Off Road VE testing. Thunder Burt 29 x 2.1 update…

I got a good test run on some medium roughness (category 2) gravel with Schwalbe’s Thunder Burt (Super Ground casing, not the lighter Super Race) 29 x 2.1 tire yesterday so I can better compare it to some other gravel and MTB tires I have looked at. This one is FAST…

You can see what these tires would look like in a day to day riding situation with the “15 mph” column but for I will also say this. To go for the Thunder Burt MTB tire over Continental’s fastest gravel tire (Terra Speed 45) on a 100 mile gravel course would save you around 26 minutes.

How’s that for a marginal gain?

I have been doing outdoor Chung Method Virtual Elevation testing on gravel tracks to pick apart how different the outdoor rolling resistance is from that done on indoor drum testing. Scroll across the photos here for an idea of what my Category 1 and Category 2 test areas look like along with those included by Silca in their Tire Pressure calculator.

If this sounds like black magic of some kind, I get it haha. I would highly encourage anyone curious to look up Robert Chung’s paper “Estimating CdA with a Power Meter” for the origin of why I am doing it this way. I am putting all these posts in a Tire Tests highlight on my IG for easier reference.

For what it’s worth, I have liked ALL these tires when I have ridden them and went into this thinking the Terra Speed would be fastest…cause it sure felt fast. That’s why we test, tho!

Next Up: The Maxxis Reaver 45mm gravel tire and Maxxis Ikon 29 x 2.0 mtb tire! I’ve posted about this testing on here a little bit before so that should be pretty easy to find too!