When I began my
track and cross country journey as a pre-teen the coach held up the one shoe
that existed and told everyone to go to the one store that carried the one shoe
and buy it.
The Hutchinson
Secteur has had that kind of grip on a pretty large segment of the tubeless
market. Not pure road and not pure
gravel. Lots of rides are somewhere in
between and the Secteur has proven to be the perfect tire.
On one end of
the spectrum is road tires. These are
generally 23-25mm wide. These are good for nice tarmac and are light and
grippy. The Schwalbe One is a leader there and new options are popping up
monthly.
On the other end
are hard core gravel/adventure tires.
Established players like the Stan’s Raven and Specialized Trigger 2bliss
are joined by offerings from WTB, Kenda, Clement (finally) and others. These tires range from 30 to 40+mm wide. This
market too is expanding to the delight of off roaders.
In between those
two extremes there are plenty of real world conditions. A road ride with some dirt roads doesn’t
justify a 38mm wide gravel eater but could shred a road only tubeless tire.
Rough roads (think cobblestones) are more comfortable and safer on something
between the road and gravel tires. There
are a lot of rides that fall into this category. A route where you need something that is
tough but has low rolling resistance is ideal.
The Hutchinson
Secteur has owned this market to date.
There is a new offering from Schwalbe that may contest it but pending a
proven track record the Sectour remains the winner.
El Chefe has
ridden Secteurs on rough roads and even singletrack that seemed way beyond the
capabilities of a road tire and has done so without incident. Several of our
clan commute on the Secteurs. They are
well suited to rough city roads with potholes and a smattering of gravel,
broken glass and cobbles.
While the
performance has generally been excellent a few of us have flatted. As I have
said in the past the sidewall is the Achilles heel of tubeless. On really rough roads they are susceptible to
sidewall cuts from sharp rocks. It takes
a pretty significant gash to cut the sidewalls and in examining the tires later
it was clear that running them as clinchers would not have prevented the
flat. Since the result is the same (put
in a tube and finish the ride) there is no penalty for going tubeless.
Traction has
been impressive for a treadles tire. I believe that like Schwalbe they use some
nice grippy rubber. In combination with the lower pressure this makes for an
excellent ride with a larger contact patch and impressive traction. This is
ironic because I have found the Hutchinson Fusion 3’s to ride harsh and have
poor grip and crappy rolling resistance.
Hutchinson was
an early adopter of Tubeless and when they began many of the rims were clincher
rims that had been converted to allow for tubeless installation. To address the
variability of rims Hutchinson took a conservative approach and made the tires
a bit tighter to prevent them coming off rims that are on the edge of the
spectrum. The result of this tighter bead size is these tires are often a bear
to wrestle onto the rim.
Summary
Mixed terrain
riding is all about finding the optimal compromise. A wide tire with good bite is better in the
rough stuff but is slow on the pave. Conversely
the slick tire that excels on the tarmac is sketchy when the pavement
ends. The Secteurs fill a wide spectrum
and although they do nothing perfectly they handle a variety of conditions
fairly well. These tires roll well and
resist all but the most horrific flats.
The wear is acceptable and the ride at lower pressure is both comfortable
and confidence inspiring.
Five of five
Evos.
