Video summary
The host of the channel has long maintained a strict policy against accepting tire sponsorships, believing that gravel tires are the single most critical piece of equipment for a rider's success. Unlike other gear where compromises might be acceptable, the choice of tires can literally make or break a race due to factors like puncture resistance and rolling resistance. This obsession with objectivity led him to become known as an impartial voice on tire decisions, a reputation his audience deeply respected. However, that stance has changed today as he finally partners with Silka, a company that had never manufactured tires before this project. The collaboration was not a standard promotional deal but a deep involvement in the development process from day one, ensuring the final product met his exacting standards without any pre-existing promises or compromises.
The core philosophy behind Silka's new tires addresses significant flaws in the current market, particularly the trend of making tires unnecessarily thick and heavy to prevent punctures. The host and Silka's CEO, Josh Port, argue that this "old school" approach is inefficient; wider tires do not necessarily need to be thicker, and increasing thickness actually increases rolling resistance, slowing the rider down. Through extensive testing in wind tunnels and laboratories like Wheel Energy in Finland, they discovered that thin-casing mountain bike tires often outperform traditional gravel tires in both speed and durability. Consequently, Silka adopted a design based on "edge theory," focusing on traction edges rather than massive tread blocks, and utilized a high-cost carbon bead instead of Kevlar to ensure safety for hookless rims while keeping the tire lightweight.
The resulting product lineup features three distinct models: RCG1, designed for fast conditions with minimal tread; RCG2, a versatile option for mixed terrain; and RCG3, an aggressive tire with larger center blocks for loose surfaces. A major breakthrough in their sizing strategy was ensuring that the labeled width (e.g., 55mm) is the actual width after mounting on a standard rim, solving a common industry issue where tires shrink significantly upon installation. In rigorous testing, the RCG1 demonstrated approximately four watts lower rolling resistance than its competitors like the Schwalbe Thunderbird while maintaining comparable puncture resistance. The team also faced real-world constraints during development, such as realizing that many riders did not have frames capable of fitting their initial 55mm prototypes, which led them to include a 45mm option despite it being less ideal, proving their commitment to practical usability over rigid adherence to an initial plan.
Ultimately, the partnership represents a shift toward optimization where cost is secondary to performance and safety, challenging the industry's traditional manufacturing constraints. The host emphasizes that Silka prioritizes creating the "ultimate version" of a tire first, addressing costs only after the best possible design is achieved, a stark contrast to competitors who limit innovation due to perceived price barriers. With data proving their tires are faster and safer than established market leaders, the project validates the host's long-held belief that gravel racing should utilize thinner casings and optimized tread patterns similar to mountain bikes. As the industry begins to shift toward wider tires like 50mm and 55mm, Silka aims to lead this evolution by providing riders with equipment that truly maximizes speed without sacrificing reliability, marking a new era for gravel tire technology.
Read the full video transcript
For my entire career, I have never
accepted a tire sponsor. And there is a
good reason for that. I think in the
sport of gravel, tires are arguably the
most important equipment decision that a
rider makes. Unlike most of your
equipment, your tires could actually
make or break your gravel race. because
of course you could get a puncture, but
also because I think there is such a
massive difference in rolling resistance
between the well optimized tires and
let's just call them the not so well
optimized tires. Not going to name any
names there. Given this, I did not want
to compromise my tire choice. You've
seen how obsessive I can be on this
channel. Throwing away potential results
for a paycheck is simply not worth it to
me. I wanted the best tire for a given
course and that meant not being beholden
to one brand. One additional side
benefit of this is that I sort of became
this progravel racer on the internet
that could be completely objective about
his tire decisions. And it's not lost on
me that my audience has recognized that
and has come to respect my opinion on
tires for that very reason. All of that
changes today as I have finally signed
with a tire company and I can see the
Dylan has finally sold out comments
coming from a mile away. Bro, you've
been a sellout this whole time. You know
how much Hyper Gain, Beast Mode, Mas
Gain or Raw Edition in the cupcake
flavor we've sold on this channel so
far? So, you may be thinking right now,
dude, just tell us if it's Ki or
Schwabby and get on with it. Well, it is
actually Silka, a company that has never
made tires before until now. And there's
a good reason for it. What's different
about this one is that Silka didn't just
call me up asking if I wanted to promote
their new tire. I was involved with the
development process of these tires from
day one. Before the project even
started, they asked me what I wanted to
see in a gravel tire. I told them, and
they were on the same page, and they set
out to make it. Over the last year, the
team at Silka have been sending me and
other riders prototype after prototype.
