As gravel continues to grow, events are becoming more demanding on your equipment. Adventure brand WTB recognized this and began working on ways to make their tires more robust. Beyond having a wide range of tires to cover just about any surface you’ll face, the new SG2 puncture protection available on tires 37mm and wider will add protection while keeping them supple and lively.
SG2 is a nylon layer running from bead to bead, providing additional protection to the entire tire. Numbers provided by WTB say that SG2 equipped tires have 33% more protection on the sidewalls and 18% more protection on the tread.
Along with adding the SG2 protection, these tires will now be offered with a 120 TPI casing, which makes for a more supple, higher-performing tire.
“Rather than simply adding a layer of puncture protection to our 60 TPI gravel tires and calling it good, we set out to increase durability while also improving ride quality and minimizing weight,” explains Clayton Wangbichler, WTB’s product marketing manager. “Not willing to settle for anything less than optimal, we analyzed lab test data and put thousands of miles on a myriad of different casing and puncture protection configurations before we finalized our current specifications.”
Something interesting about the SG2 is that the nylon protection layer is flatter compared to traditional nylon layers. This means that when it is covered by rubber, there are less peaks and valleys that need to be filled in, meaning less rubber is used and it keeps it thin. Along with being lighter, it also means there is a higher fiber to rubber ratio providing more protection. Compared to the 60 TPI versions without SG2, you should only see a 5-10% increase in weight, which translates to about 15-50g, depending on the size of the tire. Another added benefit, which is more important for higher pressure/lower volume gravel tires compared to mountain tires, is that the SG2 layer help reduce the amount of air loss, keeping tire pressures stable for longer.
For now, the SG2 tires are available in black sidewalls only. Tan sidewalls are possible, but they just didn’t perform as well as the black sidewalls. The original 60 TPI’s will continue to be available at $59.95, with the new 120 TPI SG2 equipped tires coming in at $69.95. The new tires are available now.
Heckling Editor, Image Taker, Crash Test Dummy, and Beard Master at Bikeworldnews.com
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