And The Award for the Next Marketing Trend Goes to……
Next Marketing Trend in Cycling????
First there were extremely wide handlebars and then built-up shifter levers. Those mysteriously disappeared after all the influencers went quiet on them. Why don’t they talk about them anymore? Why don’t they use them personally anymore? Did they ever??
So, let us talk about what I think it the most recent Marketing trend that at time makes sense, but in 90% of situations simply does not.
What I am talking about is massively wide gravel tires. Tires that are bigger than Mountain Bike tires were not too long ago.
Let us start with the short list of why these can make sense and then move onto the much longer list of why they do not.
PROS
Extremely Comfortable (allows a much higher volume of air resulting in lower pressure)
Extremely Stable (the wider the tire the more stable)
Good Traction (all of the 50+ tires I have seen making noise have some amount of tread)
CONS
Extremely Slow (the rolling resistance is off the charts)
Extremely Heavy (people spend a fortune on a lightweight bike and then throw the heaviest tire they can find on them not to mention the 4-5 ounces of sealant that goes in them)
Extremely Sluggish Acceleration
Much Slower to get to Speed
Cornering requires a much larger wider approach
Climbs like it has a boat anchor
Descending with that much rubber contact can be dangerous, especially first timers, and is slower
Aerodynamic as a brick
To be honest, most races have very small amounts of the overall race where 50+ tires are the better choice, but I would say that is 10% or less in most U.S. gravel races. Now for races like The Rift or Unbound on a bad day, go for it makes complete sense.
However, for most races, which are a combination of hard packed dirt, with champagne gravel, with pavement thrown in, a narrower tire just makes more sense. For people competing for a podium spot, the amount of wattage needed on hard pack or pavement, for a wide tire to keep up with a narrower tire is off the charts. And in a straight up sprint finish that is probably not going to happen.
I have a feeling like this is going to be like Fat Bikes. The people that buy wide tires for the right reasons will stick with them. That is 10% of people. I firmly believe the other 90% will go back to 45mm or narrower once the noise quiets down.
