Schwalbe G-one pro longer term review

Back in the spring, I put a G-one R pro up front and an RS on the rear, and have put them through quite a bit of gravel riding and racing.

The 50s barely fit in the frame and fork and have rubbed down some of the protective tape I put in the chainstays. But it will be hard to get me to go back to a smaller tire. I've crept the pressures down a touch, sometimes to 21/23 f/r, and even the RS semi slick has pretty acceptable grip when you have that much volume and that low of pressure. I raced on these at Get lost gravel in hamilton and got another 2nd place. My whole year has been about almost but not quite winning it seems. The tires were great all day though. Mostly I just screwed up at the end.

The rear tire did wear out sort of quickly, and the insides of the edge knobs are pretty much all shredded off. Next I'm going to try the R pattern front and rear. The R will have a bit more grip and maybe better puncture protection with the small, tightly spaced tread blocks, but in testing is only barely slower than the RS on a drum. I definitely rode the rear tire much longer than I would have liked but there was pretty poor tire availability all summer.

I have still been riding it, haven't gotten any punctures since that one, and even on trails and steep gravel descents the grip is like, still fine. That's kind of the thing about a higher volume tire- you don't need as much tread.

So yeah, I think the g-one pros have been about my favorite all around gravel tires and they're conveniently about the fastest thing out there. Big handmade challenge tires get the edge for having the smoothest ride feel, and the pirelli gravel RCs had better cornering grip and feel. Mainly though, bigger tires are better. For a bike that gets ridden off pavement, it's hard to say why you would ever want a tire smaller than what fits in the frame. Mud clearance for cyclocross? Probably I will have to go back to something different/smaller especially with my new wider wheels. I really need the tires to actually measure 48-49mm instead of 50-51. The 45 challenge getaways were just about perfect in that regard and pirellis also measure on the large side.

 

Longer term MTB tire review roundup

 Well we're getting toward the end of the summer and so I've worn out most of my tires and have a bit more to say about them if anyone reads blogs on the internet anymore. I guess i need to get with the times and start being a social media influencer and making youtube videos about this or something. But excuuuse me for liking to read and write still.

Alright where was I? Tires I guess. Maybe I should find something better to do with my life but this is what i do these days.

First up lets talk about the Schwable Rick XCs. I got over the narrower width and wound up liking these tires a lot. Pretty good durability over rocks although I did slice one real good a few weeks ago and it was worn enough for me to not bother trying to put in a patch. 

The ricks got swapped around between my bikes this spring and they were on a set of bontrager kovee rsl wheels. I also had some thunder burts on a set of bontrager wheels and then also my mezcals on some dt swiss wheels. 3 sets of wheels and tires between two bikes was kind of nice although I never put the thunder burts on the hei hei (although I have done that before) or mezcals on the trek. Mostly it was swapping the ricks over to the hei hei whenever I wanted to race it, which was actually most of the time this season. With that wheel and tire setup the bike came in at under 25lbs ready to ride and I rode it like that at the homestead 6 hour (where I got 2nd) and 4 out of 5 of our wed night races (I got 2nd 3 times and won the series but never managed to win a race).

It was a very good setup that not only was light and went fast, but could corner and go downhill. The trek only got brought out to race once with a rick up front and a thunder burt on the back and the ricks have made me not want to bother racing the thunder burt front and rear at all. The thunder burts are fast, but have limitations when you're actually trying to ride them on trails or in a race where you have to do things like slow down and turn. The Ricks are almost as fast on a drum and can actually turn, which, in the real world, probably translates to being faster overall. But please, schwalbe, make it a little bit bigger and give the weight a little more QC attention.

With one of my ricks worn down and then sliced open, and one of my thunder burts worn down and also sliced open, I have a burt/rick combo on the trek.

The hei hei is back on it's mezcals and I like those tires as well. They are the new 2.4 xc race version and I think i've talked about them before. Last year i rode them quite a bit, wore out a rear tire, bought a single replacement, and then swapped the new tire onto the front and the used rear to the back. I'm still riding those tires and would say the tread wear was much better than I expected. Those ricks were toast after a spring of racing.

Between the two it's hard to say which I prefer. The ricks are a bit faster, but the mezcals are higher volume, last a bit longer, and maybe have a touch more grip. For a pure XC race tire I'd give it to the Ricks. For a little more general use where you're racing and also trail riding, the Mezcals are probably better. I might try the new peyotes next season, which test fast and have decent cornering knobs, and like the mezcals will actually measure 2.4" wide.

