There’s an interesting article up on Gravel Cyclist:
“Has Gravel Riding Got You Over-Tired / Over-Tyred? – By Big Head Todd”

In the article the author, Big Head Todd, vents a bit about the trend towards ever more aggressive tyres on gravel bikes these days, whether that be people adding them because they think they need them or because bicycle manufacturers add them as spec.

Reading through it, I nodded my head a lot because, inexperienced as I was/am with tyre choice, I’ve fallen into the same trap not too long ago and it took many rides on all kinds of terrain to take a step back and rethink how much tread I actually need.

My gravel bike sports a pair of WTB Nano 40 right now. These are absolute overkill for a lot of the gravel roads that I encounter. The Specialized Pathfinder Pro with 38 mm on my second wheel set (slick center channel and fairly tame knobs on the sides), are far more appropriate and offer much more versatility. The reason the Nano 40 spend more time on my bike than the Pathfinders, is because in recent months, I’ve been riding on terrain that would typically be considered MTB territory most of the time. And even if I leave out the occasional section of tame single track, I kind of enjoy going up challenging climbs with this bike; loose ground, roots, and sometimes muddy paths, where I struggle to find traction even with the WTB Nano 40 at low pressures and a gearing of 30 in the front and 40 in the back.

The Specialized Pathfinder Pro are an utterly delightful bit of rubber. Very much comparable to the excellent Donnelly X’Plor MSO 40 mm but more durable. They take a bit of getting used to, in that finding the right tyre pressure for the right terrain and rider/system weight isn’t as simple as with other tyres. Once I had a rough idea about that, it was simple to do the first half of a ride on gravel with stupid low pressures, letting the Pathfinder Pro climb really well and spend the second part of the ride blasting down a hill on tarmac, the tyres inflated to a higher pressure.

I’m glad that I have the WTB Nano 40 but at the same time, it would have been nice to know and understand the true capabilities of seemingly tame gravel tyres.
So if you’re looking for a good set of rubber for your do-it-all bike, think hard on where you ride and do some research before defaulting to the monster truck option.

So that was an interesting ride on Saturday. Due to poor time management and lots of rain, I didn’t manage to go for a ride during the week. On Saturday there was heavy rain in the morning but the skies opened up towards the afternoon and Battle Cat and I were itching to go for a ride on wet forest roads. 😄

The ride started on familiar steep trails and forest roads, not surprising but still taxing.

After the first two hundred meters of climbing on sometimes tricky terrain—the WTB Nano 40 tyres had their work cut out of them—I stopped on a meadow for a couple of bites of energy bar and to take some obligatory photos of my bike mid-ride. Obligatory.

I rode past a bunch of young, curious cows who followed me to the place where I had stopped. Two of them were quite insistent to get face scritches and I obliged.
What I didn’t expect, though, was that I had to go over their pasture to continue on my planned route and I expected even less that they’d attempt to join me.

After that things went downhill quickly by going uphill too steeply.
Turns Out™ I had planned this next part of the route badly. For some reason the gradient data Komoot (and Open Street Maps) has for that part of the forest road, is so terribly off that a section where I expected to ride up a ~ 15% gradient—steep but not impossible—was actually a rarely used forestry operation road carved up by heavy machinery and rain with a 25%+ gradient.

Not fun. I pushed or carried my bike uphill for over a kilometre. At the top, which was also the highest point of yesterday’s tour, I was exhausted and panting like a furry dog in the midst of summer. Not good.

The following 10 km compensated me for that slog with beautiful view and incredible riding over everything from flowy double track, challenging single track, even more challenging—for a gravel bike—uphill single track over rocks and roots and finally a long and fast descent towards the Schlossberg on fire roads.

It was my first time at the viewpoint next to the tram on the Schlossberg and I enjoyed seeing the city I now live in from yet another perspective.

Standing there, eating the rest of my energy bar, I had to concede that the climbs at the start of the tour combined with the gruelling ascent pushing the bike robbed me of so much energy, that finishing the ride on the planned route (back through the forest) wasn’t possible and so I rode home on the road … a bit annoyed because chunky gravel tyres make riding on tarmac feel like wading through molasses but I was still happy overall.