spectastic

I sold my cross/gravel bike, in order to justify owning my hardtail, and 2 road bikes (one for racing, one backup/rain/beater). the back up road bike can support up to 28 mm tires, and I'm planning to use it for some light trails or single track.

1. Is this a good idea?
2. what tire recommendations do y'all have? Is there a consensus for good gravel tires out there? for roadies, almost everyone uses conti gp 4000s. wondering if there's a gravel version of that.

Abe_Froman

I use the 28mm GP4000 on gravel and hardpack dirt trails. Works great. Not GRAVEL in caps....but, regular gravel

edit: and they run VERY big....~31mm.

mongol777

Panaracer GravelKing slicks. Beware - they mount small, I have 700x28 and it mounts to around 25 on Ultegra 6800 wheels and to around 26 on Fulcrum Racing 5 Large (extra wide ones) So you may want to size up a bit. They roll real nice and fast on pavement and handle fine gravel/backroads just fine

spectastic

thanks for the tip. i actually have schwalbe durano 28 mm, but they only measure 26 when mounted on regular box rims.

spectastic

are you using wider rims? what's the inner width of the rim? all my conti's have been true to size, unless i go to 17c inner width rim or something

Facanh

Light trails and singletrack are doable on 28s, but it's going to be very uncomfortable... Even a 35mm would make a world of a difference.

justin1138

my personal go-to's would be the Panaracer Gravelkings (no SK) or the Clement/Donnelly Strada LGG's. both have some texture and are fairly tough tires without being excessively overbuilt (ie heavy).

realistically though, most tires at that size are going to perform similarly.

rumrunn6

you gonna sell the hardtail?

Seattle Forrest

IRC makes nice tubeless 28 mm tires.

These are 28 mm Conti All Sports. It was fine.

Cyclist0108

Mine expand out to almost 35 mm on my HED Belgium Plus rims. I don't mind, but if the frame is a constraint, it is something to worry about.

They are significantly faster than my (true) 28mm Clements.

I've been ogling Compass 28mm ones for my 1987 Bianchi road bike.

09box

I'm looking into possible new tires as well. I have it narrowed down to Conti Ultra Sport 2, Gatorskin and Vittoria Rubino 4 all in 700x32.

spectastic

nah, i'll use that for harder trails and actual xc mtb-ing

fietsbob

MA2 Mavic rim, Conti top touring 2000 , 28, measure 25 on the rims..

Tour d France was run over gravel roads for a long time, on Sew up tires..




Return to Your looking at the snow out the window, and dreaming of when you can ride your bike again, outside..

DrIsotope

That's smoother than my driveway. Of course 28s were fine. AFAIC, "light trails" look more like this:




...where 700x28 would be do-able... maybe. But just because you could does not necessarily mean you should.

Seattle Forrest

I'd ride that on 28s without thinking twice.

Abe_Froman

i was going to say that would be unessesarily masochistic...but on 2ns inspection it looks like the road is not gravel but uneven dirt. It would probably be OK...but something like 40mm would be a much preferable option.

If it’s at all wet...28s arent going to cut it. I was on a dirt river trail on mine a couple weeks ago...not squishy excet for a few parts, but just moist enough that the thinner tires made a distinct impression in the dirt. Man was that slow going.

DrIsotope

Yeah, we don't have gravel here. That is a wonderful blend of clay soil and river sand, with a variety of aggregate mixed in. Truth be told, it's probably XC territory, but I don't feel like an MTB guy, so I do it backwards and CX it. And yeah, 35s are pretty much the minimum unless you like walking. I run 43F/38R and it still gets squidgy in places.

veloz

Before gravel tires became a thing we used Panaracer Paselas. They're still great tires for road and gravel and folks still use them on the DK200. I've owned 35's, 32's and 28's. The 28's fit on my road bike and are fine on gravel roads - not sand or mud. Gravelkings would be a good choice too. Air them down as much as possible for gravel and you'll thank me. At least check them out before you buy anything else. Nice tires.

Barrettscv 

I also have the 700x28 4000 S II. It's huge, mine are 32mm. Wonderful tire for bad pavement and very smooth crushed limestone gravel.

XXLHardrock

28 & 32 mm Gravelkings (not SK) mounted on H + Son Archetype rims measure 28.5 and 32.5 respectively. Very nice tires and by all accounts I’ve read, comparable to Compass tires for less than half the price.

Abe_Froman

Yup, exactly what I’m on, plus some smooth dirt trails.

Seattle Forrest

Did this on 28 mm Conti All Sports. Chose my line (edge of the road), and rode it quickly. Sometimes I wonder about you guys.

Abe_Froman

Well, to be fair, it looks like that is a short limited stretch of rocks.

Would you ride 40 miles over terrain like what's shown in the picture? Would your first choice for it be 28mm?

I mean, I've done practice runs on a CX course with 28mm GP4000s....doesn't mean it's exactly the best tool for the job though.

And also...you're running tubeless, so PSI wise you're effectively on a larger tire. What PSI ARE you at, anyway?

Seattle Forrest

That ride was in the ballpark of 40 miles that day, and despite what you're assuming, those weren't the only rocks in the road. And yes, I did choose 28 mm tires for the rest of the ride too.

That ride was before I went tubeless. I don't remember the pressure I was running to be honest.

Abe_Froman

I'm just going to go ahead and say your tush is tougher than mine then

That said...I am a bit curious as to how low I can actually go on my 28mm GP4000s...I haven't run any lower than about 70psi. If I start creeping closer to 50 I imagine rocky sections like that really wouldn't be a big deal. I'd be awfully worried about pinch flats though.