Can mountain bike tires be faster than gravel tires in a gravel race?

Question

Is it a fact that mountain bike tires can prove to be faster than gravel tires at the Unbound and in races in general?

Answer 1

Yes, it can be true. It is possible that Lightweight CrossCountry mountain bike tires have thinner side walls which gives them a lower rolling resistance than gravel tires while not sacrificing the high volume puncture resistance. This narrowed logic, argues that mountain bike tires roll faster on dry conditions where most of Unbound’s course is off-road.

Comments

I’m not fast, I’ll never be fast…but I will put deep road wheels and XC tires on my gravel bike because it looks rad as hell.

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I ran the conti race kings in my past gravel race this weekend based on this content and while I'm no elite racer - those tires chewed up the terrain. The descents especially were comfortable and confident allowing me to go measurably faster then when I had 45mm gravel tires. Would love content on tire strategy alone.

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I'm a simple man. I see Dylan run Conti Race King, I buy Conti Race King.

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A lot of people forget that bigger tyre is also taller. With a tyre this tall, it's no longer an light bulb with an trailing rim, but the side wall of that tyre itself should be considered some kind of "rim". You should probably think the first 1/3 of that tyre as the traditional light bulb but the rest 2/3 actually a perfect 105% rim. I suspect this a long time, as when you see from a distance, from the sideview, an MTB tyre with an MTB wheel  looks just like a deep section road wheel with road tyre. Of course this is just my speculation, to get an answer for this, you might try go the CFD route, because the CFD has the advantage of giving you a full scale idea of what's going on at every part of the system, instead of the wind tunnel just a number without any why. Your testing is kind of ground-breaking. Maybe try to get in touch with some people in the academic circle? Your quest could make an interesting research topic for someone who happen to know how to write a paper.

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Having run that tyre set up on my XC bike for a few years I can state that they are surprisingly good in mud, the rear has all the traction I want until its time to fit winter knobblies.

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Dylan, any idea where to still get the non-E25 rated Conti Race King Protections?  They are slightly faster per BRR site but they kept the same part number so really hard to tell from retailers websites which one they are selling.  Which are you using, original or the newer E25's?

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I followed suit with a dropbar converted MTB for a couple of races already this year. Used the racekings as well and it was a solid choice.

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Congratulations! 10th place @Unbound with aero optimized 2.2 tires! Seems like we will see such wide MTB tires on Gravel bikes in the near future more often. Well done