Trekathlete

Just got a Cervelo Aspero and it came with gravel king 42mm tires. It appears the inner width of the rim is 23mm and the outer is 27mm. Coming from road riding I do a large portion of riding on the road and I am wondering what size might be ok? Maybe 32mm? I know tire type will be preference but if you know of an excellent all around tire let me know! Trying to make this bike as much of an all rounder as possible. If I do gravel rides I’ll pop the gravel kings back on!

thanks!

guadzilla

I run 24c Turbo Cottons 26c RapidAirs and 35c Gravelking SLCs, and find the SLCs to be surprisingly good on the tarmac. I am sure they are slower, but they dont feel significantly so and unless I am doing a really fast group ride, I have no issues holding on or taking my turn up front with the Gravelkings. That said, it is probably overkill for tarmac, so I would recommend the 32mm versions of the same.

Trekathlete

Just looked at the panracer site but didn’t see SLC’s... I saw SS and a regular gravel king tire that is a slick... The SS seems to be in between the slick and the SK which I have.. What are the SLC’s

unterhausen

I have done a lot of road riding on 38mm tires. I know a lot of very fast people that run 42mm tires. Unless you are doing a lot of criterium racing on this bike, I think you'll be okay without changing tire size.

mstateglfr 

I dont know what SLCs are.
I have some gravelking slick in 28 on one of my road bike- they roll well and seem to be slow to wear.
I currently have 43mm gravelking SS tires on my gravel bike and they seem to roll fast on pavement. I've used i think 5 other gravel tires thru the years in 40mm+ size and these feel comparatively fast. I mention them because even though what I use in width is wider than what you want, the skinnier ones will be lighter and maybe more what you want.

For 32mm, Ill suggest Conti GP 5000 as its a light and fast tire that isnt too frail. Look at Rene Herse Stampede Pass- its a 32mm tire that was suggested to me for a different road bike I'm going to change tires for soon. I haven't used RH tires before, but all accounts are they are supple and fast.


Also, I cant imagine changing tires out each time inwant to run gravel. If you use tubes its inconvenient. If you run tubeless, its even more inconvenient.

Beach Bob

I bought an Aspero this year and due to the issues with supply chain logistics for bike parts, ended up taking the GravelKings off and slapping a set of GP4000's (28mm) on the rims so I could keep up my road riding. First and foremost... an Aspero makes for a surprisingly decent road bike! sharp handling, and even with the lower GRX gearing (2x drivetrain...I'm a roadie at heart), I found it just as fast on the road as my beloved Defy. So much so that I'm hoping to pick up a nice aero wheelset over the winter so that I can truly keep the Aspero as a dual purpose bike. I'm ideally planning to run 32mm GP5000 or similar for road work and stick to the 38mm GK's for gravel. I'm thinking that with a decent enough wheel set, I can save a pound or more (450gm+) on the wheelset PLUS drop another 250gm(1/2 pound) on tires by going to road slicks instead of the GKs. All in all, I'm thinking that an Aspero can be quite a rockin road bike if set up properly.

scubaman

Quoting from the gospel of Bicycle Quarterly, wider tires are not slower (https://www.renehersecycles.com/12-m...es-are-slower/).

René Herse makes tires in 42 and 38mm widths that feel great and perform well on pavement and gravel, and can be set up tubeless. If you're gonna ride in a fast pace line, maybe consider narrower. (I don't, these days, so I don't; I'm so used to my 48mm slicks that riding on 28/32/35mm tires feels vulnerable.)

Steve B.

I purchased a 2nd set of wheels for my Topstone, got them from Bicycle Wheel Warehouse, they are a stock set of gravel wheels. I run the 37mm WTB Riddler gravel tires on them with the stock 11-34 cassette. The OEM wheels are WTB i23's, I put the road 12-25 road cassette on these wheels, with a set of Conti GP4S tires that are 28mm. On the wide WTB rim they end up at 32mm. It's a nice compromise tire size for some speed.

Moisture

I wouldn't switch them out unless you feel like it's the tread pattern (not tire width) being a drag for you and you don't ride any gravel.

the wider tire gives you extra room to play around with tire pressures and get a more compliant ride, although you might want to go tubeless for the sake of comfort, if possible.

You can get the same contact patch as a thinner tire by simply jacking up the pressure a little.

I've went from 2.2/2.3 to 1.75 to 1.5. Currently ride 700x35 front and 27x1.25 rear. They all have their advantages.

Chi_Z

a wider tire is not slower in terms of rolling resistance but it is much slower in terms of aerodynamics

MikeIndy

The Panaracer 35mm slicks are a great tire. I have them on a set of DTSwiss for the road. I recently took the bike to FL fora. 3-weeks covid/remote working trip. I wanted to take one bike and ride a mix of surfaces. The 35mm slicks on the road were just fine. Note, I'm not riding in a fast road group when I'm riding this setup. I then used the 38MM on another set for riding trails and gravel west of town.

