There were tons of beautiful new handmade bikes in Portland over the weekend, but it looks like there were some new components, too. Specifically, it looks like WTB has some new gravel tires in the works.
Shown on two different Mosaic 32″ gravel bikes, each was rolling a set of WTB tires with ‘Course 52’ on the hot patch. There is no ‘Course’ model currently in the WTB lineup, so this appears to be a brand new model -which we also got a sneak peek of at over Eurobike in its 700c guise.
Also interesting is the size listed on the hot patch – along with 32″, the tire also has the number 800. We haven’t seen anyone call 32″ tires by their metric diameter equivalent, but it would stand to reason that if these are bigger than the 700c and 750d wheel sizes (it was just 3 years ago that WTB debuted the 750d wheelsize, also at MADE!), 800 might be the right number. We’ll see if this catches on as a way to label gravel tires… 800(?) x 52?
The tread pattern is reminiscent of some other low profile knobbier, with angular tread blocks with decent spacing between and slightly elevated shoulder lugs. It looks fast but still more grippy than a center slick.
Interestingly, the 700 x 52mm version we saw at Eurobike wasn’t exactly the same as this 32”/800 version one. It had a Stromm Aero Tech label on its sidewall and a slightly different tread pattern with molded-in aerodynamic features.
It seems highly likely that WTB would release more than one size of these if it does end up being a new model, so we expect more to come soon.
