Is a 35mm tyre too narrow for a gravel bike?

ralph.dickinson

I'm consodering this bike, but some people have said that 35mm is too narrow for a gravel bike...

Thought Id see what people think...

https://www.rourkecycles.co.uk/products/orro-terra-gravel-7000

As always, thanks!

me-109

Depends on where you want to ride. I did find 30mm cross tyres didn't have enough volume and punctured readily. Moved to 35mm and have been much better, but can't ride moorland trails downhill as fast as a fatter tyred MTB. Work great on cinder trails and old railway tracks. They don't add much weight and resistance to compromise road work (too much) either.

mrb123

It really depends on the gravel!

I've happily used 32mm tyres on the old railway line paths round here and plenty of people will have gone off road on narrower tyres than that.

If you're looking at riding on rougher tracks and trails then you might want to go a bit bigger.

I was planning to use 38mm tyres for the Dirty Reiver this year and wouldn't have wanted to be on anything much narrower, but that's a very long day on gravel with some bits that are fairly rough.

mrb123

The Orro looks great by the way.

I spotted one round here the other day and thought the silver looked very smart.

I recently picked up one of the carbon Terra models which I'm very pleased with.

ralph.dickinson

me-109 said:

Depends on where you want to ride. I did find 30mm cross tyres didn't have enough volume and punctured readily. Moved to 35mm and have been much better, but can't ride moorland trails downhill as fast as a fatter tyred MTB. Work great on cinder trails and old railway tracks. They don't add much weight and resistance to compromise road work (too much) either.

I live in the forest of dean, so mainly forest metal roads, gravel tracks and hardpack

I was looking at WTB as a better tyre option...
https://www.wtb.com/products/cross-boss

DeVlaeminck

Personally I think 35mm is enough - just slow down a bit if it gets too rough - some terrain is really MTB territory and you can get a gravel bike that can cope a bit better bit at the cost of speed on easier terrain.

joe_totale-2

35mm is absolutely fine. I've used 35mm CX tyres on a number of different off road environments throughout the South East and any issues have been down to my incompetence, not the tyres.
I could fit bigger but there's no point whilst there's plenty of life left in my current tyres.

More important is running them tubeless and adjusting the pressures when required for the type of terrain you're on.

mrfpb

I found 35 mm was a bit too narrow for winter mud. Most of the year I find 28mm enough on rough canal paths. There is a patch of path made of loose rocks near me that I can't ride across, but everything else I can manage.

joeyhalloran

As others have said, it depends on your gravel.

I did dirty reiver last year on 35mm G-ones and was absolutely fine, but that is very smooth for "gravel" for most of the day (seemed a lot smoother than a lot of the roads these days!)\

However, I have done some local paths in the summer over cracked and dried mud and it gets pretty uncomfortable on 35mms after a while.

DeVlaeminck

mrfpb said:

I found 35 mm was a bit too narrow for winter mud. Most of the year I find 28mm enough on rough canal paths. There is a patch of path made of loose rocks near me that I can't ride across, but everything else I can manage.

Don't you find mud is more down to tread than width?

mrb123

DeVlaeminck said:

mrfpb said:

I found 35 mm was a bit too narrow for winter mud. Most of the year I find 28mm enough on rough canal paths. There is a patch of path made of loose rocks near me that I can't ride across, but everything else I can manage.

Don't you find mud is more down to tread than width?

Quite. Cyclocross riders are limited to 33mm tyres and they manage ok in mud. Arguably the narrower tyres cut through the mud and find traction better.