I'm planning a 5-6 day bikepacking tour across South Germany at the end of April. Mostly paved roads, with occasional compacted gravel and some poorly maintained asphalt roads.
I'll be doing the tour on my gravel bike, which currently has 40mm Hutchinson Caracal Race tires set up with butyl tubes. However, after doing some research on Reddit, a lot of people say that the tires are not great when it comes to puncture resistance – I've seen a lot of comments/posts with people saying that they've had multiple punctures within an hour of riding, with some too big for the sealant to repair. Others say that setting those tires with tubes also didn't help, and that these tires are very fragile.
My experience has been a total opposite – I've ridden these tires for a year (>1500km), both on tarmac and gravel, and even some loose/washboard gravel with a lot of sharp pebbles, and I'm yet to have had a single flat. bicyclerollingresistance.com also seems to have given these tires a fairly good puncture protection score.
However, now that I've read all those posts from people saying that these tires are super fragile and prone to punctures, I'm getting second thoughts. Should I get different tires for my tour? Or maybe set the Caracal Race tires tubeless for better puncture protection? Or is it wise to just leave the setup as it is and to not fix what isn't broken? What would you do?
by EnvironmentalPie6903
7 Comments
Tubeless if you go with wide tires!
Tufo Thundero, Conti Terraspeed, specialized pathfinder
Don’t fix what’s not broken. Especially not right before a trip.
Roads here in south Germany are pretty good and if you never had trouble with your tyres, why change them?
You are one of the daily few thousands of people who freak out after they saw a few negative comments on some tires, totally neglecting the fact that there are a thousandfold more people being happy about the exact same tires. The latter just don’t post about it online. Learn how to pull yourself out of bubbles, man.
Additionally: Germany LMAO, you can take whatever tires you want.
People who had a bad experience are more likely to leave a review. Behind that one person who allegedly keeps getting punctures all the time will be 99 other people who have not had any issues. But those people are less likely to go and review tyres – they are too busy enjoying their bikes.
So, I think you’ll be fine with whatever you choose. You are riding on maintained roads and probably not far from a bike shop wherever you are.
Just use what you have and if you can’t make it work get on a bus or train and go to the shop.
Several people said that the schwalbe g-one rs is a fragile tyre, however I’ve sent that bastard over gnarly terrain well over 4000kms with not a single noticeable puncture with tubeless setup. When it worked for you, keep on riding with it!
Anywhere in the EU I wouldn’t hesitate to take whatever tire\tube\tubeless combo on semi-paved\gravel and for sure anywhere where there is asphalt.
Your tires work, have proved to work and you should worry less and pedal more.