The best mud-slaying gravel tyre on the market?
This competition is now closed
By Katherine Moore
Published: February 24, 2023 at 2:00 pm
The most aggressively treaded option in Vittoria’s cyclocross and gravel line-up, the Terreno Wet is a lightweight tubeless-ready tyre.
It excels, as the name might suggest, in the type of wet conditions usually experienced in a UK autumn and winter.
We’re not just talking about wet roads and gravel though; the mud is where the Terreno Wet truly exceeds. It makes light work of typical winter gravel riding conditions.
Originally designed for cyclocross racing, the wider 38mm Terreno Wet tyre from Vittoria has become a popular gravel bike tyre for wet and muddy winter riding.
Widely spaced knobs characterise the tread, with the lug direction alternating to give a broken centre line.
The knobs also feature siping to aid wet-weather traction, shedding water from the tread.
The Terreno Wet is only available with Vittoria’s TNT endurance casing. This includes an additional layer of puncture protection for the sidewalls compared to the lighter, racier TLR casing that can be found on the Terreno Dry.
With tubeless-ready options also available in 31mm and 33mm widths, gravel riders with limited clearance on a cyclocross frame can also benefit from these mud tyres.
Unusually, the sidewalls are a mid-grey only.
I needed a sturdy tyre lever and a little more persuasion than most to get the Vittoria Terreno Wet tyres onto the rims of my WTB i23 CZR wheels.
Having said that, they weren’t too troublesome.
The tubeless setup was fairly straightforward, using an Airshot to deliver 120psi into the tyres in one go and satisfyingly pop the bead onto the rim.
Inflated, the tyre measures up 41mm wide on 23mm internal rim diameter wheels, so don’t let the narrower nominal width put you off.
I’ve also used these tyres in the past, still measuring up wider than claimed at 40mm on 21mm internal rims.
The biggest plus is the Terreno Wet’s performance in the mud. That comes as no great surprise, because the Terreno tyres have been around some time, originally designed as cyclocross tyres where mud is (often) a fact of life.
I found absolutely no slipping when riding through mud. That remained the case even in deeper, claggier and churned-up tracks.
The Terreno Wet bites in giving you traction no matter the conditions.
The widely spaced knobs also meant mud shed easily off the tyre, preventing any build-up in the frame or fork.
This is important for cyclocross racing, but can also help prevent any damage to your frameset on muckier gravel rides.
The only gravel tyres I’ve found to challenge the mud grip of the Terreno Wets is the cross-country inspired WTB Sendero. Those tyres are only available in a 47mm width for 650b wheels, and (for the record) are considerably slower on the road.
The Terreno Wet tyres rolled well over rocks, roots and dry earth too, offering good all-round gravel performance.
On the road, they weren’t quite as nippy as some gravel tyres with a slick, unbroken central tread – such as the Hutchinson Tundra, for example – but they’re hardly excessively draggy.
Regardless, any drag on tarmac is a small price to pay for the exceptional mud performance.
I didn’t experience any punctures during the testing period, even though I put the tyres through their paces on some technical rocky descents and rooty singletrack.
The sidewalls did seem a little more porous than some other tyres though, which meant I regularly reinflated the tyres to my desired pressure before riding out.
If your winter gravel rides often include a substantial amount of mud negotiation, then look no further.
The confidence this tyre induces means you’ll be taking a fast, straight line when ploughing through filthy, muddy ground, rather than skirting around it.
As an added bonus, the Terreno Wet tyres are no slouch on the road, either.
Contributor
Katherine Moore is Dartmoor-based gravel and bikepacking expert who judges her rides by stoke level, rather than speed. When she’s not scouting out the best long-distance and local off-road routes in the UK, Katherine works as a freelance writer, bike tester, presenter and guide. Katherine is the former editor of advntr.cc and has also worked as a presenter on the Global Cycling Network. As well as being a regular contributor to BikeRadar.com and the BikeRadar Podcast, Katherine has also written for Cycling Weekly, Bikepacking.com and hosts the Unpaved Podcast. If you’re out on the trail you’ll likely see her from a mile off, thanks to her rather bright colour palette!
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