These are the gravel bike tyres we would buy with our own cash – and nobody went narrower than 45mm

Gravel tyres are the most important part of any gravel bike setup. They dictate how fast you'll roll on tarmac, how much grip you’ll find off-road and how confident you’ll feel when that perfect ribbon of gravel road turns into a nightmarish ribbon of boggy singletrack.

There’s an overwhelming variety of tread patterns, casings, compounds and sizes on the market. The current pro-led obsession for ever-wider rubber also muddies the already gravelly waters. 

At BikeRadar, we’ve tested everything from lightweight race specials to mud-ready monsters. Many of the best feature in our comprehensive gravel tyres buyer’s guide – and that should be your first port of call when shopping for gravel tyres – but what about the ones our team would buy for their bikes?

These are the tyres our testers trust the most – and ride – when it’s their own cash on the line.

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Ollie Smith – Specialized Tracer TLR All Terrain Gravel

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Specialized revamped its entire tyre line-up back in March, releasing the ever-popular Tracer with a redesigned tread and more width options.

Originally a file-tread cyclocross tyre, the Tracer is now an intermediate-tread gravel tyre that sits between the slicker Pathfinder and the gnarlier Terra. 

The newest Tracer tread is similar to many all-round gravel tyres, with smaller central knobs that bulk out to a beefier size on the shoulder. 

This is the perfect tread for all but the wettest gravel rides.

I ride the 50mm version of these, and I’m loving the extra comfort over a 40 or 45mm gravel tyre that I’ve used up untill now. They also come in black or a very handsome tanwall, which looks great.

• Read more: I’m a UCI-level gravel racer and this is the big advantage of MTB tyres that nobody is talking about

With a claimed weight of 550g for the 50mm option, which uses a pretty supple 60tpi casing, and a price tag of only £45, these are winners for gravel racers.

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Warren Rossiter – Maxxis Rambler Hypr-X

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For the summer, I run Maxxis’ latest generation of the Rambler. The original Rambler has impressed me on a wealth of test bikes and I wanted to try the new one out on my own bike.

Earlier this year, Maxxis announced an update to the Rambler incorporating its Hypr-X compound – a blend of its fastest road compound and the MaxxSpeed compound from mountain biking.

The Hypr-X compound is a revelation on gravel – it’s soft, sticky and grips for days.

The Ramblers, in a 45mm width, have a wonderful feel on trails – they deform over stuttering surfaces, yet are fast on tarmac and smooth princess gravel stretches.

They are a bit weightier than the 40mm Tufo Swamperos I run in the winter, at 566g in the larger 45mm size, but the exemplary feel and the speed are worth the extra few grams.

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Simon von Bromley – Continental Terra Speed TR

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There’s no perfect gravel tyre, but my gravel riding typically mixes short blasts of off-road with plenty of tarmac in between. Given this, I want something fast, supple and with just enough grip to keep me upright.

Being a long-term fan of Continental’s road-going tyres, such as the ever-popular GP5000 S TR, Conti’s gravel equivalent – the Terra Speed TR – felt an obvious choice.

Following current trends, I coughed up for the largest available, 700x45c size (with tan sidewalls), although given my Kinesis GX Race gravel bike has a little more clearance to spare, the temptation to go wider still lingers.

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Oscar Huckle – Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M

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As Simon says, there isn’t a gravel tyre that can do it all, but the Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M comes pretty close, except in the thickest winter mud. 

A mixed-terrain option, this tyre has proven itself in a wealth of conditions, with excellent grip and a speedy, supple ride quality. 

While it might not be the lightest (a 700c x 50mm tyre weighs 706g), you don’t notice the weight on the trail, and the tough build translates into top durability. As a bonus, provided you have sufficient clearance, expect these tyres to plump up a little wider than stated. 

To put my money where my mouth is, I chose to run these tyres when I raced Badlands in 2024 – a 790km gravel ultra-endurance event in Granada, Spain with a gruelling 16,500m of elevation. 

The tyres didn’t put a foot wrong and were riotous fun in the loose, sandy ramblas (Spanish for dry riverbed) in the Gorafe and Tabernas deserts. I loved how I could put all my trust in these tyres' grip when caning it down some of the more technical, twisty descents. 

Pirelli is onto a winner with these tyres and I can’t recommend them highly enough. 

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Jack Luke – WTB Vulpine S

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I was supplied with a set of WTB Vulpine S tyres for a video – full disclosure, a video sponsored by WTB – in 2024, and haven’t felt remotely compelled to switch them since fitting.

The tyre, which is clearly inspired by the hugely popular (and successful) Specialized Pathfinder, pairs a slick raised central section with tightly packed side knobs. 

They feel terrific on smooth trails and are sufficiently grippy for damp sections. They’re not great for moorland bog bothering, but it’s the perfect tyre for smoother forestry access roads.

The tyres' road manners are also good. Unlike the Pathfinders, which I never fell for – in fact, I recall describing them as 'unnerving' in a bike review – the WTBs exhibit no awkward squirming when cornering on the shoulders of the tyre. 

Independent testing shows WTB’s tyres can’t match the best out there for outright speed, but their robust build, good prices and easy setup win me over every time.

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