As with gravel bikes, so gravel tyres are diverging fast into ‘race’ and ‘normal’. Today Hutchinson throws its hat into the speedy end of the market with its new Caracal tyre, the ‘race’ version of which it claims is the fastest gravel tyre on the market, according to independent testing.
As you might expect for a gravel tyre with such speedy claims, both the Caracal and the Caracal Race feature a totally slick centre, with progressively larger sidewall knobs to provide some modicum of bite in the corners.
Caracal Race
The new Caracal Race garners some of its speed, which Hutchinson claims outperforms some competitor tyres by 35%, from its tread, but in this case we need to start with the casing. This new gravel race tyre, like the brand’s Blackbird road tyre, features what Hutchinson calls ‘SwiftEasy’ casing.
Usually, tyre casings overlap in the centre of the tyre and are bonded in place there. In this case the 120tpi casing, relatively supple already by tyre standards, doesn’t meet in the middle at all, and is instead bonded directly to a puncture protection strip before having a final airtight bead-to-bead layer encasing everything before the tread to ensure an airtight seal. The aim of this new construction is to make the tyre more flexible, which in turn makes it faster.
Compared to similar semi-slick tyres in the brand’s lineup, which we take to mean the Overide model, the rolling resistance is reduced by a claimed 40%. In addition to the same casing construction as the Blackbird, the Caracal Race also uses the Mach Tread 3.0 rubber compound for the tread itself, claimed to offer 25% greater rebound and improvements in durability compared to its predecessor.
Given the semi-slick nature of the tread, Hutchinson makes no bones about the fact this is a tyre for dry conditions only, though it claims the pronounced side knobs allow for aggressive cornering.
The Caracal Race only comes in a 700x40c size, weighs 475g, and retails at €59.99.
The ‘normal’ Caracal
The Caracal without the ‘race’ moniker appears similar on the surface and has an identical tread pattern to the Caracal Race, but uses the less premium ‘bi-compound’ rubber and is constructed using a more traditional casing structure, rather than the ‘SwiftEasy’ option. This, along with a bead-to-bead puncture protection layer make for a more durable tyre that Hutchinson claims still rolls fast, but is more suited to ‘everyday riding’.
Surprisingly the Caracal weighs exactly the same as the Caracal Race - 475g - but is a little lighter on the wallet at €54.99. Unlike the Race, which only comes in a tanwall colour, the Caracal also comes in black. It, too, is also only available in a 40c width.
