Tires: Tufo Gravel Thundero 48
04-24-24, 03:03 PM
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Tires: Tufo Gravel Thundero 48
I've been very happy with my 40mm Thundero/Swampero combination, but I'm always interested to expand my knowledge base. The current trend on the gravel race scene is heading towards bigger tires, with folks like Adam Roberge finishing 2nd at BWR Utah on Pirelli H 50s, and Dylan Johnson finishing 5th at Midsouth on Conti RaceKing 2.2 MTB tires. As I have previously posted about, I did try Schwalbe Thunder Burt 2.1s on my gravel bike, and they were interesting, but didn't leave enough room in my chain stays for them to be a viable option on my bike. Curious to give fatties another try, I picked up a pair of Thundero 48s.
First ride impressions...
On pavement, they felt like a big, old Cadillac - smooth, soft, and not very sporty. Being a little heavier than what I'm used to on this bike, they felt a little slower to spin up, but rolled fairly well once at a decent speed. I didn't get the sense that they are particularly fast, but also not drearily slow. The increased frontal area of the wider tire will have some impact on speed. That said, they don't feel as fast as the Thunder Burt 2.1s (which also test very well on BRR). On the dirt, the big Thunderos are at home. On a long climb with multiple rough and rocky sections, they didn't get bumped around as much as narrower ties, and floated through rough spots very similar to my MTB. On smoother sections of the climb, I didn't get a feeling of a weight penalty when rolling at a steady effort. Descending a twisty, rutted singletrack, with multiple spots of sand over hardpack, the cornering grip was confident enough that I don't think going with a knobbier front tire (like a Swampero) is necessary. Same as my experiment with the Thunder Burts, I didn't feel like I needed to be as picky about my line choice to avoid rocks and roughness.
For my typical local rides, which always include a mixture of surfaces and terrain, the bigger tires will be a lot of fun, especially if there is a lot of rough descending involved. For racing, I think I'm going to stick with 40s, for now. That said, I could see that some people would find their happy place racing on Thundero 44s.
First ride impressions...
On pavement, they felt like a big, old Cadillac - smooth, soft, and not very sporty. Being a little heavier than what I'm used to on this bike, they felt a little slower to spin up, but rolled fairly well once at a decent speed. I didn't get the sense that they are particularly fast, but also not drearily slow. The increased frontal area of the wider tire will have some impact on speed. That said, they don't feel as fast as the Thunder Burt 2.1s (which also test very well on BRR). On the dirt, the big Thunderos are at home. On a long climb with multiple rough and rocky sections, they didn't get bumped around as much as narrower ties, and floated through rough spots very similar to my MTB. On smoother sections of the climb, I didn't get a feeling of a weight penalty when rolling at a steady effort. Descending a twisty, rutted singletrack, with multiple spots of sand over hardpack, the cornering grip was confident enough that I don't think going with a knobbier front tire (like a Swampero) is necessary. Same as my experiment with the Thunder Burts, I didn't feel like I needed to be as picky about my line choice to avoid rocks and roughness.
For my typical local rides, which always include a mixture of surfaces and terrain, the bigger tires will be a lot of fun, especially if there is a lot of rough descending involved. For racing, I think I'm going to stick with 40s, for now. That said, I could see that some people would find their happy place racing on Thundero 44s.
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Last edited by Eric F; 04-24-24 at 03:09 PM.
