Elite racing and the industry are pushing wider tyres, but our survey describes a highly practical approach to what you ride and why.
Dave Rome, Josh Weinberg, Suvi Loponen
Spend enough time around modern gravel bikes and you could be forgiven for thinking any bike with under 50 mm of tyre clearance is obsolete.
Pro racers are increasingly borrowing from XC mountain biking, brands are pushing ever-larger frame clearances, and broader gravel coverage now treats 45 mm tyres as a conservative choice. Now, tyres that would have looked wildly out of place on a drop-bar bike a few years ago are a common sight beneath some of the fastest riders in the sport.
That shift has come directly from the sharp end of gravel racing. In that setting, bigger tyres offer some specific advantages: more grip, lower pressures, improved flat protection, and greater control when races descend into rough, technical chaos. As modern gravel racing has become faster and more aggressive, tyre choice has increasingly become part of the tactical equation.
But based on more than 680 Escape Collective survey responses, most riders haven’t followed these trends nearly as far as the conversation around gravel tyres might lead you to expect.
More than anything, the results suggest gravel riding is continuing to fragment into multiple interpretations of the sport, from more road-focused, mixed-surface riding through to something remarkably close to what could be seen as drop-bar cross-country mountain biking. The results also offer up another question: Has the term gravel become so broad it has outgrown the point of being a useful definition?
From tyre widths and tread patterns to frame clearance and setup preferences, we wanted to find out how Escape Collective members are actually tackling the concept of gravel, and whether the industry’s push toward ever-larger tyres truly reflects the way most people use their bikes.
What is pushing tyres wider?
If you feel like you’re missing out by not fitting 54 mm tyres, it’s worth understanding why pros have pushed things wider*.
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