Gravel Tire Tread Patterns Are Not Very Important

Pirelli Cinturato H gravel tires

How Much Tread Does A Gravel Tire Really Need?

I'm pretty sure this story has been shared here before, but several years ago I had an audience with one of the more famous bicycle tire designers in the industry. He was telling me how the latest offering from the company he worked for was developed. I asked him how he came up with new tread patterns and how important were the new designs. His answer was a bit eye-opening. He said flatly, "Tire tread design is a fashion business."

He went on to explain the idea was to engender a feeling about how a tire might perform based upon how it looked. What the tread actually does is secondary. Important, but not the 'main thing'. His example was from the motorcycle world. He said if you look at most MX tires, they all look pretty much the same from a tread design standpoint because what actually works well in their world has been figured out. There is not much room for anything radically different looking than big, square tread blocks. MX tires are function over fashion. 

However, if bicycles are a fashion business, to any degree, then perhaps this is most exemplified in tire design. It seems that anything which has been proven in design is boring, and what people 'see with their eyes' is more important than what actually works on the road, trail, in in this case, out on gravel.

(L-R) Conti Terra Adventure, Ritchey WCS Speedmax

Take for example the lowly road file tread pattern. It was a design which was used on all roads - Gravel, paved, and on dirt. It was the tire no one questioned for decades.

Advancements were made in construction, rubber compound, and materials, but that file tread pattern was the rule of the day for a long, long time. Why? It worked. Boring......but it worked.

Some of the most iconic MTB patterns were simple blocks. Specialized's Ground Control - the one you've likely never seen if you are under 30 years of age, was pretty much just blocks. But it was lauded for its ability to do almost anything off-road on a mountain bike. Then fashion came along and, well.... 

I've always had the feeling that we don't need a lot of tread on our gravel tires. However; looking at many tread patterns for gravel, you'd think the opposite was true. Certainly there are examples of minimalist tread patterns out there, and those are almost always thought of as tread patterns for mostly paved surfaces, or for racing. 

However; at least where I live, where we have crushed rock roads coming out of the woodwork all around us, I feel tread blocks and weird patterns are a waste of time. They don't really do much of anything. Now, are there tires I like, maybe even love, which have big, aggressive tread blocks? Yes, but the tread is superfluous to the reasons why I like the tires, A "good gravel tire" is defined by other, much more important things than what you see molded into the casing.

Image courtesy of Maxxis Tires

 Things like casing construction, and rubber compound play a much larger role in how a tire performs, feels, and survives the miles than does tread pattern. Casing construction, and the materials used in the casing, make a tire ride well, or grip better. The casing has a big influence on the tire's profile as it sits on a rim. This matters when the rubber hits the road, be it gravel, dirt, or pavement.

Tire compound plays a role in tire durability, grip, and rolling resistance. Tread patterns influence these things as well, but you'd be surprised how little this matters, especially in the gravel tire market.

The best gravel tires I've ever ridden, and I've ridden a LOT of different tires, all have wildly differing tread patterns, but they all have similar ride feel and performance on gravel. The tread patterns just do not seem to matter all that much. 

I'm sure there are many people who will disagree, but for me, the proof is in the riding. Tread patterns do influence the way a tire rides and performs, but in the end, this is not what really matters. Unless the pattern is seriously flawed, I really don't feel tread pattern is of all that much importance for the kind of riding I do most.