We'd test them, we'd tell them what we
liked, what we hated, and slowly we got
to the production version we have now.
Along with this, extensive rolling
resistance and puncture resistance
testing has been done on these. I made
no promises to Silka throughout this
entire process. I told them that if they
test well and they ride well, then we
can talk about a contract. I'm not going
to spoil any numbers for you just yet,
but let's just say the test results
spoke for themselves and made the
decision very easy. The end result is
tires that I would have wanted to build
myself. All right, I've been rambling a
lot about myself, but I should probably
intro guest, which is none other than
Mr. Marginal Gains himself and CEO of
Silka, Josh Port. He should need no
introduction at this point, but in case
you're unfamiliar, he is a mastermind
when it comes to marginal gains and a
true innovator in the bike industry.
I've had him on my channel before to
talk about arrow, tire rolling
resistance, and drivetrain efficiency.
And I brought him on today to help us
better understand the process that went
into making these tires because quite
frankly, he does a great job of
explaining it and is easy to listen to.
And yes, data nerds, we will be talking
about testing data in this video. So,
without further ado, let's get into it.
I think that a good place to start would
be by talking about how gravel tires
have been evolving as of lately. People
people who follow me know that I've been
a big proponent of using mountain bike
tires for gravel racing, which I think
for the longest time people would have
just assumed would have been slower. And
I think the reason why I sort of started
coming to that conclusion is because I
was doing some of my own testing on my
local roads. And I was finding that the
wider and wider and wider I went, the
faster the tire would be. And so that
ultimately brings you to the place of
using mountain bike tires eventually
when I had a bike that could actually
fit the mountain bike tires. And I think
that what I noticed about the mountain
bike tires is uh it's not even
necessarily the width, but it's actually
also the thinner casing. A lot of
mountain bike tires, surprisingly, even
though they're being ridden on rougher
terrain, they'll often have thinner
casing, and I I actually think that that
is almost a bigger contributing factor
to them being faster. Um, so anyway, I
think that that kind of brings us to
where we are today where you guys are
kind of trying to fill a gap in the tire
market.
>> Yeah. I I mean, I think working with you
and and well, and all of our athletes
and our own experience, I think from the
beginning, we've looked at gravel tires
and kind of thought like, what the hell
are you doing? Like I, you know, like
not to call out specific names, but you
know, like the Pirelli, um, the Escape
Collective, you know, they they did the
thing of like, you know, wider isn't
faster. And but you look at the the 40
45 50 whatever the tire they used,
you're like, why does that tire get
thicker as it gets bigger? Like that
doesn't make any sense. And why Yeah.
Why is a 55mm gravel tire like 3 mm
thick and a race king is you know 1.7
like that that just doesn't make any
sense to us. And then certainly I think
you know the work that we did together
at the wind tunnel where we said we
found that the Race King actually was
fairly arrow
>> at even at the 55 and was like well
it's way faster rolling and the
aerodynamics are good like you'd be
crazy not to run this tire.
>> Yeah. Uh, but even with that, we then
see people continuing to bring gravel
tires to market that are that old school
thick, heavy, they don't ride well. I
mean, even Ki when they took turned the
Race King into the Dubnet, they made it
thicker and slower
>> and it theoretically more puncture
resistant, but it seems like it
punctures more frequently.
>> I'm skeptical about it to be honest with
you. Yeah.
>> Yeah. It It just felt like a real step
backwards. So, yeah, I think it was
>> it just feels like we're doing gravel
tires wrong. And I Yeah, definitely had
that nagging suspicion that like I think
if we did it differently, it would be
better.
>> It It seems like companies started with
a road tire and they made it a little
bit bigger. Uh and then and then the pro
and when I say a little bit bigger I
mean a little bit like back in the day
uh we were running 35 mil gravel tires
38 maybe maybe 40 although a lot of
people anything with a four in front of
it people were like whoa that's a little
bit
>> right remember those days
>> when you have when you have a tire
that's in the in the 30 to 38 mm range
and you're riding it on rough roads
punctures become a real issue. So, the
way that these companies got around it
is they just made the tires super thick.