Schwalbe G-one Pros

 If anyone reads this they might notice I go through a lot of tires. That will happen when you ride a lot and have a lot of bikes. I counted how many i bought last year and it was... a lot.

The other thing people may notice is how much attention there is to rolling resistance right now. It kind of started with bicyclerollingresistance.com, and now there are a number of folks out there doing testing on real roads, which is nice as the smooth roller doesn't always tell the full story especially when it comes to gravel and mtb tires on rougher surfaces. The most recent real world testing is indicating that as roughness of the surface increases, the faster wider tires become. And on smoother surfaces, many wide tires are still fast. Conclusion? Probably that you should ride as wide of tires as possible unless you're only ever on very smooth paved roads (and even then, bigger road tires are nice).

So, last year when I got my orbea that had more tire clearance than a CX bike of old, I started off with 40mm tires because I had them. Then, in the summer when those needed replacement I went to 45s. Then, this spring when it was time for a new set i tried some 50mm schwalbes. My frame officially only has clearance for a 48mm measured width but in my experience the schwables tend to be a bit small or at least not bigger than advertised so I thought I should give it a try.

My choice - the new G one pro tires, with a semi-slick RS rear and the R up front for a little more braking and cornering grip.

They measure about 50.5mm and it's a pretty close fit

Don't think I could pull off a 2.1 thunder burt or anything even slightly larger. I put some foil tape in the chainstays and I have already noticed spots where it's got some wear from rocks and dirt getting in there.

So, how do they ride? Pretty good. I've been going with about 23/25psi f/r, which is around the same or a bit less than my getaways (which measured 48mm). I did not put inserts in them because it seemed less necessary with the added volume. Last week I did quite a bit of extended gravel descending, first down allen creek road to turah. The last time I rode it on 40s my hands were numb at the bottom and I had to take a break and shake them out a bit. Last week it felt pretty good. Yesterday we rode up deer creek, down little park creek, and then over holloman saddle, then back on crystal creek. Nowhere did I think "gee I wish I had narrower tires."

Grip is pretty good but the rear will slide around a bit on hard braking. The edge knobs bite pretty good though, and you do get used to riding a file tread type tire and learning that the grip is better when they're leaned over.

Durability is questionable, but good so far in the real world over rocks and stuff. However I got a silly puncture at slow speed on the kim willaims trail, presumably from a piece of glass or something that needed to be plugged and now I need to go patch the inside of the tire. They do not have the best puncture protection rating but they are fast and comfy.

Treadwear is also already noticable on the rear after only 300mi so I might be going through a couple of these this summer. Schwalbe does make 3 versions with differing tread so there are many possible combinations of tire, from the RS front and rear to the more aggressive RX, and they all test fast on bicycle rolling resistance and in the real world.

I guess the real conclusion is that big tires are absolutely the way to go for gravel and trails. It surprises me to see new gravel race bikes being released that only fit 45s. Basically, IMO if you put out a new bike it better fit 2.2s. 

Challenge Getaways

 Last summer I was just riding along and sliced open one of my pirellis (ok i was going too fast through a loose, rocky, downhill turn in the middle of glacier), and after a couple seasons on the same tires i decided to try something else. We had some nice, big 45mm challenge getaways on the shelf and my new bike had the room to fit them so that made it a pretty easy decision.

These tires look really good and are like big fluffy clouds to ride on and they go fast. For tires that actually have tread, they are one of the fastest things on bicycle rolling resistance. Out of the box they measured over 47mm on a 23mm hookless rim and are more like 48mm now even at 25psi.

So that was the good, but there are some drawbacks. Mainly, cornering grip is not really great especially if it's loose. the big edge knobs of the pirelli gravel RC are really good and those come in big sizes too. I also do not trust these around sharp rocks. But after nearly 3k miles of riding through the fall and spring I have not had any punctures and now they're due to be replaced.

These definitely get my "would buy again" seal of approval, and they look good. But next I'm going to try the new schwalbe g-one r/rs pro in 50mm, so we'll get that posted sometime soon once I put them on.

Schwalbe Rick XC

 Got some new mtb tires this spring. On my trek hardtail I had been riding schwalbe thunder burts for the last two years, and while i like them and they are really fast, I wanted to go to something with a bit more grip. Enter schwalbe's new Rick XC, which is supposed to be wider, faster than a racing ralph, and have more grip than the thunder burt. So I got some.

here it is compared to my thunder burt

Listed weight is 760g for a 29x2.4 and one of them was there, at 750g, but the other was not.

