TEST & REVIEW: SCHWALBE G-ONE ALL ROUND TUBELESS GRAVEL TYRE

SCHWALBE G-ONE ALL ROUND TUBELESS GRAVEL TYRE

35x622 (28x1.35) 415g each (as tested) Black £58.99 each

Designed for wet and dry forest tracks, but drawing the line at “wet and muddy forest roads”, the G-One All Round is a competition weight, folding, Tubeless Easy tyre. It has been reliable and offered a bit more edge than some gravel type tyres. It also performs well on asphalt.

Pros: Great rolling and security, with strong puncture protection.

Cons: Less durable than some, and may seem pricier than some.

Spec

Made from Schwalbe’s One Star compound, which priorities rolling over durability, the G-One All Round is a “Tubeless Easy” tyre. Run at between 45 and 70psi, it should give decent grip on tarmac roads and gravel tracks. With a high puncture protection rating, the trade-off is in expected service life, which Schwalbe rate as three out of six.

An EPI of 127 sounds massive, but really designates a individual thread construction and is not as durable as, say, 67 EPI. 127 is generally used by Schwalbe only on competition tyres, where weight and rolling resistance are significant. Hence to shorter service life. Having said that, even occasional gravel riders may not worry too much given the distinct strengths. In any case, we are still talking many miles of use. Four hundred miles in, they are dusty and dirty, but seemingly untouched.

Of course, these are tubeless tyres so need to be run with either tubeless specific rims or a conversion kit, such as Joe’s No Flats Universal Tubeless Conversion Kit. Schwalbe are convinced that “Tubeless is the tire technology of the future.” Their Tubeless Easy technology is slowly replacing their older Tubeless Ready and Tubeless technology. Fundamentally, this should reduce weight and make conversion to tubeless easier.

Weight limit is 70kg per tyre. Should suit most riders, but maybe not suitable for heavily laden tourers, unless towing a trailer, when away from purely gravel duties.

Mounting

The G-One All Round popped onto the Ryde Sputnik without levers - fingers only. My Mavic’s required a bit more effort, but basic tyre levers were enough and there were none of the Old English idioms oft associated with heaving my go-to Marathon Pluses onto the wheel. As a word of caution, if you do need a bit of extra oomph and after using a conversion kit, go gently and avoid metal levers.

These are Tubeless Easy tyres, but are perfectly compatible with an inner tube should disaster strike. whilst on the subject of inner tubes, needless to say, it adds weight compare to running the tyre tubeless.

Performance

Run at max 70psi, over crushed lime and dry-mud-cake canal towpath the G-Ones gave a clearly more comfortable ride compared to regular “go any where”tyres at 85psi. Really firm feel and lovely rolling, despite lower pressure, made for a happy mix of pace and security.

Run at minimum 45psi, not quite magic carpet - but you’d not expect that on gravel. What I did noice was that, run over the same terrain as at 70psi, for 25 miles, neither thumb was numb. I wasn’t expecting sluggishness on asphalt, but the, ease of rolling was pleasing, despite pleasantly squishy cushioning around broken surfaces.

Settling for around 60psi, I found, seemed to give the best of both worlds. Experimenting a bit is worthwhile. Needless to say, mixed surface riding is the norm, so there’ll be compromises - something that tyres like the G-One cope with happily.

This summer has not been good for splashing in muddy puddles, but seeking out farm tracks irrigated beyond necessity, allowed a little work on wet surfaces. The pimply tread certainly gives a bit of cut and kept things on the straight and narrow, especially at slightly reduced pressures. Having said that, you’d not expect tyres of thsi type to cut through extensive mud at a decent pace.

A few turns of the pedals are necessary to get the sealant sloshing around and leave any stodginess behind. On dry asphalt the handling was as lovely as many higher pressure tyres, though, as you’d expect, not quite as sprightly. Hitting the gravel, there’s an immediate sense of security on descents and when cornering - even on loose surfaces. Likewise on the bare mud and stone of typical forest trails. Running over grass and into pebble-bottomed fords, the profile and tread certainly score highly. Perhaps the biggest plus is sure-footedness when pushing hard uphill.

In many ways these tyres make for a fast commute along my towpath route to the moderately-sized city, but I’d probably sacrifice some of the comfort for greater duarbility. Ideally, I’d stick the G-Ones on for a weekend exploring Kielder Forest, with miles of forest tracks to tackle, for example.

On that subject, these tyres will take you most places, even, allied to decent technique, some short, sections of singletrack. All round and, literally, go anywhere , are not the same thing; the G-One All round do the job they set our to do very well.

Puncture Protection

As ever, testing for punctures is not easy. Fortune has either favoured the modertley cautious, or Schwalbe’s noted puncture protection has performed as well as I’d expect: very effectively. Of course, running tubeless brings the benefit of sealant as well.

Conclusion

I shudder to go so far as to say that tyres are fun in themselves, but Schwalbe’s G-One All round have definitley contrubuted to the hi-jinks in the woods and amongst the fields. Really good tryes. Mind you, they come at a price and some will want greater durabliltiy for their dollar.

Verdict 4/5 Excellent tyres, but some may prefer greater longevity to great rolling.

Steve Dyster

https://www.schwalbe.com/en-GB/offroad-reader/schwalbe-g-one-allround.html

PUBLISHED JULY 2018

TESTS

HOME

TOP