Only around 100 miles on these so far, but has been a mix of pavement, dirt, and gravel. Rolls pretty well on all 3, doesn't feel sluggish, and haven't had any grip issues to make me lose confidence. Wasn't the hardest tire to mount tubeless that I've used but also not the easiest, at least not initially. First time, had to use both the soapy water and tire lever trick, since I don't have an air compressor. But after riding a few miles to test them out I noticed there was a direction arrow on the tires and I had mounted the front tire the wrong way. Nothing on the tread makes these look direction specific, but I went ahead and pulled it it off to mount it correctly. I noticed that the tire had stretched out a bit, and remounting was a piece of cake. No soap or other tricks needed, just used my track pump and heard the beads snap on at around 40 psi. These show a max psi of over 70, I've tried them between 30-50 and they've been fine. I weigh around 215 lbs so I prefer a little more pressure but 40-45 feels good for me.
I got this tire to use in the winter in New Jersey, kind of like a snow tire for a car.
It's doing great in a combination of wet gravel, wet dirt and wet asphalt.
I use the tire with a tube and it's easy to get on and off the wheel. Off the wheel the tire has a sturdy feel to it and while I only have a couple hundred miles on it and can't yet vouch for its long term puncture resistance, I mentally feel confident that I'm not going to be out in the cold fixing a flat. To paraphrase Yogi Berra Bicycling is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.
This tire is exactly what I want/ need to get through crazy fluctuations in New Jersey weather and at a reasonable price.
I think these were my first Continental gravel tires. I bought two of these and immediately mounted them tubeless, one is fine, the other has a bulge or "warp" in one spot, about 8" long. No amount of inflating/deflating seems to want to cure this, I tried soapy water, etc, I don't think it's the mount. And I don't think I caused it when I mounted it.
Other than that, the tire is decent, especially for the money. Next time I'll keep the packaging and return it if this happens. Back to Maxxis tires I guess, never had any problems with those. I haven't bothered contacting Bike Tires Direct for any sort of compensation. I really have had GREAT experiences with them and I figure I just got a bad one this time.
This tire rolls well on pavement and still has great off road traction. The tires that came with my bike were wider but did not grip as well as these do. I have used these to commute on pavement as well as dirt roads and single track. This is my second pair and would highly recommend them.
