Tire me for some gravel

[Tickdoc]

Looks like I just backed into riding for a five man team in the native lands ride this march. 130 miles of mixed roads early in the spring is going to be rough on this guy who usually fattens up for winter.

I don't really wanta gravel bike, and But i have two road steeds that will take 28's, so which tire would be best?

[montag]

Haven't personally tried them, but I've heard great things about Panaracer's Gravelkings in 700x28.

[jmal]

^^^^I haven't tried the 28s, but the 40s are my favorite gravel tire.

[Luwabra]

Gravel king sk35's tubeless bang for the buck. Conti cyclocross speed fast and cheap, bon Jon pass on my short list

[Luwabra]

I should learn to read the whole post. Gravel king -28!!!

[Hilltopperny]

I have a set of 28 gravel kings that I used to use on my concours for gravel and such before I bought my dedicated gravel bike. Pm me if you want to try them out. They work well, so do the Panaracer pasela, but I only have a spare set of those in sizes 32 and 38.

[Mzilliox]

pick your favorite 32. these days i ant more than the GK 28, especially if i need to climb at all. the Clement LGG is a goodie, the 33mm. not sure if its more gravel or more paved, but The clement would be better for more gravel.

For mixed rides, my next gravel setup will be Bon Jon Jovis (35mm compass offering) on Hed Ardennes Plus rims with latex tubes. should be wide and cushy.

[bigbill]

Best of luck with the ride. I did a gravel grinder in North Texas (Holiday Ramble) this past weekend. I used my steel Gunnar Crosshairs with 35mm tires on the gravel, pavement, and dirt road ride. I certainly wouldn't have done it on a road bike, especially since the larger chunks of rock seem to build up in the turns. With the growing popularity of gravel rides, maybe you'd consider a cross bike in the near future. I was skeptical going into the weekend but it was a blast and I can't wait to do another one. I was fortunate to have the cross bike that I used as a commuter. Now it gets ridden as intended.

Oh, and Continental Cyclocross Speed in 35mm.

[Tickdoc]

March is a long ways away, maybe a nice little gravel grinder will pop up and entice me by then? just not a type of bike I ever thought to own. When I encounter gravel now it is by mistake scouting roads, and never seems pleasant. I can't imagine it is oh wow this is so much fun just with bigger tires. Hopefully by then I will garner more knowledge of this route to know just how gravelly it is. Thanks all for the refs and esp to hilltop for the offer.:beer:

[bigbill]

March is a long ways away, maybe a nice little gravel grinder will pop up and entice me by then? just not a type of bike I ever thought to own. When I encounter gravel now it is by mistake scouting roads, and never seems pleasant. I can't imagine it is oh wow this is so much fun just with bigger tires. Hopefully by then I will garner more knowledge of this route to know just how gravelly it is. Thanks all for the refs and esp to hilltop for the offer.:beer:

I didn't either. I was using my cross bike to ride the North East Texas Trail which is a mix of pavement, packed gravel, and unimproved dirt trail. I saw it as an opportunity to ride after work all winter with a headlight and no cars. It was fun going fast through the woods and when the gravel grinder popped up, I thought "if I can do it for 25 miles, I can do it for 50". It was fun, and with the 35mm tires around 60# to prevent pinch flats, it was a smooth ride. It's definitely not boring because you're constantly watching your line. There were about 100 riders on Saturday and I was one of about a dozen on steel frames with cantilever brakes.

[R3awak3n]

there is gravel and there is gravel. Some gravel rides will not be fun on 28s so I would look into a bike that fits bigger tires (32s at minimum) :). Also, no one in this site really needs an excuse to buy a new bike :D

[Luwabra]

Plug for a trek Crockett frameset for sale lol have ridden speed cx 38's on it

[eBAUMANN]

in 28c i would take a pasela over a GK, pretty sure the 28c GK is not the same block tread pattern as the larger sizes...or is it?

[Steve in SLO]

I am with EBAUMANN. I have Pasela 28s over many a dirt/gravel road in the Oregon hills and never had a problem or been limited by them. I am not a lightweight at 185#. They run pretty fast on the road and are reasonably light, too.
The Gravel king 28s actually have less tread than the Pasela

[jmal]

in 28c i would take a pasela over a GK, pretty sure the 28c GK is not the same block tread pattern as the larger sizes...or is it?

Just checked and you are correct. The GK SK is not available in 28.

[oldpotatoe]

Looks like I just backed into riding for a five man team in the native lands ride this march. 130 miles of mixed roads early in the spring is going to be rough on this guy who usually fattens up for winter.

I don't really wanta gravel bike, and But i have two road steeds that will take 28's, so which tire would be best?

Take smooth 28s or knobby-esque 28s? Fairly smooth dirt roads around here are no problem with road tubulars in 25c..really depends on the road(s) on that ride.

[Noah_Deuce]

Yeah, it would be good to know what the dirt looks like to choose your tire. I've run 28s on the dirt roads here around Boulder; I'd never do that for Dirty Kanza.

[unterhausen]

I did a lot of dirt riding in the mountains of Virginia with 25mm tubulars with no flats. Here in Central Pennsylvania where they take their gravel roads seriously, that would be a recipe for a pinch flat every ride, guaranteed. For a while I was riding some 30mm cx clinchers here that handled really well, but I got 20 pinch flats per season. Moved up to 38mm and now 40mm and that has stopped. We had a guy on the Wednesday night gravel ride show up on 28's, and he flatted over and over. Since it was a no drop ride in biting insect season, he finally gave up and rode back with a couple of escorts to help him change flats.