In my previous post [link], I analyzed the bike rigs of 113 out of 199 riders in the Badlands 2024 race. I also examined how the top-10 finishers compared to the rest. One aspect I wanted to explore further is tire choice, as it can significantly impact many aspects of the ride. This area offers good, easily comparable data thanks to bicyclerollingresistance.com. You can find the raw data in this Google Sheet [link], primarily gathered from this [link] post on bikepacking.com.

On a course like Badlands, there are various tire-related trade-offs to consider:

• Grip: With numerous sections of loose gravel, good grip is important. Wider tires with larger knobs can provide better traction.
• Puncture resistance: Fixing punctures can cost valuable time. However, I didn’t see punctures mentioned as a major issue at Badlands, especially among riders using tubeless setups.
• Comfort: In ultra-endurance rides, comfort is at a premium. Wider tires at lower pressure offer more comfort.
• Rolling resistance: Contrary to what you might think, rolling resistance is more important on gravel than on roads. At the lower speeds typical of gravel rides, rolling resistance plays a bigger role than at the higher speeds of road races, where air resistance dominates. Of course, low rolling resistance doesn’t matter much if you don’t have traction.

Let’s start by looking at the types of tires people were running: Out of the 113 riders analyzed, 108 were on gravel tires, with the remaining 5 on mountain bike tires. This isn’t surprising, given that Badlands is a gravel race. That said, we’re starting to see a rising interest in using mountain bike tires on gravel bikes. Dylan Johnson has a great video on why you’d want to do that [link]. Some riders, like Simon Eden and Sherry Cardona, chose a hybrid setup, running mountain bike tires up front for extra traction and gravel bike tires on the back. Simon opted for the Continental Race King ProTection, while Sherry went with the Schwalbe Thunder Burt—two of the lowest rolling resistance mountain bike tires.

NB: In cases where riders used different tires on the front and back, I only selected the rear tire for my analysis to keep things simple, and since it’s the one doing most of the work (at least if you weigh by the time spent climbing).

Tire Size

Tire sizes were largely as expected. The most popular size by far was 45mm, found on 42% of bikes, followed by 40mm tires at 18%. This is wider than what’s typically seen at gravel races like the UCI Gravel World Championship, where 40mm tires are common [link]. Given Badlands’ length and tougher terrain, it’s logical that riders chose wider tires for better grip and comfort. Research has shown that on rougher surfaces, wider tires at lower pressures can be just as fast—if not faster—than narrower options, making 45mm and even 50mm tires a solid choice.

NB: I’ve excluded a comparison of mountain bike tire sizes, since there were so few of them.

The tire size choice for the top-10 finishers aligns closely with the overall trend, averaging 45mm. However, I could only find tire size data for 4 of the top-10, so this comparison isn’t particularly meaningful in a statistical sense. Nonetheless, it anecdotally suggests that tire width wasn’t a differentiating factor in their performance.

Tire Brand

At least 18 different tire brands were represented at Badlands, but the data clearly shows some were significantly more popular than others. Notably, Schwalbe and Pirelli together accounted for 45% of all tires. Specialized, Hutchinson, and Continental formed a second cluster, each accounting for about 10%—or 29% in total. The remaining 13 brands made up 26% of tires.

It’s a similar story for the 7 of the top-10 riders for whom I found data. Apart from Specialized the major brands all featured here.

Tire