Hutchinson’s new 50mm Overide gravel tire pushes the boundaries of what a gravel tire is capable of. The aim is to enable riders to tackle more challenging terrain whilst doing so in comfort. Tubeless ready and e-bike compatible, these tires provide excellent rolling resistance and puncture resistance to create one of the best gravel bike tires for dry trials.
Hutchinson Overide: construction
Using bi-compound technology as well as an integrated hardskin compound means that not only do these tires have increased protection to help ward off punctures or slices from sharp rocks across the whole width of the tire, they are also very flexible making them extremely easy to fit.
At a weight of 610 grams per tire they certainly are not a light set, however this is to be expected from such a reinforced and solid tire. The tread pattern keeps the same design as the previous models, just slightly enlarged, with a smooth central tread to reduce friction diamond shaped knobbles on either side helps to ensure you have grip through the corners.
Hutchinson Overide: the ride
The semi slick makeup of the tire offered brilliant rolling resistance. Unfortunately Oxfordshire is not blessed with miles and miles of hard packed gravel tracks and so often a ‘gravel ride’ may only contain 50 per cent gravel and the rest being made up of broken tarmac sections. Across the hard packed gravel and tarmac sections I was super impressed by the ability of the tires to hold their speed.
Measuring 49mm when fitted they are super wide and so are not suitable for all frames, but this large surface area and increased volume meant that the Overide’s provided heaps of comfort. Heading out of the door with 25 psi meant that there was a little give in the tires, helping to absorb the lumps and bumps on route whilst also helping the tire to bed into the corners. Personally I am a fan of the bike moving slightly underneath you and I really found that it gave me confidence to carry more speed than usual through the corners. The width coupled with the diamond shaped side profile of the tires meant that there was plenty of grip on the drier, more compacted traditional gravel roads.
The Overide is designed to be a fast rolling tire which is evident by the tread profile, what this does mean is that there is minimal grip as soon as things turn slippery. I was caught out on a number of occasions when the track suddenly turned into a slip and slide that ultimately was too much for the tires to handle. Losing traction and with the real wheel spinning underneath as I tried to edge the bike forwards, ended with me caving in and pushing the bike.
Dropping the pressure slightly did help the situation, but I found running too low of a pressure meant that the tires provided a very bouncy, unstable ride.
Although slippery conditions are not a strong point of the Overide there are two other options in this new range from Hutchinsons, both being more aggressive and so with the Overide not being able to battle the slipperier conditions it has to be remembered that’s not the conditions it’s designed for.
The Overide is a capable tire, letting a little extra pressure from the tires I ventured onto tracks I usually reserve only for my mountain bike, but being nearly as wide as my mountain bike tires the Overides took the braking bumps and flowy berms in their stride.
Hutchinson Overide: value and conclusion
These tires are built for adventure and helping you to get the most out of your gravel bike. The comfort provided across the pothole ridden local roads and hard packed roads was impressive and the speed that they carry makes these the perfect gravel tire for those looking to undertake long journeys on a mixture of terrains. Resistance to punctures is brilliant thanks to the hardskin compound, but the semi slick tread pattern does not make these a suitable gravel tire for those looking at exploring the muddier gravel tracks.
At $60.18 / £44.95 these tires sit middle of the pack in terms of value for money. Comparing to the likes of the Specialized Pathfinders and the Vittoria Terreno dry G2.0’s, both of the Overides closest rivals which all come in at around the $60 / £45 mark.
