Gravel tires!? Curly bars!? What's next, spandex? Without changing my alias, I will try and justify this frankly absurd deviation from the world of knobby tires with the fact that commuting to work on a gravel bike is quite a bit easier and more fun than lugging around an MTB on dirt roads.
Tufo Bicycle Company is from the Czech Republic, where they also make their rubber products. They are well known amongst MAMILs for road tires, and have since ventured into knobblier offerings for gravel. The Thundero is their do-it-all gravel offering, which promises easy rolling, puncture protection, relatively low weight and all that at a competitive price. I had to give them a shot!
Available in 700C only, and widths between 36-48mm, the Thundero is Tufo's mid-tier gravel tire. There's the Speedero, which is a smoother and supposedly faster rolling option and the Swampero for those wet or rough gravel excursions. All options are available in black, or black with tan sidewalls, and share the same high TPI casing.
MSRP is around 50€ / tire, but these can be had from the usual online stores like R2-Bike or Bike-Discount for around 40€ a pop, so significantly more competitive than pricing from Maxxis or Schwalbe, for example.
My pair is the 44x700C version, which I have weighed at close to the specified 450g weight at 465g / tire. I run them tubeless on 23mm internal Reynolds hooked carbon wheels, and have not had any issues with getting them to seat or stay on the rim. Mine measured exactly at the specified 44mm width.
Performance
Does the Thundero all? My experience says that yes, it does! Granted, there are limitations at either extreme, but I have taken mine from mud to tarmac, to well hard packed dirt roads to rooty single track, and survived. This is probably where the beauty or gravel bikes, tires, etc. lies: If your gravel adventure includes a stretch of single track, you don't need to hike-a-bike like you would with a road bike, and if there are tarmac sections you don't have to drag the full weight of an MTB around.
The Thundero is clearly best on dirt, but not loose gravel. The shape is quite round and the tread pattern is tightly spaced with no real pronounced side lugs, so it rolls REALLY well, but at the same time likes to understeer and can feel sketchy in looser gravel. However, wet grip is actually quite good so the compound clearly works extremely well, as long as mud doesn't clog the tread. Compared to my previous Maxxis Ramblers, especially the rolling resistance is much lower with the Thunderos. Bicycle Rolling Resistance findings back up this subjective feeling.
Tread wear seems to be very low as well. I now have approximately 2500km on my set and there is still life left for probably another 2000km. This is from my mixture of riding, so the majority of those kilometers have accumulated on gravel and dirt roads. Comfort is good, but it seems there is some background to Tufo's specified pressure. I have found my sweet spot for pressure is around 2 - 2,2bar. Go lower and the tyres start to feel draggy and vague, and higher results in bouncyness and harshness.
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| This rather spectacular puncture has so far been the only issue I have encountered with the Tufos. |
During those 2500km I have only had 1 puncture: From a shard of glass on tarmac, which cause a roughly 5mm wide puncture in the middle of the tread. This was easily fixed with a tyre plug as the Peaty's sealant I was running was unable to seal it at pressures over 1 bar. I have had no sidewall cuts, so the Jubena puncture protection ply seems to work well.
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| Rear tire tread wear after 2500km |
Just lately I have also started to notice damp spots on the tyres after I've left a dusty bike sitting in the garage, which indicates there are minor punctures to the tread which allow for tiny amounts of sealant seepage. The tyres will deflate at a rate of maybe 0,1-0,2bar / week if left sitting and I think it's from these minor punctures.
Verdict
As one may gather from my review so far, I am extremely satisfied with the Thunderos. Would I buy them again? Yes I would, but probably won't for a while just to give other tires a shot and test as well. Some more cornering grip, or perhaps confidence, would make these tyres even better, but they are already hard to fault. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Dry grip: 5/5 on hardpack, 3/5 on loose
Wet grip: 4/5 in everything except mud
Braking traction: 4/5 on hardpack, 2.5/5 on loose
Rolling resistance: 5/5
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