Three Maxxis Gravel Tires

Last weekend was the Super Bowl of “gravel.” Thousands of folks descended upon Emporia, Kansas to race their drop bar bikes on unpaved roads. Unbound pits seasoned pros and amateurs alike against flint-covered washboards in the dead center of the contiguous United States with distances from 25 to 350 miles. The marquee event covers 200 miles, and was won last year by marathon XC phenom Keegan Swenson, and this year by ex-Road World Tour-er turned ultra tourer Lachlan Morton. As with the runup to many big events, that means we’ve seen heaps of new gear launching: Shimano bringing 12-speed Di2 to gravel, Easton and DT Swiss with wheels promising aero gains for bigger tires and comfort, and plenty of other new drop bar tech being teased and raced before release.

The roads around Emporia are what I’d assume many people picture if you tell them you ride “gravel”. One to two carwidths of ¾” crush, winding through the countryside. Or in the case of Kansas, not winding thanks to Thomas Jefferson (and the Land Ordinance of 1785), where riders should expect a significant amount of straight roads punctuated by 90-degree turns, and the occasional oblique rail trail or river to mix things up. It's not exactly the adrenaline-fueled experience offered by some forms of mountain biking, that's for sure.

The recent rise and popularity of “gravel” shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone who’s tried the bikes, though. Significantly broader in their capabilities and more comfortable than road bikes, often with simpler drivetrains and occasionally even flat bars, they’re more approachable than ‘real’ road bikes for most folks. They’re also much more efficient and faster than mountain bikes on mild terrain – it’s a combination that makes them appropriate for a huge amount of people with road bikes, a fair contingent of mountain bikers interested in drop bars, commuters, and a whole heap of folks just getting in to cycling. If you haven’t dipped a toe in the gravel waters, give it a shot before you talk too much trash.

If Kansas roads still sound boring to you, I’m here to tell you there’s more to ‘gravel’ than just getting to the next quarter section or township on roads that haven’t been paved. This is a bit of a series: I started using pizza and then put all things biking onto a spectrum of bikes akin to the electromagnetic spectrum. But what differentiates different styles of gravel biking along this spectrum? Unlike mountain bikes, you can’t really use travel numbers; they’re all rigid(ish) so it largely comes down to geometry and tires*.

*Yes, there’s different types of suspension, and frames vary quite widely beyond geometry differences. But this wouldn’t be a series if we had time to talk about all of it all at once.

Maxxis Gravel Tires

Given the rise in popularity of gravel, it's no surprise to see Maxxis provides a full assortment of tread patterns and widths. Ignoring the near-slick options and those geared at cyclocross racing, we’re left with – from left to right on our proverbial spectrum of bicycles – the race-oriented Reaver, jack-of-all-trades Rambler, and knobby Ravager. I’ve been swapping around the lineup in 40c, 45c, and 50c respectively for a few months, and I might have learned a few things.

40c Reaver

The fastest rolling tire of the bunch, the recently launched Reaver is geared towards gravel racing. With a tread pattern reminiscent of its XC sibling the Aspen, the Reaver delivers on its race pedigree and intentions – it’s a very fast rolling tire with a light casing that excels on that stereotypical “gravel” and tarmac. The minimal cornering knobs are definitely there, and will help out, but don’t expect these tires to be confidence inspiring on loose terrain. Cornering and braking is skittish, but it's predictable and manageable, and I’d say a fair trade-off for the lack of rolling resistance.

I put more mileage on the Reaver than any other tire here; this is a function of my standard gravel rides where there’s a fair amount of sealed surface to link things together, and nothing too rough. Or more often than not, I’m towing a trailer up an awful 14% hill to daycare, and I want to save every single gram and watt of resistance I can. It’s hard enough already. What’s surprised me about the Reaver is the relatively soft compound, I don’t track specific mileage on tires, but I’d wager I've ridden around 1,000 kilometers on this pair and the rear is pretty much done.

45c Rambler

The Rambler is the classic gravel tire, if there is such a thing. Small low-profile knobs in the center with some moderate side knobs give a pseudo semi-slick profile. The best part of the Rambler is also the worst part: it's a tire made of compromises. It's not very fast, but it's also not particularly grippy. It's neither light nor heavy. It’s a tire that is rarely perfect for what you’re doing, but it’s also passable across an incredibly wide range of terrain from pavement to rough stuff. The Rambler is supported by a casing that’s a bit heavy, but supple and comfortable.

Quixotically, it was my least favorite and consequently least ridden tire of the three, but it would be my recommendation for anyone new to gravel. It’s a solid performing tire that wore well, covers the broadest range of gravel terrain, and gives a great platform to start to refine your taste in terrain and tires. If you’re rarely in a hurry, your rides are social in nature, or you want a tire that’ll very rarely be the completely wrong tire, the Ramblers are a great option.

50c Ravager

The Ravager is the least appropriate for most of my riding, and the tire I knew I was taking to California as soon as that trip started to percolate. Relatively speaking, it’s a big, heavy, slow-rolling tire with a beefy casing and while they’re definitely not a mountain bike tire, in a bigger size you’re starting to toe that line. It’s no surprise that these are the tire the genre-edging Kona Ouroboros came equipped with. I’ve really warmed up to the Ravager; it was a fantastic tire to for the mountain-bike-lite trails I commonly found myself on while fully loaded, and it's still much faster on tarmac or pea gravel than any mountain bike tire I’d run.

Given my typical rides I wasn't expecting to like or use the Ravager often, but it quickly turned into a tire I used regularly. I wondered going into the Ravager review if it'd unlock any new terrain or connectors that I previously shied away from, and it has.

Conclusions

All three sets of tires here behave quite differently, fill different niches, and you can very likely find one that suits your riding style. I’m a fan of both the Reaver and Ravager and I will recommend the Rambler to anyone looking for a great “one tire fits most riding” set.

Overall, I didn’t find anything groundbreaking here, but I was suprised by the Ravagers, interested in the utility of the compromised Ramblers, and very much enjoyed the fast-as Reavers.

And maybe you've picked up on the idea that “gravel” as a genre is more than just gravel and is instead a broad range of cycling akin in many ways to how mountain biking covers everything from folks running Aspens on rigid bikes to downhill World Cup. If all you know is mountain bikes (or to keep our analogy going, if all you know is visible light), any semblance of nuance for other types of bikes may get lost, when in fact there’s a whole other rainbow to explore, and you can roll right out your front door to explore it on a "gravel" bike.