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Running super wide or mtb tyres on a gravel bike seems to be one of the best upgrades you can make to a gravel bike in 2025 so we thought we'd copy the gravel racing pros and see if mountain bike tyres on a gravel bike actually makes it better...
In the video Jamie tries out 2.2" (55mm) mtb tyres on his gravel bike - a Lauf Seigla to decide whether they're better than his usual 45mm gravel tyres. Which are the best gravel bike tyres and what are the best width gravel bike tyres? Jamie from Cycling Weekly thinks a 50mm tyre is perfect for most gravel cycling here in the UK.
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0:00
There's your conclusion. Wide tyres won't help you if you're crap off-roading
0:09
Have you seen the size of these? These are my new gravel tyres. I haven't used them yet
0:19
as you can see. They're fresh out of the box. But I'm going to see if I can be converted
0:23
to mountain bike tyres on my gravel bike, basically. You've probably seen mountain bike
0:29
style or mountain bike width gravel tires being used in lots of top tier gravel races so unbound
0:36
loads of people were using 50 mil tires whereas 45 mil used to be wide on gravel no longer and if
0:44
your frame can fit them then apparently we should all be fitting really wide tires like these these
0:49
are continentals race king they're 2.2 inches wide luckily the lauf can fit 57 mil tires so
0:56
There's a bit of room to spare. The physics is kind of a bit counterintuitive though
1:01
Like wider tyres, we've been told for so many years, is slower
1:05
And now all of a sudden we're being told they're faster. I mean, there's no way that it's more aero
1:11
So can it make up for enrolling resistance? Well, I'm going to try and find out
1:15
I've got a race at the weekend. A gravel race. It's called Gritfest
1:19
It's in mid Wales. And I've done it for the last three years now
1:23
It's one of my favourite gravel events. and I've been a bit torn on what bike to use, what tyres to use
1:31
but for the last three years I've used Malauf Segler with the suspension fork at the front
1:35
and 45mm Schwalbe G1s. I've been quite happy on it. There's some stages where you feel like you might want a hardtail mountain bike
1:43
there's other really fast bits where you feel like it's definitely gravel bike territory
1:48
So maybe this will be the best of both worlds. or maybe I've just absolutely ruined my gravel bike
1:56
There's only one way to find out, isn't there? I have just realised a slight issue
2:01
This front tyre I've put on backwards. You can see around here, it says rotation
2:06
There's an arrow which quite clearly goes not the way it's going to spin
2:12
That's what you get when you fit tyres at 10 o'clock at night. Okay, we're ready to ride
2:18
I am intrigued to see how these tyres perform. We haven't had any issues with them so far, so let's go on a ride
2:35
Well, I've ridden about 10 metres so far and I've spotted an issue already
2:41
I now get to overlap. So where I actually have my cleats quite far, I have my foot quite far back and even so
2:51
yeah, that's going to be really annoying when going slowly and trying to like do any technical
2:57
bits Maybe we should just all have hardtail mountain bikes if we want to run mountain bike tires Am I going to move my cleats Am I going to put up with it Or am I going to change my tires
3:09
Nah, let's just crack on. Ah, yeah, pretty positive
3:31
On stuff like this, they definitely feel nice. I haven't done any like long, really straight, fast bits yet
3:41
All the fast bits I've done have actually been a little bit rocky. So I guess find out there whether they're more draggy
3:47
whether there's that aero penalty and whether you can feel that. What I would say is, if you have a rock like that
3:53
if you're on like a 38 mil or a 40 mil gravel tire
3:57
then you're gonna want to go around that. On my 45 mil gravel tyres
4:03
you'd be absolutely fine going over it, like no problems. But would I choose to go around it
4:09
Yes, probably. If I saw that on the track and there was a clear bit here
4:13
I would probably choose to go around it. The wider your tyre, the more you can go over basically
4:19
or more it's comfortable to go over. The more you can go over without losing speed
4:24
or rolling off the side of it. And what I have found is on these tires
4:28
I just don't care as much what I'm riding over. Like on a track like this
4:34
there's basically nothing that you can't ride full pelt at. So that's quite nice
4:41
But yeah, now to go and find some climbs, because obviously a penalty of using wider tires
4:47
is usually additional weight. And if there's not a weight penalty, then it normally means they've got really fragile sidewalls
4:52
and you're gonna tear it as soon as you hit anything rocky. So yeah, generally a bit of a weight penalty
4:59
Let's go and find out if that makes any difference. Test two, come on big tires
5:08
I haven't cleared this hill before. Can I clear them on the mountain bike tires
5:13
Let's go. I mean, I'm kind of glad I'm on these ones, to be honest
5:23
Oh, that's quite loose there though. oh dear oh dear i didn't choose to be over here
5:30
no i still haven't cleared it then oh well if i could spot get going again right we should be all right from there
5:43
