Hi, I am planning on building up a Salsa Stormchaser gravel bike, but want to take it beyond just gravel roads and onto tracks and trails as well sometimes.

Since the rigid, drop bar bike and skinny tires don’t provide much control and confidence on their own, I want to put a reasonably grippy tire on the front.
Reasonably grippy, in terms of Gravel/XC that is ;-).

The specs list clearance of 50mm, but I figure I can safely push that a bit to 53mm or so. So I am looking for a tire listed as 2.0 or 2.1.
The problem is that most of those narrower tires are in cheap or hard compounds. When hitting some wet rocks or roots, I would like a bit more grip from the front, since I don’t find that the front tire matters so much on rolling resistance.

So far I see the Vittoria line, they claim good wet performance, but don’t list durometer, plus they are very heavy!

Maxxis Maxterra would be lovely, even Schwalbe Speedgrip

I wouldn’t read too much into the durometer numbers on tyres, they’re kinda an indirect measure of grip, softer numbers are generally gripper, but it’s not an absolute thing. So a softer tyre in the same range will be grippier, but you can’t say Brand-A 50a is more grippy than Brand-B 52a.

I wouldn’t worry about front end grip on a gravel bike, because of the weight distribution the back end tends to slide a long time before the front.

Donelly (Clemment) are doing 650bx50 versions of some of their CX tyres, the MSO is the intermediate conditions one.

My 2c though is that the transition between needing a 2.1+ tyre and needing flat bars and longer wheelbase are about the same. Drop bars and big tyres just made for a bike that’s slower everywhere. 700*40 to me feels like the sweet spot, maybe a bit more if riding a loaded bike over rough trails. Does depend what you want it for though, if you don’t have an XC hardtail as well then something more “XC hardtail with drop bars” might be what you’re after, but it will be harder work.

No idea if they can be had cheaper, but https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tyres-large/schwalbe-gone-speed-tubeless-easy-hs472-folding-tyre-275-x-200-inch-50584/ ?

WTB Ranger?

Thanks @hopster, I don’t know that tire came in that size. It’s a bit unclear whether they make the high grip in 2.0, but even WTB fast rolling isn’t to bad of compound I believe.

@n0b0dy0fftheg0at, I was long for something with a grippier compound in the wet, and some knobs for gravel and soft surfaces.

@thisisnotaspoon, you are correct, measured durometer isn’t everything, but all of the ones I see (except Spesh and Vittoria) use compounds listed as ~60a, or known low grip names, like Schwalbe Speedgrip.
So basically, I would take anything listed as less than 60a, or some kind of medium grip name, like Speedgrip, Maxterra etc.

I agree, I am keeping regular drop bars on this bike, not turning it into a drop bar mtb.
I maybe didn’t write it clearly, I am not looking for >2.1” tires. I am looking for 50-53mm tires, which are often labeled as 2.0 or 2.1” in their name.

I do like my 700×40 minimal tread tires for (gravel) road, but when the hits start coming harder, a bigger tire gives a lot more rim protection, in sand it offers better control, and on all soft or rough surfaces it will be faster than a narrower tire.
In the front, rolling resistance doesn’t count as much as in the rear, so adding some moderate knobs and slightly grippier compound, is a good trade off.
Rear sliding isn’t nearly as bad for my dental health as front sliding!

So personally, I do think that a gravel bike with ~2.0” tires can be the fastest, most fun solution on many tracks.

Donnelly explor mso are great. Very pricey, but very good in the tubeless flavour. They are as fast on road as my 700×40 nanos and just make my gravel bike huge fun and very playful off-road.

use compounds listed as ~60a, or known low grip names, like Schwalbe Speedgrip.

I’ve been using Schwalbe “perfomance” (aka lack of ……..) tyres on my gravel bike, over the summer a CX Comp on the front and winter a Smart Sam on the rear. Surprisingly not shit so Id realy not be particularly fussy over compounds.