René Herse Tyres: The Pursuit of Comfort & Speed

Eat Sleep Cycle’s Bernat Vilaginés has been keeping himself busy outside of work test riding a set of Steliacoom René Herse tyres. In this blog Bernat introduces the René Herse brand to the uninitiated & shares his insights into the joy of knobbies what makes a tyre great. If you like what you read you can shop René Herse tyres at Eat Sleep Cycle.

Wide Tyres Roll Faster

Have you ever heard of René Herse tires? Maybe not… maybe Compass tires (the former brand name). René Herse tyres are probably the best tires for gravel and all-road bicycles, and even road bicycles. Their statement is famous, Wide Tyres Roll Faster, and it’s not just a statement, it’s a fact supported by physics.

René Herse make tyres from 26mm to 55mm with a choice of slick or and knobbie finish. I would say from 38mm they are very suitable for gravel, the slick ones yes, and even better the knobbie versions.

Supple Tyres Roll Faster

René Herse tyres have a very particular characteristic, they are supple, and the key factor to get the most juice from them is tyre pressure. Jan Heine, the man behind the brand, is recognised as the eminent figure in the field of tyre pressure – I encourage you to head to the René Herse blog and read everything about tyre presssure and tyre width, you will go to sleep with a deep thinking and very inspired to change what we’ve been assuming for a long time.

René Herse Casings: Standard to Endurance Plus

Nowadays René Herse offers almost all tyres in 4 different casings: standard, extralight, endurance and endurance plus.

Standard is the original tyre, with a supple casing that will surpass your expectatives on grip, rolling stability, and comfort. Then you have the extralight, which enlights all previous charachteristics to the next level. A truly performance version!

Endurance is a more robust sidewall tire with puncture protection retaining all riding habilities.

And the Endurance Plus is a tough tyre thought for this rides or adventures were you don’t really want to puncture, it is a super reliable and protected tire.

A quick note here, all tires are tubeless compatible.

Test Ride: René Herse Steliacoom Endurance

I’ve been testing the Steilacoom 38mm Endurance tyre recently. It’s a knobbie version with the endurance casing (reinforced extralight casing) that weighs 445grs. I’ve been riding with them on pavement as well, and let me tell you something. At first sight you can think, this thing is not gonna roll well on pavement, well, false! It rolls well, and honestly it rolls surprisingly well, because there is a lot of thinking and design that goes behind the placement of the knobs along the tyre.

Knobs are disposed so there’s always a series of knobs in contact with the road so the rolling surface becomes pretty “smooth”. And the knobs on the sides of the tire are disposed in a way that when you corner they are not reaching their edges, and you feel confident that when cornering you have lots of rubber in contact with the road. You have to check your speedometer to realize that you are riding at speeds so close to your rides with slick versions.

Noise Cancellation Technology

The only drawback here would be noise, knobby tires are more loud in contact with pavement. But wait a minute, they are working on a noise cancellation knobs patern, which is already
available in the Fleecer ridge tire. Let me add a comment here, you can’t imagine how confident you can feel descending on 32mm or bigger tires, this is a game-changing property on the road, and you know what, lots of new road bikes launched in 2020 and next season have room to install 32mm tires. And as I’m not a racer and you probably are not I will choose for comfort, safety and rolling performance over skinny light tires, they were good yes, but wider is better.

So, pavement approved. Let’s move to gravel roads. What can I say? All the previous ups just become better, off the road you can squeeze all the nice properties of the tires, they roll super-well, they corner like a dream, and they are supple or comfortable as you were riding on a magic carpet.

Not too many more words to add here. I will encourage you to believe in our reccomendations to give these guys a try. Honestly, you will be surprised and inspired, how a simple thing like a tyre can change the riding properties of your bike, how important a supple case is, how important tyre pressure is, how important width is. Because the most important part of your riding experinece are the tyres, simply because they are always in touch with the ground being the latest asphalt or not.

Want to learn more about René Herse?

Check out our recent Cyclist’s Guide to Tyre Pressure with JP, maker of 2-11 Cylcles & René Herse expert. If you like what you read, shop René Herse tyres at Eat Sleep Cycle.

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