Byway Tire

I’ve had this tire for a few weeks and have put between 100 and 150 miles on them.Intial setup wasn’t too bad, hut wasn’t as easy as WTB Resolutes. I use a 12v auto tire pump to provide continuous pressure while I massage the bead so that it seats. Once it the bead is aligned the pressures gonup and the tire snaps into place. After having been on the rim for a couple weeks and needing to remove the tire tonpatch a puncture (more info below) the it seemed to retain “memory” of the shape and snapped right on with just a track pump. Initially bit of sealant weeped through the tire at the transition from tread to tan sidewall, but nothing too bad. On the second mount it held this didn’t occur again.I ride in the Washington DC area mostly on bike paths, but also on roads to connect the path with destinations. It’s mostly blacktop, but there are a few sections of gravel and where erosion causes sand sand to wash over the path. These sections tend to have a bit more debris brought by the same water that causes erosion. During this time I’ve had two punctures: one through the smooth center pattern and one through the chevron pattern tread adjacent to the smooth. The first puncture was a shard of glass 2mm x 1mm x .5mm. It blew sealant until all pressure was expended and then wouldnt hold more than 15 psi without opening again. I found the glass which presumably prevented the Stan’s from sealing and put tire patch on the inside of the tire just to be cautious. After 25 miles or I got the second puncture.Now, as I wait to see if the sealant will hold pressure after it’s had some time to work it’s magic, I wonder about the supposedly harder than Kevlar aramid lining. My 700x28c Continental GP4000 S2s have never had a puncture on the same terrain and they’re hardly a puncture resistant tire. These tires were purchased with the intent of having increased comfort, capability, and peace of mind for commuting and touring, but they have failed in the past category.I find myself wishing that I had gone with WTB Horizons or Teravail’s Ramparts for around town riding as both advertise thicker tread at the center of the tire.

Enough said in the headline! but wanted to respond to some folks Supple tires are more flexible, which can make them harder to mount, especially with tubeless-compatible rims. The ‘well’ in the center of the rim is there to allow mounting and removing the tire. It reduces the diameter of the rim, and provides slack to lift the bead over the rim wall. A supple tire is more comfortable, too. The thinner casing has less inertia and requires less energy to flex, so it can react more quickly to surface irregularities. A supple tire absorbs the vibrations, while a stiff tire transmits them to the bike and rider. And since vibrations slow you down, that makes the supple tire faster, too.So you gain speed twice: the thinner casing absorbs less energy (smaller hysteretic losses) and it transmits fewer vibrations (smaller suspension losses). Talk about a win-win situation! these tires are fast and fun, just avoid glass no tire is perfect it just depends on how you rid

It’s pretty okay. I’ve bought a pair in both 700cx40 and 650bx47. The 700c actually measures around 38mm, so they’re really not as big and supple as you’d hope. Pretty nice to ride tubeless, installed without much fuss, but the problem is puncture resistance. Third ride in got a big gash in the side tread, and a little nick in the rim about 50mi later caused the tubeless install to fail at the sidewall.The 650bx47mm is a much better tire experience. Equally easy to install, and unlike the 700c version it actually measures at 47.5 – 47.8mm. Because it’s such a big tire it’s a very supple ride. Have done around 180mi and haven’t been able to hit the rim, even at low pressures in mtb trails (23psi!). It’s very nice gliding over small rocks and bumps jarring to narrower tires.I like how they roll on pavement, feels pretty similar to other semi-slick road tires I’ve ridden (700c version, obviously the 650b is just so much more tire it rolls a little slower). The side

UPDATE: Just about every time I go out I get a flat what’s the tiniest object like a small piece of metal or a very small thorn. I’ll have to get some kind of thorn protection liner. The other thing is that they wear very fast. I switch them out for a while for winter tires I just recently put them back on and I’ve noticed that they were nearly worn out on the main tread surface.These tires really improved my riding experience. Paved riding is fast but provides confidence inspiring stability on mixed surfaces.Since the mid-1990’s I rode my Bianchi Axis cyclocross bike as what we’re calling today a ‘Gravel Bike’: rough paved commuting, moderate mixed surface exploring (not racing). The bike is stable and my Continental touring style tires were just fine.Recently I built a new Surly Straggler that has quicker steering, coinciding with different local that frequently transition from paved to loose granular hard packed surface. My first ride out was really unst

Happy with the tread – it’s exactly what I wanted for my gravel bike ridden on mixed surfaces – but it’s not really tubeless-compatible. When installed as a tubeless tire with Peaty’s sealant and Muc-Off tubeless valves, it would hold enough pressure for a short ride, but then go rim-on-floor flat overnight. When hunting for a leak I found that air was seeping directly through the tan sidewall – I could watch each little patch of foam grow as air leaked out (the bubbles are not coming from the valve, any spoke nipple, or anywhere along the bead – only directly through the tan sidewall). I doubled the amount of sealant and allowed the tire to rest on each side overnight in the hopes that it would seal the sidewall, but it still leaks, and on closer monitoring I discovered it will lose 10 lbs of pressure in a 1-hr ride. I’d like to think this is a fluke – a one-off problem with this particular tire – but I had the same problem with the first Byway I bought at my local shop (I just really wanted matching tires front and back).tl;dr Good tread pattern for mixed-surface riding but don’t expect it to actually be tubeless. WTF, WTB?