Autumn in the northern hemisphere means the return of colder temperatures, the arrival of wet conditions and the lowering of traction. It’s that time of year when you might consider turning to the dark side and adding some road riding into your regular routine. But with fallen leaves, potholes and greasy road surfaces, you need the perfect tyre to help keep you rubber-side-down. Olly’s been trying out a pair of Vittoria’s Terreno T10 recently and they could be just the thing you’re after.
According to the definitive Public Rights of Way map for Northumberland, the closest UK county to the Gravel Union office, what you see in the photograph above is classified a road. It might look like a gravel trail, but vehicles are legally allowed to use it and theoretically, it has a maximum speed limit of 60 mph/96 kph. If you were to arrive at the start of this ‘road’ on a typical road bike set up with normal road tyres, you would be in for a bit of a shock.
Discovering that what is marked as a road on the map actually has grass growing up the middle, is constructed from granite cobbles, is buried under leaves or is covered with a thin layer of mud/gravel is not unusual and is certainly not limited to Northumberland, but it does go to show that road riding can be a bit of a lottery. So what, you might be thinking. This is a gravel riding platform, why should we care about roads? The answer, of course, is that some of you might decide that during the depths of the upcoming winter, when the slop has reached hub-depth and you’re spending almost as much time bike washing as you are bike riding, to try some road riding instead?
If you decide to try out some tarmac bashing this autumn/winter, we have one tip for you – use the biggest volume tyres that you can fit in your bike. In exactly the same way that bigger gravel tyres offer more grip, more comfort and arguably more speed, big volume road tyres are just as revolutionary. Gone are the bad old days of running 21mm tyres pumped until the they felt like cast iron - now even world tour pros frequently run tyres of 32mm and in the Spring Classics in 2025, some teams used tyres of 38mm in width.
Not everyone has the luxury of having a dedicated road bike and even if you do, you might well be limited by the maximum size of tyre that you can fit, but if you are fortunate enough to own an all-road bike (or you can get hold of a spare set of wheels to use with your gravel bike which you can fit some road tyres on), then the maxim of Bigger is Better definitely applies and they don’t come much bigger (or better) than Vittoria’s Terreno T10 which are available in a please-take-my-money 700x50mm version.
You might wonder why I chose to fit tyres that are nominally gravel tyres onto my all-road bike? The short answer is “Northern England.” Where I ride is subject to the vagaries of the worst of British autumn/winter weather and that frequently means rain and low temperatures. If my local road network wasn’t already battered enough by heavy vehicles, then the next few months will turn them from ‘perfectly ok” into “oooh, this is a bit spicey.” So, the extra grip, comfort and traction provided by the Terreno T10s will be very welcome. The central portion of the tyre is completely slick and as such, rolls incredibly well. Each of the ‘shoulders’ of the tyre have what Vittoria describe as “revolutionary fish scales” which dramatically increases grip when cornering or when the conditions are wet/greasy. They are the Goldilocks tyre for roads that are less-than-perfect.
“Now that is chunky!!” That was the message that my friend David (an über-dedicated road rider) sent me after I forwarded him this picture of my newly shod all-road bike. To the eye of a road cycling purist, fitting 700x50mm tyres is a pretty odd decision, but to my eye (undoubtedly biased, of course) it looks absolutely ace.
How your bike looks with a new set of tyres fitted isn’t all that important (although there is some undoubted psychological benefit from being happy with your choice of set-up) – it’s the ride that’s the critical factor. My preferred local road riding loops tend to be routed along the roads that car drivers avoid - there's plenty of narrow roads with grass growing up the middle, a mix of surfaces, lots of 'sunken' roads with high banks on either side (which means they often remain in the shade and so can be damp/greasy) and there are plenty of terrain changes with everything from short, sharp climbs to high-speed swoopy descents. In short, they make the perfect testing ground for a set of big volume tyres.
Despite the fact that the Terreno T10s in the 700x50mm size weigh in at a not-insubstantial 640g each (more than 200g per tyre heavier than the tyres they replaced), my initial overwhelming impression was how fast they made the bike feel. The tyres I had previously fitted to my all-road bike were 700x38mm, so the Terrenos were significantly bigger. Although the extra weight was obvious in the carpark ‘heft test’, as soon as I started pedalling, the weight gain was no longer as noticeable. In addition to rolling super well, the bigger tyres had a number of unintended (but beneficial) consequences – the first was that the bigger volume tyres marginally slackened the geometry on my bike which altered the handling from super-fast-and-twitchy to slightly slower and more confidence inspiring. The increase in tyre volume meant I was able to drop the pressure down to 30 psi/2 bar which had enormous benefits in terms of comfort, grip on poor surfaces and reduced fatigue. The Terreno T10s are designed with “an anti-puncture belt” which meant I could tackle some of the more “variable” road surfaces (or ride on roads where autumnal hedge trimming has been completed) without the constant worry of the puncture fairies coming to visit. Finally, they made my bike look amazing, which obviously made it faster.
If you’re going to be lining up on the start line of a world tour road race, or you’re riding a ‘traditional’ road bike with limited clearance, these tyres won’t be for you. But for everyone else, when it comes to road tyres, bigger is definitely better!
The Vittoria Terreno T10s are available in 700x32/37/40/45/50mm (plus a 650x47) variants and the RRP is €58.95 per tyre (or equivalent). You can find all the details on Vittoria’s website.