If you like riding drop bar bikes off-road—and chances are you do if you’re reading this—you’re now blessed with a large volume of high-volume tire options.
Some of us are grateful for all of the options, even if making a choice is a bit overwhelming. It seemed like just yesterday that I would make a point to visit bike shops on road trips in the hopes that in some back room they had a forgotten supply of tires wider-than-35mm knobbies. If I was lucky, I would find an old Panaracer Smoke, Ritchey Mount Cross or Tioga Bloodhound tire.
The old Ritchey Mount Cross 38mm tire from 20 years ago still remains a top choice for monster crossing, but it is now on the narrower side of today's options. © Cyclocross Magazine
While finding bigger tires for monster cross adventures was a challenge 10 or 20 years ago, owning a bike with enough clearance for them was equally challenging, even with narrow 13mm (internal) rims.
Not everyone was as fortunate to have a custom-made Hot Tubes rig like Mark McCormack (seen fourth from the right here) at the 1995 Leicester Nationals for his silver-medal ride behind Jan Wiejak. Sure, his handlebars may not have met Jon Severson's definition of Monster Cross, but the big tires and frame he used in the blizzard sure did.
Today, we are blessed to have a wide array of wide-tire-clearance drop bar bikes of many labels and an equal number of big tire options that are wider than USA Cycling and the UCI’s tire width restrictions. They're sold under different category labels by many different brands, and we've seen examples including diverse, capable bikes from Bombtrack, Raleigh, and a plethora of handmade options seen at Paul Component Engineering Camp, Rocky Mountain, Ritchey, Kona, Ibis (stay tuned) and even the plus-sized Wilier.
If you own a bike with such big tire clearance, today, everywhere you look there’s a new gravel tire hoping to dress up your wheels. But what if your ride plans are aimed more at trails and adventures? Today, in our follow-up to our top pavé tire round-up from 2017, we go to the opposite end of the spectrum and look at some top tires for your monster crossing.
Ready for some monster crossin'? There are lots of great options for offroad adventures that involve more than gravel. © Cyclocross Magazine
Our list today includes eight of our favorites, all tubeless options, but we go on to mention a few discontinued favorites that are still available, as well as give a nod to a few non-tubeless choices.
Of course, we have not tested every tire out there, and there are still some, such as the Specialized Terra 38mm and new 40mm IRC options that are still in our queue.
Today’s monster list includes:
- Ritchey Megabite (formerly Mount Cross)
- WTB Resolute
- Soma Cazadero and Bruce Gordon Rock n Road
- Vittoria Terreno Mix and Wet
- Panaracer Fire Cross
- Maxxis Ravager
Use the slider to see measured specs and what we like about each tire. For more on why we list bead-to-bead width, see our Wednesday Wonderings on the topic.
Other Considerations
The Panaracer Regacross is still 35mm wide, if you are looking for some volume, but not that much volume. © Cyclocross Magazine
Can’t go that big? If you’re tight on clearance, the Panaracer Regacross, WTB Cross Boss and Ritchey Shield are high-volume cyclocross options listed at 35mm.
Don’t need tubeless? Continental has a number of 40+mm “Trekking” tires with versatile treads, like the AT Ride. The Panaracer Comet is also a fine monster cross option. If you can find a 40mm Duro Cypher, it’s a good softer condition tire but not marketed as a tubeless-ready tire.
Don’t forget light, narrower 29er tires, even discontinued ones. A favorite of ours is the 1.8″ S-Works Renegade, which is 115mm bead-to-bead and weighs just 430g.
Bontrager has a number of 1.9″ and narrower tires that work great on the trail. The older 29-0 Team Editions are nice, supple tires that can handle more than just singletrack and trade armor for a fast, supple ride. The new XR0 is just as light but has a hardpack-oriented tread that sheds weight while adding volume versus most stock cyclocross tires. The XDX came in a narrow 1.75″ width, had a versatile, relatively open tread and fit like a 45mm monster cross tire.