And of course, when you make a tire that
thick, it just gets slow.
>> Yeah. I I found it super frustrating
that even as of like 2 years ago, we'd
have these conversations with tire
companies that you're like, "Ah, we
don't think so." Or, "No, we're going to
keep doing what we're doing."
>> I didn't start out wanting to make
tires, but I felt at some way we were a
little bit pushed into it because nobody
would listen to us.
>> Yeah. So now that now that we've laid
that groundwork, let's let's talk about
the Silka tires.
>> Yeah. So I think everything that we
thought about and experienced, I mean,
and a lot of it with you and in testing
with you and John Carish and and various
labs, you know, Wheel Energy in Finland
and you were spot on, right? The the
thin light mountain tires are faster
than the gravel tires. And then when you
ride them and you put all the miles on
them, you go, "Well, they don't flat.
They're not more prone to flatting. So,
what's the downside?
>> And certainly got us thinking like,
well, what if you just kept going in
that direction and making it more of a
gravel oriented tire and and rethinking
some of the the tread patterns and
>> All right, so let's talk about where we
ended up um this this final final
prototype, if you will. Um what uh what
optimization did we do to this one
specifically? You know, I think we have
a pretty unique compound and and that
quite frankly, as I've been telling the
story, came about. You know, we talking
with the the factory and the lab at the
factory and we're like, "What's the best
compound you've ever made?" And it's
like, "Oh, it's this." We're like,
"Okay, well, like who who uses that?"
Like, "Nobody." Like, why? Like, well,
cuz it it adds a lot of cost to the
tired. You're like, you know what?
What's a lot of cost? And they're like,
"Oh, it's at least a dollar, you know?"
And so, like, okay, let's use that
compound. Um, so we're doing that. We
we've added carbon bead instead of
Kevlar.
>> Mhm.
>> You know, carbon it's lighter. It's much
stronger. It's way safer for hookless.
Great. Who's using carbon? Nobody. Well,
why aren't they using it? Oh, cuz that's
like $2, you know, whatever. I Okay,
let's So, um, so we tried the carbon
bead, and yeah, I think it it allows us
to much better guarantee the the
diameter of that bead over the life of
the tire, both before you buy it.
>> Mhm.
>> And after you have it, um, it is much
much harder to blow off of a hookless
rim. So, I think it adds another layer
of safety there. And then I think we
tackled the tread
building from a bit of a different angle
than most in that and I think you know
you really helped me get my head around
this but you know I think it's
>> it's much more about edges
>> than it is about like the block of of
tread. And so we kind of developed this
what we call like edge theory you know
and it's you have cornering edges and
you have traction edges and you have
breaking edges. Yeah.
>> Um, and I think that led us down a path
that it just I think certainly RCG1 I
mean it just looks a little bit
different, maybe a little bit weird when
you first see it, but
>> I think seems to work.
>> Yeah, I think the way that I would
describe it is it it it almost looks
like a mountain bike tire tread where
the knobs are much much shallower. Um,
so you know, it should roll faster on
the road. Uh, I think that a lot of
gravel companies, you know, they'll just
throw this mass tread over the whole
tire um that's all connected. And I I I
actually wonder if that is part of the
reason why some of these gravel tires
test so slowly because it's like they've
got a whole extra layer that's just
tread that's that's filling up the whole
tire and it's it's causing a lot of
extra hysteresis.
>> Yeah, I think that's exactly Yeah. I
mean, I think a lot of the theory has
been almost like you think of like an
automotive tire, right? Where you make a
tire that's really thick and then you've
cut the tread into it. And we really,
you know, started with the thin casing
and then sort of grew the tread out of
it.
>> Well, while we're on treads, maybe we
talk about the different tread patterns
that you're offering.
>> Looking at buying benchmark tires, I
found it frustrating that like the names
didn't mean anything. And so like you
know what's a dubnitol versus a magnetl
versus trinotl.
>> Don't even get me started on the the new
continental naming is I I can't stand
it. I can't stand it.
