af2nr

So I recently picked up a Trek Boone as "one-quiver bike" to ride everything from forest roads, gravel, and the roads that link them, to even possibly trying CX next season. The bike comes equipped with Bontrager CX3 32c tires and they seem a little aggressive for "everyday" riding, likely a decent CX tire though. So with the holidays upcoming I put a couple of different tubeless tires on my Amazon list so family would have ideas of things I wanted. However, in my haste, I forgot to add a quantity to the tires so I now have a couple of new tires for the bike but not a matching set. Not so much worried about the "matching" of the tires as I am the treads working well together. I have one Clement X'Plor MSO in a 36c and one Panaracer Gravel King SK in a 35c.

So my questions are this. Are the file treads of the two tires close enough that they would work well, or OK, together? Would I be better off returning one of the tires for another of the others? I have considered this as a chance to try both tires and see if I prefer one to the other, although without swapping F-R occasionally it would be hard to know how well each works on both ends.

Any input or suggestions from the masses?

ckindt

I would buy another tire of each to have a two sets of matching tires, but I really doubt running the combination would produce any results different from running either matching set.

Can you tolerate riding on mis-matching tires? If yes, ride what you have.

justin1138

I have a Maxxis Rambler in the rear and a WTB Nano in front on my bike right now. The Nano is a little wider and a has more aggressive tread. The idea being I want to keep more reliable traction in the front.

With the two tires you have, I would put the MSO up front.

fietsbob

what is the CX course Like?

af2nr

Due to the size or the tread? From what I've seen the Gravel King measures out wider than 35 so I'm not sure which will actually be the widest once mounted.

justin1138

Yeah, I would have expected the MSO to be slightly larger and a hair more aggressive. I've had 3 different pairs of Clement's (not the MSO's), and they have all been at least as wide as the label. I thought I read the opposite about the Gravelkings somewhere.

Either way, the tires should be pretty close in size and tread. Like you were saying in the OP, it's probably worth experimenting with the two tires in the F vs R.

09box

I've run different tires on the F and R of my bike with no issues out on the road/gravel..

af2nr

I appreciate the input from everyone. Due to an order glitch this isn't going to be an issue as I ended up with two Clement X'Plor MSO instead of one of each. Still curious to try the Gravel King but it will be at a later date. Thanks again!