Doesnt look like they do a 2.0 : p
I think you need space for 48 and fenders to fit a Burt. About 60mm minimum.
I wish Michelin made the Power Adventure in 650b. The 700 x 47 size on another bike feel really nice. Iād drop the Bokens in a heartbeat for those.
Not a fender person at this point in my development. Thunderburts are all out of stock here anyway. I really like those Fasttraks. Got them cheap too. Suspect they are duscontinued.
So I take it that the Confrere would be right out?
Hard to say, without knowing what one is.
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I had the OG Horizons. They were very decent. Put a few thousand miles on them then I think I gave them to @Orc
V.2 was not a nice.
V.1 Byway was better than V.1 Horizon. V.2 Byway was worse than V.1 but better than later Horizons
Vittoria Terreno Zero are pretty similar to V.2 Byway. Maybe a tad better ride quality but not as puncture resistant.
Terreno Dry aināt bad. Faster than Zero. Good grip.
IRC is basically a better Byway.
The rest of the WTB tires are pointless
New Conti is the bestā¦
Here is my long-winded review for an upcoming bleeurg.
The primary drawbacks have been largely the same and part of the reason Iāve struggled to find that Goldilocks tire for this size. The big one is what the actual options have been in the past and what compromises end up getting made by the manufacturer. WTB was the first to make 650b widely available and I regularly used their first two tires, the Horizon and the Byway. The first generation of these were big eye-openers for me and the reason I started to take 650b seriously. However, like many of the tires since then, they leaned more towards ādurableā and less towards āfastā. Vittoria, IRC, Maxxis, and a few others followed suit and have made some very decent but unremarkable tires. For commuting, light touring, or casual mixed surface riding, all of these are great, but if you are looking for to go fast, all fall far short when compared to many of the faster gravel tires in the 700x40mm range.
On the other end of the spectrum, Rene Herse produces the Switchback Hills in this size. It rides great and is quite a bit more efficient than more mainstream options. However, it comes with a pretty big Achilles heel. Durability and reliability are both compromised to give this tire its ride quality and speed. Anyone who has run Rene Herse tires long enough either experiences a blow-off, trashed sidewall, weeping sidewalls, or punctures that just wonāt properly seal (even with a plug) at a rate that is likely higher than riders who stuck with WTB. Donāt get me started on the knobby version they offer, itās just crap.
Well, when Continental finally updated all of their gravel tires they quietly released the Terra Hardpack. Unlike the Terra Trail which comes in just about any size a gravel rider could ask for, the Terra Hardpack comes in just two sizes. 700x50 and 650Bx50. It may be a strange choice from a company that generally releases a tire in just about every possible size imaginable, but a choice that is probably dead on.
Iām a firm believer that 650B tires only make sense if they are going to be close to that 2090mm circumference. Smaller and the bike can get too low to the ground and feel funky. Much bigger and you may as well just go up to a 700c tire.
So anyway, Conti made this tire. Does it deliver the goods? After all, it has some high expectations to live up to. Continental is known for making some impressive tires.
After putting some real miles on these, including last yearās Dirtbags100 ride, I have to say they deliver the goods.
As proven by independent testing, the Terra Hardpack is well in the āfastā category of gravel tires. Part well-designed tread pattern, part Conti rubber compound secret sauce, things just work really great. Unlike a lot of other 650b āgravelā tires, these have a very low profile center tread area that uses a really clever ramped āfish scaleā design. Itās no secret that taller un-ramped knobs are going to add some serious rolling resistance. In fact, itās been common knowledge for so long, that I canāt help but chuckle when I see a tire company designing a mixed-surface tire that looks like something off a mountain bike from the 90s.
This super fast center tread design still gives just enough braking traction to keep things under control when you need to scrub some speed underbiking. At the edges of the tire, there are a series of tightly packed shoulder knobs that increase in height as they move towards the edges. The transition from center to corner knob is very predictable and the outermost knobs are properly buttressed and donāt squirm at all. This makes for a tire that can punch above itās class when riding off-road.
On top of all of that, tubeless set up was easy and they even work just fine with my hookless rims. That last bit is particularly awesome because the other universal drawback of any tire this size is going to be the fact that they run a bit on the heavy side. I was able to use a super light hookless rim to help offset that penalty.
In a nutshell, is exactly the type of design you want for fast mixed-surface rides with an emphasis on rougher stuff like ATV trails and railroad ballast.
Iām an unapologetic tire nerd and when it comes to tires for drop bar bikes, even more so. This remains my go-to tire for many uses and is absolutely the only choice for me in this size.
āBest in classā can be a bold descriptor, but in this case, I think itās warranted.
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very rad that they use black chili for this and offer both a cream and transparent gumwall in different ways
Yes, I used them for a while. I just donāt get fat tires, Iām afraid; they never seemed all that fast or supple to me, they were just a pair of blocks of rubber.
I swapped them out for a pair of schwalbe millipedes (g-zero? The ones with the tiny bumps) which Iām much happier with.
The Terra hardpack looks too bald for my application, the Terra Trail looks better but only at 47mm. Hmmm.
This thread is useless without WEIGHTS
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This is true
Iām quite pleased with how the Terra Hardpacks roll as well. My main comparison is the RH Babyshoe Pass. I wish Conti made a 42mm version (maybe with just fish scale and no shoulder knobs). In the 50mm size, I find itās tricky to find a pressure thatās supple but not bouncy for me.
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That was the Horizons for me. The pressure that made them feel comfortable was a little too bouncy and felt soft in the turns. The pressure that made them less bouncy and less soft in the turns wasnāt any more comfortable than a narrower 700c tire (atmo) and they always felt slower than something like that.
Well I know what the Black Mountain Road+ is getting when I finally wear through the existing Gravelkings.
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I am very curious of the actual width of the Terra Hardpack in 650bx2.0?
The Terra Hardpack tread is (as near as I can tell from pics) exactly the same as the previous Speed King II. I and @halbritt have both had good experience with that tire.
The Speed King II was availabe 29x2.2 and 650bx2.2. But with how Conti seems to size their tires they ended up being narrower than that, at least in my experience. My 2.2 ended up not far from 50mm actual width.
So I am very curious if the Terra Hardpack 650b x 50 is actually narrower than advertised, or if it is more true-to-size.
True to size on some i25 hookless rims.
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Excellent, thanks!