Switching to TPU tubes (even the cheap ones on eBay work great) made a huge difference in tire performance for me. Right now I’m on a bit of a Challenge kick, running 36mm Strada Bianca slicks with TPU tubes, and they feel incredible — though those tires definitely live up to their name. It took several months of riding them with butyl tubes just to get the casings molded into a more traditional clincher shape before I could even attempt TPU. Mounting Challenge tires new is already a battle, and adding slippery TPU tubes easily made it ten times harder.
That said, TPU tubes paired with GravelKing slicks was also an amazing combo. The ride felt very similar to Rene Herse tires run tubeless — super zippy and just plain fun. I’ve actually got a lightly used pair of 35mm GK slicks with brown sidewalls I’d let go for around $45, shipped, if you’re interested. Cheers, Andrew Turner On Tuesday, December 30, 2025 at 10:30:27 AM UTC-6 [email protected] wrote: > Hello and Happy Holidays RBWs, > > (Crossposted with BOBs) I recently picked up an old Trek 750 Multitrack > and revamped it with some fun parts bin goodies. The only tires I had were > a pair of gravelking ext+ in 700 x 33mm so I threw them on. To my > disappointment, they lacked any bit of livelihood on pavement. For > reference, my Homer wears a set of Babyshoe Passes from Rene Herse and I > feel like they float right over road. I also had Naches Passes (endurance > casing) on my MB-1 at one point and those were arguably the nicest tires > I've used! Both durable and fast-rolling. On local trails, the GKs are just > OK but nothing to write home about. Perhaps it could be that I'm still > running tubes, or that my old rims are too narrow. All this to say I'm > looking for recommendations! > > To specify: I am leaning towards 35-40mm clinchers. My rides are 80% > tarmac/20% trail. I feel I am still itching for that sparkle on the Naches > Passes.... I would be curious to hear what others have to say about Rene > Herse/compass in the width range I am seeking or any other go-to tires in > general. > > Lastly, if you do happen to have tires for sale, please shoot me a > message. I would love to discuss potentially purchasing! > > Thanks for reading, > James, Richmond VA > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bb5bedd5-fb65-4d22-8bcb-1f300bf482a2n%40googlegroups.com.