Soooo, the heaviest tire i've had in awhile. But at least it's 2.4" or 62mm wide, right?

This is on a 29mm internal width bontrager rim.

So, that's not great. a 2.25" tire that is almost 800g. Not thrilled.

But how do they ride? well, seems pretty good. They are fast and the traction when you lean them over is good. the edge knobs bite and pull you through the corner really well, and I like that from a tire. Some just kind of feel the same no matter the lean angle where others really grab and give you some confidence and get the bike turning.

I've ridden these down our local rim and tire wrecking trail- chopsticks on mt sentinel- a few times, with no slices or punctures, so that's good. My friend Phil has not had great luck going down that one.

I also went down my local smooth and fast trail- ravine, and set my 2nd fastest time ever without really trying to go fast.

So, in conclusion, it's a pretty fast tire with more traction than the thunder burt. BUT, it is narrower than listed and might be heavy too. I'm going to keep them but probably won't be my next tire unless they fix them to actually measure 2.4" wide (and I did give them a good amount of time at high pressure to stretch out).

The new Vittoria Mezcal

 Being one of my favorite tires, I was excited to see a new version of the Mezcal floating around last year, ridden by pros and sponsored riders. They released them this spring and I ordered a set for the hei hei, which had been rolling on some syerras since last summer, and was due for some fresh XC tires.

Here it is next to the old mezcal. The previous xc-trail and xc-race tires were both available in 29x2.25 and 2.35, which is kind of not a big enough difference to bother imo but anyway the new one is now a 2.4, or 60-622. The old tires were the "anthracite" grey casing for the trail version and then a tan wall for race, both 120tpi but a little thicker on the trail version. The new "XC RACE" tire is 60tpi and available in both black and tan, with no apparent difference between the two other than color. I would have preferred black I think but tan was the color actually in stock so hey lets try a new look

Pretty good what with the matte green frame accents and copper chain and such. Guess I have an earth tone vibe going currently.

In addition to being wider and possibly more durable than the previous race version with the lower thread count, these use a new rubber compound that is supposedly softer, grippier, but still faster rolling. It also costs $10 more at retail, which to me seems a little strange given a lower thread count casing and a single compound rubber, where the old tire had a "4c," 4 rubber compound. That's one hard base layer, a medium hardness down the center, and then softer on the cornering knobs. So probably they're going to wear out faster and might have been cheaper to make. But it's ok vittoria i still like your tires.

I put both on the scale, listed weight is 730g, mine measured 742 and 760. I measure both because I'm a nerd and also to put the heavier one on the back. So a little heavier than they say, and not any different than the old xc-trail 29x2.35 I pulled out of the package (i think it was 750ish).

Maybe you can do this with most tan wall tires but it's a little unsettling that you can see light through the sidewalls

Seems like I should stay away from sharp rocks... The weight and thread count at least suggest similar durability to the old xc-trail, which i always felt were pretty reliable.

It does also appear the tread itself is slightly wider on the new 2.4 when put up next to a 2.35 but I didn't actually measure it

Anyway, I have a couple rides on them, both up mount dean stone actually. First one was thursday with team stampede, up to the top and back down. Then saturday after work I did a longer loop, riding up dean stone, across house of sky, down into pattee through sam braxton, up crazy canyon to the top of mt sentinel, and then back into town via chopsticks and the moZ.

So we did hit a few rocks out there, especially down chopsticks, and I managed not to slice open a brand new tire.

These haven't been tested on bicycle rolling resistance yet (as a pro member I voted for them as well as the new peyote), but the old version is pretty fast and definitely felt fast riding it. These new ones also feel fast, and currently my mtb tire speed butt dyno is calibrated to the schwalbe thunder burt, the fastest tire tested by BRR, on my pretty lightweight hardtail. So, "feels fast" to me coming from that bike at least is some sort of an indicator that they actually are.

The casing is still light and supple with the lower thread count and feels good. You could say lively, springy, responsive perhaps. The rubber is definitely soft and grippy and i didn't notice a loss in traction compared to the slightly worn syerras. But a new tire with fresh, sharp knobs always feels good.

