunction with its, at the time, ground breaking 40mm width set the standard for all gravel specific tires to come after it. Along with its rising popularity riders began wondering when Clement would issue a tubeless ready variant of this model. Clement’s Donn Kellogg was well aware of these requests, but with Clement being a smaller company and with its fairly recent re-birthing of its storied brand, the plan was to take it slow and deliberate. Clement has been working on this tire for quite some time, and wanted to make sure it got things right before they came to market with a tubeless ready model of the MSO. Now we are privileged to have a set of pre-production MSO’s on hand to try out.
While a tubeless variant of the MSO was in the works, rider input to Clement dictated that the first MSO tubeless ready tire would not be as big as the 40mm tubed type MSO. When this author attended Gravel Worlds in Lincoln, Nebraska in late August, he was told of the pre-production MSO tubeless ready tire by Marin’s Yuri Hauswald. Yuri explained that it was a 36mm size which he felt would approach the same volume, and therefore comfort and control levels, as the 40mm tire, but have a lighter casing and would appeal more to racers.
These tires are so new that information regarding construction and features, not to mention price and availability, is still forthcoming. We were told that the pair sent to RidingGravel.com is the last of the pre-production sets available, which are typically reserved for product managers of cycling brands and sponsored riders to test. Our gratitude to be able to have these to test before the official launch is great.
What we can tell you is that these tires both weighed in at 440 grams and it feels as if we are dealing with a puncture protection belt under the tread area only. We will post more information as it becomes available. These will be getting mounted up with sealant from Caffe Latex, which we will also be reviewing here on the site. Look for a Getting Rolling post coming soon.
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
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