I've got a few rides on these tires now and I've been quite impressed. They are very fast, of course. But I've been most impressed with the cornering grip. Compared to the previous slick center tread tire I've ran (38mm Pathfinder), it is much much better. There is immediate grip from the cornering knobs that increases as you lean, instead of an initial slight loss of grip before catching. It's not quite as grippy as a 40mm Terra Speed, but it's surprisingly close. The twisty, crushed gravel paths I ride require a decent level of grip for the speeds I ride and these provide it very well. I think the Terra Speed is probably still faster at Threshold efforts or above where increased grip is really needed, but these are likely faster at Endurance speeds on the twisty crushed gravel paths I ride.
Braking (and acceleration) traction is of course very compromised. It is still better than expected, perhaps due to the wider volume and softer compound, but the hard, late braking I do breaks traction quite often. And any surge out of a corner, requires a delicate application of power.
The width as measured (WAM) comes to 40-41mm on a 25mm IW wheel. This is a good volume for my local trails, as it lets me float over a few more sections than the 40mm Terra Speed did (38mm WAM on 24mm IW), but doesn't flatten out the terrain like the 45mm G-One RX Pro (43mm WAM on 24mm IW). My biggest issue with the 45mm G-One RX Pro was that the increased weight and volume felt less responsive while also rolling through all of the deeper gravel sections with ease; which made my standard terrain less technical. Both of these simply made the bike less fun, while also being a tad slower on the extremely smooth trails. Since I recently added a Seigla with 2.25 Thunder Burts, I no longer needed the extremely good grip and volume of those tires for the rougher trails and gravel switchbacks. This opened up an opportunity to transform my Crux into an all road bike. And I think this is currently the perfect tire for it.
by OUEngineer17
1 Comment
Been thinking about these for my fast gravel wheelset; currently have gravelking SS on there and the lack of cornering grip is the main thing I don’t like about those. Th carcal race seems like a good alternative.