So yeah, initial review, seems good. mainly I like that they have a bit of extra volume. Probably the only reason to not ride a 2.4 XC tire these days is if you weigh 100lbs. Wednesday night we're on the traditional xc course at marshall, which, I'll probably ride on the trek but it is tempting to take a spin on the hei hei, which definitely gets down to the bottom faster and is more fun, but probably is actually slower over a full lap due to the weight and tire difference. Should probably do some back to back test laps some day.

Tire review - Schwalbe Thunder Burt

 Last summer before butte, I found myself with two sets of mtb tires that were getting a little worn down and wanted something that was fast, light, and had fresh tread for the race. The racing ray/ralph combo was been pretty good all around on the hei hei but is a little on the heavy side (770g/tire for 29x2.35 super ground). Pirelli XC/RCs are light at 700g in a 2.4 but never really felt super fast and after a spring of use the grip had fallen off significantly despite the tread wear still looking fairly ok (this is common with XC tires though- the fresh, sharp edges on the little knobs do a lot of work). It also turned out the pirellis test slow on bicycle rolling resistance. They looked cool I guess but yeah no sorry won't be buying those again.

So, deferring to the bicycle rolling resistance charts I went with the fastest tire they've tested- the schwalbe thunder burt

I'd always been curious about riding tires like this full time but was a little cautious. The kenda sabers are super light and fast and flimsy but only come out on special occasions, where these I was going to ride all the time on the hardtail plus at butte on the hei hei.

In 29x.2.25, super ground casing (there's also a lighter super race, which according to brr is slower) they came in at about 630g and measured a little on the small side with my 29mm internal width rims. I want to say 2.2 or so. Skinny and not much to them but the larger size was out of stock. With these on that loose sandy butte course, especially in the first half, I was a little all over the place but on a more normal trail and hardpack dirt they're fine. And they went fast and made it through the race. I didn't weigh my bike but with 630g tires and 1200g wheels, I'm guessing well into the 24s.

With that first set getting pretty worn I recently bought another set because I couldn't come up with a better option. This time n 2.35. They measure true to size on the same wheels and came in at 700g each. Been riding them at 19/20 psi f/r and they give a nice good cushy feel.

Mainly though, these tires roll really, really, really fast. They feel as fast as a good road tire going across town on the pavement and the bike just flies uphill out on the trails. Plus, for conditions where these would be a challenge I have the hei hei with more aggressive tires. My best description of traction on these is "better than you'd expect."

Is this a good all around tire for general mtb riding? no. But if you want to go fast, this is the one. The main downside is that they are expensive for a pretty limited condition, flimsy tire, but all the tires are getting fairly expensive these days.

Pirelli cinturato gravel follow up

 Last year I put up a little review of the Pirelli gravel H that I was using. It's here.

I rode those all the rest of the year and was pretty happy with them, although by june-july, as the tires wore and road and trail conditions got drier and looser, I was starting to notice a pretty good lack of grip especially up front. At garden city gravel especially I felt like I was really lacking traction on the final descent, where I got dropped and then just barely chased back on to our group. Not long after that I bought a new front tire- the gravel RC, which is a pretty good match with a little more aggressive knobs. It's a mini version of the XC-RC (which tbh I didn't like that much) and shares the double edge knob thing you see on some other tires like the maxxis aspen and ardents etc.

This combo I like really well when you want a little more traction. The front end bites better and gives you better turn in response.

I rode the gravel H f/r for about half the year and then put that RC up front in the late summer, and overall was really happy with these tires. They don't have the most supple feel, like, say, a handmade challenge tire, but they roll fast and have good durability for all the gravel and forest road type riding I do around here. I had plenty of those impacts where you think "uh oh that might be a puncture" without issue.

So I bought a fresh set of the gravel H tires for this year, although I do also want to try some other things like the conti terra speed, or maybe a challenge getaway, which both test faster than the pirellis by a little but I do like how well these have held up. Anyway, I guess review summary is they get my "would buy again" seal of approval.

Tire review - Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H

 This spring I was looking for a replacement gravel tire for the Schwalbe G-one Rs that I ran last year. I did generally like those tires and would buy them again but there's so much out there I felt like trying something new. The schwalbes also seemed a little slow rolling so this time around I was going for speed. I did consider trying a g-one RS on the rear, and those do test real fast.

Anyway, with the shop having trek now and trek kind of pushing pirelli and having the race team use them I thought I'd try some out and ordered the Gravel H, for hardpack. There's also a M, for mixed, S, for soft, and RC, for "race" I guess.

