Category: Tires

The Ehline has impressive grip qualities, so if traction is a concern, this tire should have you covered. Gravel is handled well by the Ehline and it does everything else well enough that, in my opinion, it should be highly considered for those of you who use a mountain bike as a gravel bike and as a mountain bike.

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.

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.

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

Teravail has a wide range of gravel and mountain biking tires available, but these three represent some of their better choices for gravel travel, along with the narrower Rutlands already reviewed.

In the intro’s ‘First Impressions’ segment I shared that I thought these tires were very damped feeling. This is to say that the Kraken really feels smooth and helps to cut down on vibrations. That to me is the best quality of this tire yet.