>> And so we're like let's come up with
acronyms and just use like the Silka
tire pressure calculator. We use the
classic gravel one, gravel 2, right? So
like the you know RCG uh one is race
casing gravel one. And so and then we
have race casing gravel 3 and gravel
four. We'll see if a gravel two is
coming because I think that's that's a
starts to get to be splitting hairs. But
RCG1 is for gravel one. So, you know,
it's a steamboat tire, right? It's
champagne gravel, good conditions,
>> thin, like loose over hard,
>> but not getting into that like, you
know, we're talking sub couple
millimeter, you know, gravel pravel type
size. RCG3 is meant to be a little bit
more aggressive. I think we're at 3 mm
tread blocks in the center growing out
to five at the outer edges.
>> And just just for reference, cuz you
know 3 mm probably doesn't mean a whole
lot to people. Like what is that in
relation to a typical mountain bike
tread height?
>> That's I would say right at to a little
bit below. It's probably somewhere in
between like a
race king and a um oh god what's the
Thunderbird? Yeah. Is kind of in that
range. M. Um, but again with our sort of
ramped uh concept, so we've actually
been able to make a tire that's lighter
than those cuz there's we've essentially
cut away all the tread that isn't
touching the ground.
>> I'd also like to talk about sizing. Um,
so you guys are doing this in a 45, a
50, and a 55, correct?
>> Yes.
>> And those should be true sizes.
>> Yeah.
>> If I'm not mistaken.
>> Yeah. So again, back to asking talking
to the factory about they're like,
"Well, you know, how do you want to size
them?" Like what what do you want to be
the baseline for inner rim width?
>> And then at what pressure after how many
days? And you're like, "Oh, thank God."
I mean, this is like talking to Paige
who's like who, you know, she's got a
notebook of like three, five, seven, 14
day.
>> Um the factory knows all this stuff.
It's just nobody wants to talk about it.
And so we said, "Oh yeah, let
let's lead with you know, I want to be,
you know, I want to be 55 mm after, you
know, 3 days at, you know, whatever the
pressure is. And this is all on the side
of the box, so you you guys have it. But
on this inner rim width, and that way
you know that that that's what you're
going to get. And yeah, your 55 isn't
actually
>> 58 and now you've got clearance issues
in your bike or that the 55 is a 52 when
you mount it on Yeah.
>> the rim that you actually have. And so,
yes, that felt like a really easy thing
to solve and lead with and just continue
to make me wonder why nobody's talked
about this. You know, we we didn't just
invent gravel tires this year. Like, why
haven't we been talking about this
before now?
>> Exactly. For sure.
>> It's not hard. So
>> the Ki Race King is 55 on a standard 25
mil rim. And that's I I remember in 2024
that's kind of when this shift happened.
You know, some of us in the Grand Prix
were starting to use mountain bike tires
in gravel racing and and you could see
the beginning of the year almost no one
was using wider than a 50 for gravel
racing. It was a bunch of 45s, maybe
40s, maybe like 48 on the big end around
mids south. That's kind of what people
had. By the time you got to big sugar,
so that's, you know, that's that's one
that's that's the start of the season to
the end of the season. By the time you
got to Big Sugar, nearly half the field
was on a 50 or bigger. Um, and I think
some tire companies took notice of that
and and now we're in 2026 and you're
seeing them come out with 50 and 55
millimeter gravel tires, but that was
that was unheard of for a long time.
>> Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy to think. I
mean, we we certainly heard from some of
our customers. I mean, you know, we went
to the wind tunnel together and did that
video.
>> You did a video on it. And I mean, I
like the bicycle station guys. They're
like, "Shit, the like country was sold
out of Race Kings within a month." I
mean, it like it just changed,
not everything, but it changed a lot for
a lot of people.
>> Yeah. I mean, to be honest, when part of
this as well was, you know, we spent
years telling the other guys like, "You
need to make 55s. They're going to be
faster. You can make the casing thinner,
right? There's less casing tension.
They're not going to be more
puncturone." And so part of the the
beginning of this project, I was like
like let's only make 55s,
you know, and and it was pretty quickly
as we started to line up test riders and
I had 30 something test riders that it
was like, okay, only four of them had
bikes that would fit the 55. Damn it.
