Challenge Gravine PRO Handmade Tubeless Ready Gravel Tyre

Simply put, the Challenger Gravine Pro Handmade Tubeless Ready Gravel Tyres are excellent. They're supple, grippy and excelled whether I was using them on the road or on a rough trail. Though getting them on the rims was a bit of a pain and they are also the most expensive gravel tyres I've ever tested. But even with those issues, these are up there with the tyres in our best gravel tyres buyer's guide.

Gravel tyres are normally one thing or the other – they're either better on lighter gravel and tarmac or they excel in the mud and off-roading. The Challenge Gravines are meant to be aimed primarily at the latter, but after testing I think they are one of the best all-rounders out there, excelling on every surface I threw at them.

I rode these for a couple of months in early summer, but we're talking the early British summer – which means every kind of riding surface imaginable. And I found that there wasn't a single occasion where I wished I was using different rubber, which is unusual to say the least.

Normally if I'm on the road with a knobbly tyre I wish I had something faster rolling, and when I'm riding something faster rolling on a more aggressive off-road surface, I find myself hankering after something more knobbly. These genuinely excelled everywhere: fast on tarmac, grippy on gravel and shedding mud impressively on single tracks.

They are primarily designed for more off-road use, with Challenge increasing the depth of the tread to increase grip. They have no single smooth line down the centre of the tyre to reduced rolling resistance and while this isn't exactly scientific, they do look aggressive and better suited for off-roading. However, when they are on the rim they perform very well both on and off road, which did come as a surprise.

I believe this comes from Challenge's experience in designing cyclocross-specific tyres, which is quite a niche area that a lot of road and mountain bike tyre manufacturers haven't specialised in.

The result is evident when you look down at the tyres when you're riding, where you can see their profile results in a decreased contact area on hard surfaces – but without impacting on grip when you're riding on softer or looser surfaces.

I found grip excellent whether I was using them on or off road. The latter should come as no surprise given the depth of the tread on them, but I also found that they shed mud very well. I live in an area with lots of different soil types and I rode through most of them, even heavy, claggy clay that was shed surprisingly quickly once I got up to speed.

The tyres are handmade and supple, which adds to their comfort and road feel. You can get them in 40 or 45mm widths, with our review set being the slimmer size. I replaced a set of 45s that I had been using and despite the previous pair's larger volume, the Challenges felt more comfortable as well as being faster and smaller. It's worth noting that at these wheel sizes, it's not like the difference between 23mm and 28mm rubber on the road, but it is still noticeable.

As with most top-level tyres in 2024, these are tubeless-ready, and I ran them as tubeless throughout testing. Once they were seated on the rim and had sealant inside them I did not notice any significant reduction in pressure beyond what I would expect. The only slight downside was that they were fairly tight to get on the rim, especially for a 40mm tyre – I found that where I can fit most tyres by hand, I had to resort to tyre levers with these for the last bit.

Challenge has used its gravel-specific Superpoly Carazza Armor, which it says is a 'dual-layer 260TPI casing offers unparalleled sidewall protection, enhancing tyre durability against sharp rocks and debris'. This is accompanied by Challenge's 'Ganzo PPS2 puncture protection layer'.

Both of these, combined with a tubeless setup, mean these are unlikely to see many flats. I certainly suffered no punctures during testing and there was no sign of any sealant bubbles, which is always a good sign.

Value

The RRP for these tyres is £83, which makes them the most expensive gravel tyres I have ever reviewed, but I believe their excellent performance on all sorts of surfaces goes a long way to justifying the extra expense.

Matt recently reviewed the Panaracer GravelKing X1 R-Line TLR, which are £19 cheaper and also offer an impressive performance on a variety of surfaces, but not the same kind of off-road performance as the Gravines.

The Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RC tyre is £20 cheaper, and while it excelled off road, it didn't have the same kind of all-round performance as the Challenge tyre.

Conclusion

I was incredibly impressed with these tyres, which achieved the balancing act of performing just as well on road as off, with cornering grip on tarmac and getting traction on loose material equally superb. Sure, they're expensive and trickier to mount on the rim than others, but they are truly superb gravel tyres.

Verdict

Very expensive, yes, but an excellent gravel tyre that also excels over other surfaces