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    Road Tires on my Gravel Rig…


    I'd love to hear some input on swapping gravel tires out for road tires? When I'm out west, the tires I am currently rockin' do the job real well. Here in Nashville, I'm primarily riding road/around town. I am curious if anyone has any recommendations for road specific slicks.

    Currently on the Canyon Grail CF SL 7 AXS…

    Thanks in advance!

    Road Tires on my Gravel Rig…
    byu/jasonwlorenz ingravelcycling



    by jasonwlorenz

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    22 Comments

    1. newbiegraveler on

      I’m curious to know how much of a speed difference they make, or how close to a road bike it comes. I just got new wheels for my gravel and looking at throwing some GP5000s on my now old aluminum set as I do almost exclusively road riding during the week.

    2. Status_Interview_598 on

      I use GP5000 AS in 35s as the road slicks for my gravel bike. I’ve been riding them for a year now and have been really happy with them.

    3. RocketScientistToBe on

      I changed the standard Schwalbe g-one allrounds to a pair of tubeless g-one rs pro semislicks on my nuroad, and at my level it gave me an easy 3-4 kph extra for the same effort. Think 24 to 27, 28 kph on both road and hard pack gravel.

    4. lesmurfff on

      I use two sets of wheels on my domane. The GP5000s on the road are much quicker than my gravel set which are cinturato gravel h tires.

    5. Icy-Swimmer-2667 on

      I just bought some GP5000s in 32mm for a spare wheelset because there are a lot of times where I don’t do gravel and just stick on the road. Will let you know how they compare speed wise to my g-one rs pro in 40mm. I think when those tires wear down I’ll switch the gravel set to something fatter like 45 or 50mm terra speed / specialized tlr / gs rone pros / maxxis reaver hypr.

    6. Fluffy_Finance752 on

      I MAY have some context.. I’m on 3t exploro.. Last year I had zipp 303 firecrest with schwalbe one tires. This year I’m on the lun grapide wheels with gp5000 str.. feel.way faster this year than last year. I have a set of 650b wheels with pirelli cinturato for gravel riding..

      Side note – What camera are you using for that footage??

    7. Craggzoid on

      I have two wheel sets, pretty similar rims from same company that made my bike.

      45mm Goodyear connectors.Great off road supposedly not great rolling resistance but I like them.

      35mm gravel king semi slicks. Use these for my road tyres as some roads are very suspect locally. Wanted a do it all tyre and have used these on gravel tracks without issues.

      I haven’t done any side by side tests but the 35mm feel faster and are great. Nice and smooth roll well and I feel like it’s less effort to go as fast.

      Weather looks good this weekend so might try and do a small local loop and compare if I can..

    8. WeMightBe on

      My gravel bike is set up as 2* so that I can swap wheels and use it on the road. I have 40mm Schwalbe G-ones for gravel and Vittoria Corsa 30mm for road…

      The 30mm tires are perfect and allow me to hang with the Saturday morning road rides, and then on Sunday it’s gravel time

    9. Lazy-Bike90 on

      Conti GP5000 is hard to beat. I went with 30mm for the more quick and snappy feel and they’re still super smooth on rough textured roads at the right pressure.

      Any performance tubless road tire is good. Vittoria’s graphine mixed in the rubber does well with preventing cuts in the rubber and their higher end tires roll just as well as a GP5000. Pirelli p-zero tires in the same performance category are also fast and smooth.

    10. IntenseTim on

      I just run 40c pathfinders and nuke myself with a local road group periodically. My rig is full steel, so I’m already at a disadvantage. I don’t find the PFs to be all that slow.

      On the positive, I can also use the road groups as a slingshot into the country. No better way to cover 45k of road out to gravel than on the wheel of a tarmac or melee.

    11. DRM660 on

      I did this to my Otso Warakin and liked it so much that I sold my Emonda SLR. Now I just run 2 sets of wheels/cassettes/rotors; one for road, one for gravel and swap out as needed.

    12. dadbodcx on

      Specialized Roubaix 32s or whatever are fun for mixed surface, commutes, and paved training. Tubeless cheap, durable, and supple. This is in the pnw with wet sloppy winters and springs.

    13. highestmountains on

      GP5000’s. I have a hard time putting my pathfinders back on after I swap the gp’s on for some road sessions.

    14. sw1nglinestapler on

      I built up a road wheelset with cheap aluminum rims and GP5Ks and it’s glorious. Makes my gravel bike feel totally different on the road and I’m really happy with it.

    17. cyborgeeked on

      Highly recommend! I even had a spare wheel set with either GP5000’s or Vitoria corsa’s. The difference is pretty significant

    18. Spara-Extreme on

      It’s a bike. Swapping out gravel for road tires will work
      fine. Better than fine. Your bike will feel a lot snappier and quicker.

    19. nomadrone on

      I swapped the stock schwane g bites my Grail came with for skinny specialized pathfinder pro after 3 k miles. I also mostly ride on tarmac or crushed limestone trails so they feel nice and fast

    21. Bike-Hike-Hockey on

      Getting ready to do this myself. Anyone have feedback on the Rene Herse tubeless line? Barlows or Snoqualmine? Some of the other threads recommend these over the GP5000 35mm or 32mm setup for a faster, smoother ride on pavement and gravel despite being 38mm and 44mm wide.

    22. therealdeeej on

      Have you considered gravel tires with a slick center? Spesh Pathfinders or Gravelkings.

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