Continental only offers three gravel tires, the Terra Hardpack, Terra Speed and Terra Trail. Just landed at Flow HQ is a set of the toothiest of the three, the Terra Trail.
Available in a 40mm width and 700c or 650b diameters, each is built around Conti’s ProTection casing and the brand’s BlackChilli rubber compound.
With hexagonal tread blocks throughout, the shoulder and transition knobs are siped long ways to help the blocks deform around rocks and roots while the bike is on edge. Moving in, the centre strip is tightly packed to keep the rolling resistance as low as possible while still maximising braking and climbing grip.
Even still, the tread is pretty tightly packed in across the casing. These are most definitely dry-weather tires.
The ProTection casing sees three plies of 180TPI fabric under the tread and an additional layer at the sidewall to protect against cuts.
The hot patch on the sidewall also sees a plug icon with a 25 next to it, this means that the Terra Trail are rated for e-Bikes with a 25kph cutoff.
We have the 40mm x 700c version of the Terra Trail, which tipped the Flow Scales of Truth at 448g, making them a relatively lightweight tyre for its size — they’re less than the Maxxis Rambler (466g) and the Schwalbe G1 Allround (480g) in the same 40mm width.
In the past, Conti tyres have been known to be pretty tight, and a bear to get set up tubeless — excluding the new gravity tyres. Getting them onto the rim was no issue, but they did require a squirt from the air compressor to seat the bead.
Replacing a slightly wider set of 45mm WTB Riddlers, the Terra Trail measured up 41mm wide on a set of 25mm internal rims. Even with the narrower width, they create a noticeably more rounded profile than the Riddlers.
We’re also big fans of the ‘cream skin’ sidewall look, even if it is painted on.
We’ve only had a handful of rides on the Terra Trail thus far, and have been impressed at the way they claw into corners — especially that nasty loose over hardpack. They’re not as draggy as we’d initially expected, however, the distinct hum you hear rolling along the tarmac en route to your gravel-promised land definitely sends a message about their intended purpose. That said, a few more width options would not go astray.