right why ties be grippy i'm not clipped in Yes Planned my celebration and everything now i can use it to be honest though i would rather
6:15
be on these tires for that my opinion at the moment is it depends what gravel you want to be
6:18
riding if you want to ride more mountain bikey stuff use mountain bike tires on your gravel bike
6:25
although actually then you would just get a hardtail mountain bike and that is something that
6:31
I do strongly believe in there's lots of manufacturers pushing you towards a gravel
6:37
bike or like trying to tell you that's the greatest thing in existence I do agree they
6:41
are great because a lot of people need to ride on the road to get to their off-road however if you
6:47
have a road bike potentially an all-road bike if you don't race you can basically get away with
6:53
having an all-road bike, you can do dusty trails on that. And then if you want to go off off-road
7:00
hardtail mountain bike, which of course you can still use on the road
7:04
it just might be a bit more draggy. So is the answer putting mountain bike tires
7:09
on your gravel bike? Yes, it probably makes it better, but is a hardtail mountain bike not even better
7:15
That's the next question I need to answer. Onwards. Ah well test ride number one done they've done enough to convince me to use them at the weekend
7:50
And so today we've sort of been, well, almost purely on either this sort of terrain, like fire roads, or much rockier stuff
8:00
And on here, I've been enjoying them. I've been sold. However, I must admit, we haven't done a lot
8:06
Well, I haven't, I barely touched any tarmac at all. And I haven't done much fast stuff
8:12
I don't think I've gone above like 25 kph the entire day
8:16
So it'll be interesting at the weekend to see when things do get a bit faster because there's a real mix of stages
8:22
Some of them are quite technical, rocky like some of the stuff we've done today
8:27
And then other bits are just half an hour segment go rolling but fast open fire track like this
8:37
So yeah, intriguing. From what I've seen so far, not a bad effort from the mountain bike tyres at all
8:46
Right, before we get on to the conclusion of this video, please do make sure you subscribe
9:02
to the channel because well it really does help us make as much bike content as possible So yeah click the button And without further ado here is the bike that I used for GritFest So this is the setup that I chose to use
9:14
And as you will see, it does indeed have the wide tyres still fitted
9:19
And in the end, I think that that probably was the right decision for me
9:24
because, well, in typical Welsh fashion, the weather took a turn for the worse
9:30
and it was no longer quite so dusty. Off-road, and I am 99% sure that the wide tyres are the faster option. Now it's very hard to measure
9:41
aerodynamics in the real world, but lots of pros, all those pro riders unbound that you see using
9:48
wide tyres, they have had plenty of wind tunnel time. And if they're doing it, then it's quite
9:54
easy to imagine that me and you travelling at much lower speeds inevitably, then there's even
9:59
more benefit to using wide tyres. So let's get into that a bit deeper. On descents I was definitely
10:06
more confident and less wary of my line choices when using these tyres. On technical sections I
10:12
was glad of the additional grip and on the road I was pleasantly surprised by how well these race
10:18
kings rolled. Wide tyres sound like a nailed on winner then but my choice does come with a few
10:24
caveats. I hate saying it depends but it it really does depend. It depends on what gravel you will be
10:30
riding. If you just want to do some light tow paths and things like that then fit a 45mm, fit and
10:37
forget, you don't need anything wider. However if you want to travel as fast as possible over a whole
10:43
range of gravel surfaces then I think basically fit as wide as your frame will allow and that's a
10:51
good point actually because a lot of frames won't take tires this wide and well that makes your
10:57
decision quite easy doesn't it. Now I do think that bike manufacturers are going to have to listen
11:02
to consumers and the science and start making their clearances a lot wider and they have to be
11:08
fair a lot of even the race bikes, race gravel bikes that we've seen released this year have got
11:13
those wider clearances. That Villeur Rave ID2 springs to mind. Now I say that fit as wide a
11:21
tire as possible and then I'm actually going to contradict myself almost immediately because what
11:27
I now want to do to this bike is move down to a 50 mil tire. So these are 55 mil, 2.2 inch. I think
11:34
a 2.1 inch or 50 mil is going to be the sweet spot for my riding and this bike and I'm hoping
11:41
I'm making that decision because I'm hoping that it will eliminate that overlap that you saw I got
11:47
earlier. Therefore hopefully I can have all the benefits of big tires without any of the negatives
11:53
In conclusion then, wide gravel tires have done enough to convince me that they are a genuine
11:58
option rather than just a gimmick. Let me know whether you agree or disagree with my tire choice
12:04
down in the comments below as well as any questions that you'd like us to answer on the channel next
12:09
We'll see you next time
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