A bit like choosing pizza when you head out to eat, selecting new tyres takes a bit of careful thought. There's plenty of options, but what if you try something new and it all goes wrong? Then you have to wait till your next meal out and spend the interim regretting your actions.
As well as the brown sidewalls pictured, the T50 comes in all-black. They're available in 40, 45 and 50mm widths. Question: is black nearly the new brown?
On paper, tyres are a disposable item that'll wear out and be replaced – the perfect place to experiment, you might think. But they're not particularly cheap, so not many of us are in a position to correct a poor choice by giving them away and buying something else instead.
So what better opportunity than a Black Friday discount to grab some new rubber at a great price and see how it works out?
And so many of us stick with the same old trusted choice. This certainly applies to me – I was more than happy with my Panaracer GravelKings, and have used them in both the SK (small knobs) and X1 versions and found them great in most conditions.
However, earlier this year I had a chance to check out these new offerings from Vittoria – the Terreno T50. Manufacturer of the iconic Corsa road tyre, the Italian manufacturer hadn't really been on my radar in terms of off-road stuff.
Designed for 'mixed gravel endurance', they fit bang in the middle of an extensive range that runs from T10 (hardpack) to T90 (mud), and they turned out to be a bit of a revelation – and now they're reduced by 25%.
I rode them for a preview of this year's British Gravel Championships at Dalby Forest in Yorkshire, England, which included a lot of superb gravel doubletrack, as well as a bit of peaty singletrack and tarmac too.
They were perfect for that – and I liked them so much I carried on riding them for the next few months.
Using them in 45mm width, they felt fast enough rolling on the road while at the same time offering superior grip off it, in everything but slimy mud. The tread pattern is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the secret to their success. It features studding of low-profile hexagonal knobs across the centre, with more aggressive knobs at the shoulder. It's the former that allows its proficiency on the tarmac, and those shoulder knobs that instil cornering confidence.
In terms of fitment they went on a breeze, and I had zero punctures (that I knew about – I was running them tubeless).
Right now I'm back using my GravelKing X1s, so the T50s have not replaced them completely. The Panaracer tyres feel a bit more voluminous than the Terrenos in the same width so, while I'll definitely be using the T50s again, I might invest in some 50mm items for that extra bit of cushioning.
And then I think they might just be perfect.
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After cutting his teeth on local and national newspapers, James began at Cycling Weekly as a sub-editor in 2000 when the current office was literally all fields.
Eventually becoming chief sub-editor, in 2016 he switched to the job of full-time writer, and covers news, racing and features.
He has worked at a variety of races, from the Classics to the Giro d'Italia – and this year will be his seventh Tour de France.
A lifelong cyclist and cycling fan, James's racing days (and most of his fitness) are now behind him. But he still rides regularly, both on the road and on the gravelly stuff.
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