Well, I guess we have to make the 50.
>> And then, you know, I think eight of the
30some test riders couldn't even fit the
50. And like, ah, I guess we have
to make a 45, too.
>> Um, but but we did draw the line in the
sand. I'm like, we're not making a 40
cuz that's dead. Like it's it's just
dead, you know? I think yeah, the the 55
and I say 55 is the answer, but I mean
probably 50 to 60 is the answer.
>> Mhm.
>> Um but we need the frames that fit it.
And then with that, we need wheels that
are optimized around those tires. Yeah.
I I mean, to me, this is the future and
nobody was doing it. And so in a sense
it's like you know god damn it people
like you're going to make us go and do
tires and and uh they didn't.
>> So I I would like to talk about probably
what everybody is the most curious about
which is actual test results if you if
you can share them. And when I say test
results I'm talking about rolling
resistance data and puncture resistance
data.
>> Yeah. So, our our goal was to be faster
at essentially the same to better
puncture resistance. Um, and the two
tires that we really benchmarked the the
most, right, were the Race King and the
>> Thunderbird. Thunderbird. Yeah. You
know, we started with Wheel Energy in
Finland. Um, you know, just looking at
like pure lab results, right? and
they've got a great drum um that they
can change out different gravel
impactors and and then they're they use
a pneumatic piston to to load the tire
and so you actually can see some of the
um the breakpoint um uh pressure, right?
So, you know, I think for overall like
like RCG1
were I think four watts faster. I think
it was four watts faster per tire than
the um the Schwabby
>> the Thunderbird
>> the Thunderbird Thunderbird.
>> But yes, we're like four watts faster
than a Thunderbird at like 80 g lighter.
The the two punctures that they do are
one is like a toothpick test. Uh, and
the other one is it looks like like one
of those like skinny it's like a two or
two and a half millimeter X-acto knife
blade that they push in to simulate a
cut. And and then from the race king
perspective, we're also a couple watts
faster and we're basically even with uh
the punct the lab puncture performance
to them. And then I think from a weight
perspective, I don't have the numbers in
front of me, but I mean we're something
like 80 g um lighter than the
Thunderbird. I mean, which is which
>> is pretty surprising that we were able
to achieve. And again, some of that's
carbon bead, some of that's
>> um you know, the the compound. Um but a
lot of that was just Yeah. the the
casing and the ply design.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the the way that I'm
kind of thinking about these tires right
now is the the RCG1 for me seems to be
my replacement for the Thunderbird. Like
any course where I would go to the
Thunderbird, I'm probably using RCG1
for. And any course that I would use
Race King for, I'm probably using RCG3
for.
>> So I think important takeaways here, if
I'm hearing this correctly, the the RCG1
is lower rolling resistance and RCG3 is
lower rolling resistance than the Race
King, but same puncture resistance.
>> About the same
>> about the same. One of the cool things
about your approach to not just tires,
but just everything that you guys make
and you you said it before talking about
like, oh, you know, uh why why doesn't
anybody do carbon bead? And they're
like, oh, it adds cost. And you're like,
well, how much cost? Well, a couple
dollars. Uh I feel like, and you can
correct me if I'm wrong, Silka is often
not asking, "How cheaply can we produce
this?" They're like, "What's the best
way to produce it?"
>> Yeah.
>> Um which I really admire. Yeah. Well,
thank you. Yeah. No, we I mean I tell my
guys it's cost last, right? So, like
let's make the ultimate version of the
thing and we'll talk about the cost at
the end and
>> you know I have absolutely had projects
where it is the like well how much does
that ad like's $100 like actually
>> like ah that that can't be a viable
product. But yeah, I mean there's so
much stuff where the the cost ad is
marginal relative to I think the benefit
for for our our customer, our athlete.
>> Well, I mean, you know me, I'm I'm all
about optimization. So, I I I love when
people are into optimizing the bike as
much as they possibly can. And I don't
want to say I'm a costlast person, but I
I'm full-on optimization guy. So, yeah,
I appreciate that.
>> Thanks for watching. If you're
interested in trying out a pair of Silka
tires for yourself, then I have left the
link for that in the description below.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to
give it a like, subscribe, and share it
with your cycling friends. I'll see you
in the next one.