Trekathlete

Hey Thanks for all the great ideas. I think in the end i will go with the panaracer gravel king + slick tires. The ones currently on, the SK's, i feel do slow me down a bit because of the aggressive tread pattern. so i think the slicks will work nicely. I'll probably get them in a size 35 and should be able to do everything i want with the bike.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions!

msu2001la

I'll toss in another vote for Conti GP5000's. I have a set of regular clinchers in 28mm size on a set of road wheels, and 32mm tubeless on my gravel wheels. The 32mm TL is fast on road, and capable in a wide variety of light-duty off-road conditions. It's a really great tire and I don't think I'd buy any other slick in this size, nor do I see any need to go wider for mostly on-road riding.

chas58

Ditto that.

I know there are a lot in the camp that 40mm is fine for the road. And, it is if you are not riding hard. But the GP5000 has 1/2 to 1/3 the rolling resistance of many of the tires mentioned above. I honestly did not think much of that until I put them on my bike. Lets just say that putting these on my bike (32mm size) made more of a difference than purchasing a bike that cost 3 times as much.

I tend to pick tire size by the the tire pressure I want. Wide is good for comfort, but realistically a 40mm and a 30mm tire are going to handle a lot differently.
Personally I don't see a need to go below 30mm, but above that the tires are going to get more numb, duller handling less responsive to rider input, and to some degree have less aero and even more of a gyroscope effect. Some people may prefer this other people may choose a different feel.

the TL 32mm version is great on the road and I often use it in the summer/fall for gravel (which for us is pretty dry and hard that time of year).

Still, a tire that requires 8 watts (resistance) at 25km/hr should be experienced by everyone at least once.

downtube42

There seems to be some inconsistency in what distributors or resellers call the graveling slicks. They do have a fine pattern so not technically a pure slick but close enough. Sometimes it says SLICK, sometimes just gravelking with no further description. SK i think it's always a small block tread. When in doubt, look at the pics.

I run the 35mm tubeless, 90% pavement and 10% forest roads on my Fog Cutter, and love them. I'd run 38mm but they are a little tight with fenders.

For reference, I'm not fast; if I'm going over 20, I'm going downhill

Elvo

I have gravel king slick 700x35 @ ~40 psi. No problem keeping up with the 20 mph+ group rides.

chas58

Yes: SK = Short Knob.

guadzilla

I meant the slicks. I thought they are called SLCs but it could be that i am wrong - sorry for the confusion.

I run Turbo Cottons 24s on one wheelset, RapidAir 26s on another (a very under-rated tubeless-ready tire with a good balance of speed and puncture resistance, btw!) and the Gravelking slick 35s on a third. The Gravelkings are seriously under-rated tires, IMO.

Cyclist0100

Trekathlete : My riding seems to be very similar to yours... mostly tarmac with a bit of light gravel/off-road. And I just went through this exact exercise with the configuration of my Basso Palta.

After a pretty exhaustive effort I also settled on the Panaracer Gravel Kings. I went with the GK+ 700x35 in the back and GK SS+ 700x35 in the front. I like that the SS+ has more of a tread pattern, which should make for better steering and front end control. The GK+ is more of a semi-slick, which is appropriate for a rear tire. I'm sure the GK+ front/back or the GK SS+ front/back would have been fine, but I'm excited to try the combination of the two.

chas58

Its good to see more "road race" type tires being offered in the 32mm size (and even road bikes that can fit 32mm tires!). Conti and Michelin are some recent examples.

If you want a "road" tire wider than 32mm, Gravel King slicks or Rene Herse are are gonna be your best options.
(well, I do have a 60mm G-One speed, and that is a fast super cush tire).

Trekathlete

I have ordered a pair of the 700cx35 Gravel King Plus tires. I think that will suit my needs pretty well. After checking my tire size on my bike it actually came with 38 sized tires. So i am only decreasing the size a little but going to a slick type tire. I probably should have got the 32 but with the wheel size the 35's should be just fine for me. I need to ride more anyways, so hopefully this will get me our riding a little more. Thanks again for all the comments and ideas!

xseal

I ordered a second set of wheels for my gravel bike, where I use 40mm Maxxis Ramblers (45 clearance). Setting up road wheels with Conti gp5000 32mm tl. Idea is too have gravel wheelset I can ride on road (when ride is 80% gravel) and road wheel set I can ride on gravel (<20% of ride and smooth). I'll report back once I get them and try them out. Been v/ happy with Ramblers.

chas58

You are going to be very happy with those. If you are on the fence between sizes, I would always defer to the larger size.

chas58

Been there, don that. Its a great combo. Interestingly, I had the ramblers with 32mm 4 seasons, and realistically they were pretty similar in performance. But those GP5000s are in a whole different category. I use them any time I'm on smooth gravel (and road). The GP5000 TL is a much tougher carcass than the tubed version (those sidewalls always made me nervous - even on mild gravel).