Very low profile and tightly spaced center blocks, getting a little taller and more spread out as you go toward the edge knobs, which are low profile, but do exist.

These come in 35, 40, 45, and maybe 50mm, and black or tan. I got the 40s, and black because the black tires were listed as slightly lighter. Mine were like 485g which is not all that light, but when it comes to gravel tires I'm finding a little extra weight is worth the added durability. I also have vittoria air liners in there, plus a hookless "MTB" rim with pretty wide sidewalls to hopefully all help prevent flats. On the 23mm IW rims these come out way bigger than listed at just under 44mm. They just barely don't rub in the chainstays and leave no clearance for mud or an out of true wheel. I put some aluminum foil tape in the potential rub spots and so far it's staying pretty clean though.

The first test for these tires was day 2 of the montana gravel challenge, a loop that goes from ninemile toward town on mullan, then along the south side road to petty creek and back over to ninemile. So a good amount of pavement, not much for big climbs, and then 20 miles of pretty rough gravel road. This year we were flying and I was way on the back of the group after being in poor position at the start of the dirt climb toward deep creek and then after losing some more spots when i realized my brake hood was loose and slipping (I pulled out of the line and thought about trying to tighten it on the move and then just decided to ride the rest of the way in the drops). So I was back there, just having to stay on wheels, not getting a good view of line choice of what was coming, and being in all the chaos as people had flats or mechanicals or just got dropped. It was a long time before I actually felt like I was "in the group" and not just barely hanging on. We probably had 20+ in the front at the start and by the time we hit petty creek there were 8.

So the tires made it through. And they feel fast (and test fast), and are high volume that lets me run pretty low pressures. I've been doing like 32.34 in the front and 37-38 in the rear. The low pressure aids grip but they are really low profile and I guess we'll see how they go on drier and looser stuff. Liking them overall though. Be nice if they measured closer to listed as my major jake doesn't have the best clearance.

 

More new tires - Challenge Baby Limus tubulars

I think I previously mentioned that I had planned to race cyclocross on Clement/Donnely MXPs again this year, ideally on wide, tubeless wheels. But that wound up not happening, because Alex at Missoula Bicycle Works had a set of tubulars sitting in the back. Seeing how everyone is now on disc brakes they weren't doing him any good so I got some new wheels.

New tire day

My cyclocross bike, an older Orbea terra, was built to race and not much else. It comes with one bottle cage mount, a tall bottom bracket, a steep head tube, the original brakes were pretty mediocre, and the gearing range was short. I used it as a road bike for a summer, and found the ride to be pretty harsh even with 28mm tires due to a lack of frame compliance (my road bike, with the same wheels/tires/pressures, rides much better). The plus side, of course, is it's light and fast and handles well on a race course. But over the years I've made some changes that have improved both comfort and performance.

New tire day - Schwalbe Racing Ralphs

I really should have bought some new MTB tires last year, but I never got around to it. By fall, when trails get all dry and loose, I had essentially no tread left, which did not inspire confidence and I didn't ride the bike all that much from about August until now. I also got a number of flats that needed patching on that rear tire, despite it being the EXO casing. This could be due to the new 120tpi design, which means a faster, more supple tire, but each thread is smaller and weaker. It was the 3rd or 4th ikon I had, with the previous tires being 60tpi, with a non-exo, non-tr thrown in there that had no issues.

I didn't mind the ikons, but last time around I tried an ardent race up front hoping for a little more grip. That was not really the improvement I was hoping for, I think because of the minimal transition knobs. With a high seat post XC bike and racey tires, you spend a good amount of time in that part of the tread and it's hard to get the bike fully leaned over onto the cornering knobs. For me at least. I might just suck at riding. So my plan was to try something with a little more even spacing like a continental x-king, schwalbe rocket ron, etc. My understanding is that a well defined set of edge knobs does give more outright grip when you are on them, but you have to get there first.

Eventually I decided to try the schwalbes, and wanted to go with a rocket ron up front, which has even knob spacing, and a racing ralph rear, which seems a a little lower profile down the center.

The road tires I've been using

Since I picked up some new tires recently I thought I might as well write about them, and the other stuff I've been using. My go-to has always been the 23mm Continental GP4000, since that's what my caad 9 came with when I bought it. I liked them well enough and just kept buying the same thing. It turns out they're one of the best options for general riding and racing- they're pretty durable, and score really well in rolling resistance tests. They've done a few updates so the current version is called the GP4000S II. I guess one of these days they'll go to GP5000?