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| GP5000's now available in 700 x 35mm (Inage courtesy of Continental Tires) |
However; I feel this is going to be changing soon now due to where road bikes trends are heading. Just this week Continental announced a 700 x 35mm GP5000 tire. A tire which, just not that long ago was only available in up to a 28mm width. Pirelli has already breached the mid-40mm barrier with one of the their road bike tire models. Vittoria just announced a 700 x 32mm road tire this week as well.
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| Trek Madone (Image courtesy of Trek Bikes) |
It is a fair question. Take as an example what my parameters for a gravel bike were when I was talking about building a custom gravel bike in 2010.
I wanted, amongst other things, 700 X 42mm tire clearance. With fenders. Now, since some road tires are being released in nearly this width, and in the case of Pirelli, beyond, how does a road bike from 2026 measure up as a possibility for what I wanted in an "all-roads" bike back in 2010?
Well, frankly the Madone sucks as an all-road choice from the standpoint of geometry. Another Trek bike is much, much better, and it is the Domane. Current maximum tire size on a Domane is 700 x 38mm. So, I'll use this model as my cross-reference to what I was looking for in an all-roads bike back in 2010.
The Domane features two of my critical geometry desires well. The bottom bracket drop is listed as being a healthy 78mm in my size 58cm. The head tube angle is listed at 72°. The chain stays are listed at 425mm.
In 2010 I was hoping for a 71.5° head tube angle, something in the realm of 72mm - 75mm bottom bracket drop, and 435mm chain stays. So, the Domane is tantalizingly close. Very close. And if Trek also opens up the tire clearances on the Domane, well.....that's a viable all roads bike right there.
I'm sure other brands are looking into this trend or the tire makers would not be making such big road tires. It kinda blows my mind when I think about all the customers who balked at 700 x 25mm road tires in the 2010's. Wow..... What a sea change!
So, yeah. You might start seeing "road bikes" showing up on this page in the near future if this trend continues as I am seeing things go.
7 comments:
Vittoria also has a Corsa Pro Control road tire that can be found on World Tour tour race bikes in the spring classics. Last year they released a 42mm version of that tire. Interestingly it was only available on a complete bike made by Cervelo. I am not sure if that is still the case.
I've already seen several folks running Domane road bikes at gravel events over the last 5 years. Makes a lot of sense unless you need mud clearance.
It is an interesting progression. It's cool to see road cycling embracing wider tires. I wonder what the end game will be... and if it'll end up cannibalizing gravel bike sales.
@MG- That is a good point on what might happen with road bike sales eating into the gravel category. I would guess the answer is that road will eat away at a lot of gravel bike sales due to gravel getting goofy/too much MTB influence and road bikes finally becoming more of what people can really find useful and practical.
Yes. I wonder if we will start to see two distinct categories emerge. One group basically wants a racing road bike with big tires. These folks tend to come from road cycling and maybe their local gravel rides include a significant amount of paved mileage. There are seeking gravel and dirt roads but they don't want to give up the snappy pedaling and razor sharp handling of their road bike. They really want to enjoy those sections of paved road. They need the big tires when they leave the tarmac and they are willing to tolerate the nervous handling of their road racing geo when they encounter steep or loose sections of unpaved road. These riders will also place a high priority on aerodynamic designs.
The other group is optimizing for the off road experience. They like having a drop bar bike to efficiently cover paved miles but their bike geo adopts some characteristics from the mtb world because the fun really begins when they leave the payment. They are willing to tolerate the potential sluggishness of massive tires or suspension on the road because they really prioritize stability and control in off road conditions. Their local gravel riding maybe doesn't involve much pavement and may even include singletrack forays on trails that have become a bit boring or tame on modern mtbs.
I was really sold on the idea of one drop bar bike for all roads but as MG said above it will be interesting to see how this evolves.
Oh yea - that aero-focused gravel bike they made. The Aspero-5. I would love to try some of those tires on my Lauf.
I've the Pirelli P-Zero Race 40s which measure 36mm on 18mm rims, replacing the sketchy 36mm Challenge Strada Bianca tires on my 2003 Dave Kirk. Fat road tire road bikes were a thing in the early oughts, Jan Heine's fault.
The Challenge(ing) tires have been around for years, not too good on wet pavement, otherwise fine, once you get the unprintable things on.
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