If ever there were a tire that looked like one thing but was intended for something else entirely, it might just be the new WTB Ranger. Spotted at their booth as a very, very early leak was the 27.5 x 2.0 “gravel / cyclocross” tire. Elsewhere at Sea Otter, several new bikes were fitted with 26 x 3.0 “plus” mountain bike tires of the same name.
We’d heard rumor that WTB would soon have a much more aggressively knobbed “road plus” tire to join the very slick Horizon 27.5 x 47c and the mid-height knob Riddler. This could be it, and so much more…
Looks like a mountain bike tire, no?
Details were all but non existent, but retail should be about $68 based on other tires with the TCS (Tubeless Compatible System) Light Fast Rolling casings.
We spotted at least two bikes with the wider 3.0 Rangers, but both were a new breed of 26+ bikes, each with a different reason for being that we’ll get into with separate posts.
Would you put something this knobby on your “gravel” bike? Would it even fit? Plenty of builders and brands have started spec’ing the Horizon on their adventure and gravel bikes, so we could be seeing a new crop of alternative road bikes with wider stays for just such things.
