For me, the gravel bike is everything. My skinny tyre road bike has been hung up for over a year, and my gravel bike is used for road based commuting, weekend blasts, shopping trips and bikepacking adventures.
I have two gravel bikes: the Kona Private Jake and the Kona Sutra Ltd. The Private Jake is now my commuting rig, and I have been hunting for a tubeless tyre that offers speed, stability and all weather grip, both on the asphalt and for occasional off-road riding. In the Hutchinson Caracal tyre, I think I have found it.
The Caracal is a ‘fast’ gravel tyre. It has a slick central strip, with small side knobs for added grip when cornering. The central strip allows you to roll quickly on light gravel and road based rides, and when you do lean the bike over, especially loaded, the lugs provide respectable grip. Venture offroad in wet conditions and you might be looking for more grip, but for fast summer trails without too many rocks, the Caracal is ideal.
Hutchinson Tires are one of the best quality tubeless tyre brands that I have used in many years of riding. They mount up easily on tubeless rims, and they seal reliably. The HardSkin technology seems to work effectively at preventing sidewall slashes—a very real problem with some brands of tubeless off-road tyres. Finally, they seem to last—testament to the quality of the rubber and carcass layup.
The Hutchinson Caracal excels for road riding, backcountry lanes, light gravel paths and loaded touring. Fast, stable and reliable—these are one of my favourite tyres to date.
