Note: WTB sent over a pair of the 700 x 50mm Byway tires and a pair of the 700 x 52mm Course tires for test and review. Guitar Ted Productions was neither paid or bribed for this review. All thoughts and opinions are Guitar Ted's.
In my First Impressions article on the new WTB aero gravel tires, I noted that the Course was being run at 35psi. I did lower the pressure to around 30psi and for my last run I was in the upper 20's psi. I'll get to what this did for the ride quality and performance of this tire shortly.
I have run this tire on similar roads and terrain as I have the Byway. That being decomposed gravel, dirt, pavement, broken up pavement, and gravel. Something a little different from the Byway test was an addition of some dirt single track and deep, fresh gravel which was ridden with the Course tires.
Conditions were mostly dry to very dry. I haven't run this tire through any mud to speak of, but I have found that the rounded profile of this tire has a very pronounced effect on handling in looser terrain. So, what little wet ground was ridden over provided me with a hint as to how this tire will handle mud.
The rounded profile, an integral part of this tire's aero performance, does cause this tire to be predisposed to lack lateral stability. The knobs are there, yes, but in my testing, even at lower pressures, you are only riding on the central strip of tread. Those side knobs?...
Oh! Wait, aren't those "side knobs" actually those aero doohickeys? Yes, those are the aero features which are supposed to help detach the air flow over the tire. So, in reality, there aren't really any side knobs for cornering here. Besides, the way those are arranged on the casing, you'd have to lean over pretty far to get them engaged in the surface anyway. .
So, these tires are really about volume and aero. The Byway and this Course tire do ride nicely, that much I'll give them. The aero part? Again, I have no way to quantify this aspect of these tires. Maybe there is something to this.
I need to report on the current width of these tires which is 51.3mm on the WTB CGR i23 rims. Yes, the slightly narrower rim seems to hold back a true 52mm measurement, but not by much. A wider rim internally might prove to be a better fit here, this is true, but these are the wheels I had available at the time for testing.
Now, as far as ride quality goes on gravel I will say again that the tire is damped well. It is not the best at this quality, but the Course and Byway are near the top of tires I have tried in this regard. The Course is also fast rolling, maybe a tic off the Byway. In my roll down test the Course did not fare as well as the Byway on the paved portion, but it did just as well on the gravel portion of the test. The Course is a better rolling tire than most gravel tires I have tested.
This is the kind of road surface where aero has no bearing, but a supple casing and a good design will shine. The Course was above average in these conditions. Again, like the Byway, these tires did not squirt out rocks sideways as many tires will do in these conditions. I feel this speaks to the casing design and construction being above the average for gravel tires.
On smoother gravel the tire's speed was quite noticeable. Again, whether the aero factor played into this I cannot say. I just know these tires seemed very free to roll and I was able to sustain speed and coasting to a greater degree than I would see with many other gravel tires I have tried.
Other soft surfaces were simply average on these tires. Dirt is fine, as long as it isn't loamy. loose over hard pack, or sandy. The roundness of the casing just is not going to allow you to put down a very large contact patch given the girth of the casing. Add in how these tires do not do well at the lower end of the pressure range and it all points to a tire which is really about speed over dry, harder gravel and dirt surfaces.
Okay, the next time I update this review it will be a final look at both the Byway and the Course tires. Stay tuned....
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