Author: Guitar Ted

Out on the gravel, the Rutland showed again why it is a great tire for rough, course gravel. The roll-over abilities this tire exhibits grants the rider more control, more comfort, and less side-to-side vibrations.

The Touareg is a true to size, all-around choice for gravel, smooth dirt, or back roads where pavement might be less than ideal, while also showing incredible speed and rolling ability on typical pavement.

“… if all I ever did was fun, adventure based, shorter rides, I would take a pass, most likely, on these Endura shorts. But I will tell you this: If a long ride in hot weather with a lot of gravel is on my radar to tackle, these will be the first shorts out of my drawer to ride in.”

A great all-around tire here with good gravel potential. It does fall off a bit at the extreme end where gravel is loose and deep, but otherwise the Ehline seems to strike the best dirt-to-gravel balance of the three tires looked at here.

I liked these tires enough that I am probably going to run them out on this bike they are on. They aren’t as aggressively treaded as the other two models are that I am testing and with the varying conditions we see on gravel here, I feel the Terreno XC fits my needs best.

Where I was delighted with the Cannonball was on deteriorated gravel. finer gravel, or on dirt that was firm and fast. Here the Cannonball outright flew and was a blast to ride. The small, aggressive file tread bit into the harder dirt and found purchase on finer gravel which made cornering and climbing fun as well.

The Hutchinson Kraken tires would be my choice in a situation where I lived where dirt trails and/or mountains were available to ride, but my bike had to pull gravel road duties as well.

You have to see the value in the purpose of the Stormchaser to get the most out of this bike. Those who just don’t see riding in bad weather, cannot understand single speeding, or those who cannot buy into the unique characteristics of the Stormchaser should steer well clear of this bike.

Every year for the past several years, I have posted a “State of the Gravel Scene” series in January giving my personal opinions on where we’ve been and where we are going in terms of the gravel scene. When I opened up my look at the gravel scene in 2020 and beyond this past January, these were the first words I posted:

The profile of this tire, which is a low, peaked one, allows the Terreno XC to ride and conform right over crushed stones, making for a really smooth, controlled ride