Vittoria Terreno T90 Mud Gravel Endurance

Vittoria says the Terreno T90 Mud Gravel Endurance offers ‘torture tested performance for the most challenging terrain,’ and they’re a good choice if your ‘gravel’ riding is anything like it is in the UK for nine months of the year: muddy bridleways full of slop. They clear really well and offer plenty of bite to keep you moving forward, even when it’s really claggy. They’re fine in the dry, too, though not the fastest.

Vittoria has moved to a numerical scale for its gravel tyres. At one end is the T10, a hardpack tyre that’s basically slick, while the T90 is at the other, at the top of the terrain severity scale. This tyre used to be called the Terreno Wet, and certainly wet conditions are where it excels.

The tread is widely spaced with deep, aggressive knobs, so it cuts through to grip really well yet sheds mud very effectively. As gravel tyres go, it’s one of the best I’ve tried for remaining usable even in the really crappy bits.

I’ve been using the 40mm width (a 45mm version is also available) and it’s a small-enough chamber that it doesn’t float on top of the mud too much. If you want grip when it’s really sloppy then any cyclocross racer will tell you a narrower tyre is best; this tread is also available on a UCI-compliant 33mm ‘cross tyre, should you be ranting round the local park for an hour.

There’s always a trade-off between slicing through mud and gripping over rocks and roots, though, an that’s where a bigger, more deformable tyre can run at lower pressures and still stop you bashing your rims on stuff.

I’d say this 40mm size is a good compromise: I’m a big lad (100kg) and I’ve been running them at 25psi for the wetter rides; it’s rare that I bottom them out even on the rockier descents. At that pressure they’re great off-road and passable on tarmac; a bit squirrelly at times but generally fine, if a bit draggy.

Pumped up harder (35psi for me) they’re okay on the roads. They’re not as quick as a hardpack tyre, but unless you’re doing long stretches to get to the gravel they’re fine – you won’t break any records but neither will you wear yourself out. It’s worth the couple of minutes of pressure fiddling if you’re switching from a big stretch of tarmac to a long gravel section, or vice versa, but not because you’ll gain that time back. Just because it’ll make your ride more enjoyable on both bits.

This tyre is built on Vittoria’s Endurance Casing platform, which is a 100TPI nylon affair. It’s not the most supple tyre out, there but neither is it bad, and there’s a bead shield and anti-puncture belt to protect against flats.

At 492g they’re not especially light but neither are they overbuilt. There is sidewall protection but the sidewalls aren’t especially thick, and were also a little porous: they took a while to seal tubelessly as air managed to bubble through, but they settled after a couple of rides with sealant and now they’re fine. I’ve not had any punctures so far that the sealant didn’t fix.

The tread is ‘infused with graphene to boost performance across a wide range of conditions,’ according to Vittoria. I found they performed very well overall. You’re never going to be able to rail a tyre like this round a tarmac corner because there’s not a huge amount of rubber in contact with the ground, and the fairly deep knobs will deform under lateral load.

They’re predictable though, and once you’re off the surfaced stuff they’re much better. In the wet of course they are, but even in drier conditions there’s plenty of grip and bite, and they don’t feel unnecessarily slow.

Value

At £59.99 an end they’re not especially expensive: £5 more than the Maxxis Ramblers I’ve recently reviewed, and cheaper than plenty when your options range up to £85. Matt marked the more all-purpose Terreno T80 (also now £59.99) down a bit for being slow-rolling, and that’s the case here too, but the T90 is focused on traction in all conditions and does a good job of providing that, so it’s less of an issue.

It’s nice and sunny now (mid-March), but I know plenty of places round here where it’ll be sloppy well into the summer. A tyre like this can be the difference between riding and shouldering your bike.

Overall

Depending on where you are in the UK (or the world), and what kind of riding you do, this could be either a tyre you’d consider for a few months or something to run for the whole year.

My gravel riding is more for fun than for speed, and in the West country you’re guaranteed some mud for most of the year, so something like the T90 makes sense as your standard tyre. Maybe you’d want a slick on the shelf in case it gets really hot, but I’ve enjoyed using these tyres, and I’m keeping them on the bike.