Continental’s latest addition to their gravel race tire household – the Terra Journey – leans on mountain bike tire tech to tackle ever-tougher racing. Not solely is the brand new Conti Terra Journey tread design clearly influenced by fast-rolling however succesful XC tires, and even provided in XC widths. Continental additionally immediately applies the very same MTB building to construct a troublesome and grippy gravel tire for all-around driving and racing.
Plus, Conti even adapts their current, easy MTB tire labeling that makes it tremendous straightforward to choose the proper tire at a look. And now this even hints at new sooner gravel tires that can be coming very quickly…
Continental Terra Journey technical gravel bike racing tires
This new Continental Terra Journey gravel bike tire is supposed to fill within the hole between gravel and mountain bike racing. And albeit, it even blurs the traces a bit with an open tread design that’s completely satisfied in tender or moist situations, and sizes as much as 700c x 55mm which is successfully a 29×2.1″ MTB tire.
Continental describes the brand new Terra Journey as a shift to supporting gravel riders heading into extra numerous off-road terrain, whereas sustaining road-like effectivity for these unavoidable stretches of tarmac.
What’s new?
The tread is the obvious shift for the Continental Terra gravel household. Whereas it appears to be like fairly aggressive for a gravel tire in renderings, the brand new Terra Journey remains to be a low-profile gravel racing tire design with knobs which are just a few mm tall. It includes a 3+3+4 middle block format with a largely steady centerline for quick rolling, however sufficient house between the lugs for self-cleaning.
Take a better take a look at these knobs although, and the MTB inspiration is obvious.
The tread sample makes use of equally blocky-shaped lugs like their MTB tires. The lugs all function stepped designs with further edges for extra grip. And people larger shoulder knobs get each sipes up prime for further grip and buttressed sides for cornering assist. It’s all performed at a small scale in comparison with a path tire, however a lot of the identical mountain bike tire design ideas are there.
Then, the brand new Terra Journey immediately copies the most recent Conti MTB sidewall labeling, filling in as much as 4 dots & as much as 3 hexagons to notice rubber compound and casing reinforcement, respectively. In actual fact, the development of the Terra Journey just isn’t really new in any respect.
The stable middle dot plus one stable outer dot means the identical Grip compound as on the mountain bike. A rubber that’s fairly tender for a gravel tire, but nonetheless delivering quick, environment friendly rolling blended with moist situations grip.
The one stable hexagon means Path casing, which is a large textile breaker materials for puncture safety below the tread, plus an additional sidewall reinforcement layer that extends all the best way from the bead as much as the breaker.
So, how does it journey?
Off-Highway Gravel Driving Evaluate
I’ve solely had the brand new 45mm Terra Journey tires for a couple of week, however have nonetheless managed to present them a stable shakedown – each on gravel roads and a mixture of mountain bike trails. I’m driving the 45s that Conti envisions for gentle & quick gravel driving (claimed 540g), however are a lot large for nearly any unladen rides.
If you’re venturing into bikepacking, that’s the place the 50mm might be finest suited (claimed 620g). And depart the massive 55mm model (claimed 730g) for severe off-road journeys or ultra-distance backcountry racing.
My normal feeling to date is that the middle tread does roll effectively, even with the sticky Grip rubber that comes immediately from MTB. And I’ve already smashed some poor carbon rims on rocks, and are available away with none hassle because of the Path casing.
The tire gives nice grip on hardback and tender loamy trails, and predictable cornering in unfastened gravel and even mud. And whereas it packs up at first with mud as any small knobby will do, a second on exhausting floor once more and it sheds mud very well.
Can I additionally simply say, I’m psyched that Continental now offers the gravel tires the easy logical sidewall labels that we already now from their path & gravity tires. This makes it really easy to identify at a look what applied sciences are in a given tire, with out studying tons of lengthy textual content on the sidewall. I may even see it on this full ebike photograph.
There’s even the useful observe that this was designed for a 23mm inner, tubeless hooked (crotchet) rim and you need to use it from 17-27mm inner rims. And now, Continental even writes the tire measurement in massive, easy-to-read numbers, as effectively.
Sneak Peek of a sooner Terra Competitors tire!
That common labeling additionally offers us a stable sneak peek on the subsequent tire that may be part of the Conti Terra gravel household. The packaging for my Terra Journey tires clearly lists a brand new Terra Competitors tire on the reverse finish of the road-MTB spectrum – obtainable in 35mm, 40mm & 45mm.
Plus, it most likely will get a more recent, lighter Race casing (no colored-in hexes) and a sooner Speedy rubber compound (solely the stable middle dot) since each of these are new too. No official phrase on what this more than likely semi-slick gravel tire will appear like or when precisely it is going to come. However clearly, it’s not far off because it’s already on this new Terra Journey’s packaging!
Continental Terra Journey – Pricing, choices & availability
The brand new Continental Terra Journey is available in three hookless tubeless-ready sizes: 45mm, 50mm & 55mm. Conti figures alone in search of narrower tires will need one thing sooner, and something wider can be happier with an actual MTB tire. It additionally is available in three colours – decide from basic clear Conti brown-wall, the lighter-colored retro tanwall, or good previous all-black.
All variations share the identical building & rubber and are e25 ebike-rated. So, they every promote for a similar 62€ worth. Get them now out of your native Continental tire sellers, worldwide.
