Two tough weekends on rough Lake Garda Sentieros, hundreds of kilometres in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps or half an eternity on gentle, wooded low mountain trails: what can the tyre take best? Short and rocky? Or would you prefer the long, gentle and wooded tour? In the end, the tyres all end up in the rubbish bin. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. But nothing ages a tyre as quickly as rough, stony, steep terrain. Soft forest ground, on the other hand, is like a wellness holiday in a five-star palace for the rubber rollers, and they naturally last longer. So far, this is hardly surprising. We were more interested in the question:
Which tyre lasts the longest?
For the first time, we measured tyre wear under standardised conditions in the laboratory. Eight current tyre models were put on the roller test bench. One thing is clear: variables such as individual driving and braking behaviour or even different surfaces make it difficult to transfer the results 1:1 to practice. Nevertheless, our four duels provide interesting insights into the service life of your tyres.
You can find the test results of these tyre models in the PDF download below
We compared the following tyre types in the test:
- Wide vs. narrow: Schwalbe Rocket Ron 2.4 vs. Rocket Ron 1.85
- Cheap vs. expensive: Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25 Evolution vs. Performance
- Closed vs. open tread: Geax Saguaro 2.2 vs. Continental Mountain King 2.2
- Hard compound versus soft: Maxxis Larsen TT 60a vs. Maxxis Larsen TT 42a
Also tested: Continental X-King 2.4 Racesport
