The brand new Michelin Energy Journey tyre is, in response to Michelin, designed for riders who spend round 80% of their using time on tarmac, however nonetheless need to have the ability to head off-road in confidence for the opposite 20%.
As such, they’re not designed a lot to sit down among the many greatest gravel bike tyres as to suit between them and the greatest highway bike tyres. With their ever-increasing tyre clearance, lots of the greatest highway bikes ought to have house for the narrowest 32mm Energy Journey tyre width.
The brand new tyres’ focus signifies that they should prioritise low rolling resistance whereas nonetheless offering the grip to maintain you rubber facet down if you wish to discover the trail much less overwhelmed.
As such, they match between the Michelin Energy highway tyre vary and the Michelin Energy Gravel off-road tyres, though Michelin says that the tyres can be utilized for bikepacking, trekking and commuting duties too, in order that they’re one thing of an all-rounder.
The tyres are produced from a brand new rubber compound that Michelin calls Gum-X. It says that this gives good grip each within the moist and the dry. The tread sample contains small shoulder blocks for grip off-road, with a slick central part for pace on the highway. It sits on a 3×100 TPI casing with a bead-to-bead protecting layer.
As is usually the case with new tyres, riders are catered for with tan sidewall “Traditional” or black sidewall choices, in order that they’ll select the tyres that greatest match their bike. The brand new Michelin Energy Journey tyres are tubeless-ready and out there in 700c tyre dimension solely.
The tyres can be found in 30mm dimension with a claimed weight of 340g, 36mm with claimed 380g weight and 42mm with claimed 440g weight in each tan and black sidewall choices. There’s additionally a 48mm width in Traditional tan sidewall end solely with a 510g claimed weight.