WTB
Since my friends and I bought gravel bikes, we have been taking them on the Marin County mountain bike trails in Northern California. If you know the terrain, you know it is steep, dry and loose. These tires have not let me down at all. I can climb as well as on my mtb bike, and although descending requires less bombing and more thoughtful lines, these tires hold their line very well. Looking forward to riding them in the Belgian Waffle Ride in San Diego next month.
I have this tire on my trek ds 8.4 as an upgrade, my bike originally had bontrager 700x38c and i have installed this wtb venture 700x50c coz i wanted to take on occasional single tracks and in my opinion its well worth the upgrade from the skinny 38c it had on before,it looks great on my bike with the tan wall as well. Speed-wise it feels about the same coz of its fast rolling center thread design given that its much wider than the bontrager, the grip is much improved as well giving me more confidence taking corners on gravel, dirt as well as on pavement. The only down side is that it definitely feels heavier ofcourse given that its a thicker tire but i also run with tubes..eventually I should be converting to tubeless. Overall i think its a great upgrade and i would recommend it to anyone who rides on pavement, gravel and occasional single tracks like me.
I bought two. The one I put on front snapped right on and pumped up easily with a hand pump and has held up well. However the one I installed on back had a perfect pinhole in the sidewall that wasn't going to seal up. I ordered a replacement and it had the same perfect pinhole in the sidewall as well.
I say it's batting 0.333 because I really like the tire on front. It didn't bite as well as I would have liked on some of those rowdy southern Colorado dirt roads and trails but it's fantastic on my country Kansas gravel roads.
Thanks to the Bike Direct team! I was putting these new tires on just a few days before I was leaving for The San Luis Valley. When I contacted them about my problem they overnighted another tire to me. I know the tire didn't pan out, but I was very happy that they took the extra step to do that for me. And they provided a return shipping label for the two defective tires. I'll be shopping with BTD again.
I got these to go on a new set of 650B carbon wheels on my Litespeed Gravel. I do like the looks and the sidewall color. I had a hard time just getting the tires onto the rim - very tight fit, broke a plastic tire lever - but once on there seating them tubeless was a snap. I've had no problem with them holding air (using Orange Seal Endurance sealant). They do feel a bit slower on pavement than the 700X37 file tread Rene Herse tires on the original wheels. But after a couple of rides I forgot about that and love the added confidence it gives in fast descents on loose surfaces. I even rode through a deeper than expected puddle on dirt recently and they had the grip to get me through the muddy bottom.
