Compass Tires
 

No protection layers. Excellent ride quality. Pretty good wear life for a performance-oriented tire.

I use the Rat Trap Pass ELs on my gravel bike.

the internet BOB forum had replaced Riv Bike's Grant ,
with Jan Heine, Owner of Compass Cycles
as their industry guru..
Many read VBQ, which he publishes, also.. he touts fatter is faster , in his tyres..

Grant promoted the RBW Jack Brown '33. which came in
a Kevlar puncture resistant belt, model or without..




....

I re-shod my FX-3 with leopard skin...YMMV. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...af4a6dd5ff.jpg

They're good tires. Often they flat more than other tires due to propensity for wider supple tires to take and hold glass that works through the tread into the tube over many rides.

The hyperbolic marketing and inviolable nature of their performance due to the argumentum ad verecundiam based discourse with company representative(s) is a turn off to many. As is the price. There are equal and much better tires from competing brands in the narrower 700c widths up to 32mm. They are without peer for 650b sizes as well as all sizes above 32mm for slick tires. Many of their tire models are narrower than advertised and it is a toss-up if they will grow through use. There knobbie tires are much more down market than their road slicks. Little reason to choose Compass knobbie tires when there are much better rolling and much better engineered tires from other companies.

The prior development tires, produced by Panaracer as well but labeled as Grand Bois, feature thicker tread with only minimal weight increase for the same rolling performance and true-to width size. Grand Bois tires tend to last 25-33% longer than Compass tires and are more true to size.

To me, the construction of the Compass tires looks identical to that of Primo tires. Primos cost less, but don't come in all the trendy sizes. Primos have a reputation for being relatively fast, good ride, but fragile and not particularly good traction in wet.

Having used the 28mm and 32mm I'd go straight to the 32mm. Real cushy ride at the right pressure.
Tubed flats on the Extralights: no different in occurrence riding on the road/paved to my previous Conti' gps.

I am curious as to comparisons between Panaracer gravel king in similar sizes.

like Panaracer GK 700x38 (320g) is way lighter than the 700x38 Barlow pass 430g ( 380g extralight). and way less expensive.

yet say SwitchbackHill 650x48 (478g/413g) vs Panaracer GK 650x48. (520g) the lighter weight goes to Compass.

so does this mean that in 38 the suppleness winner is panaracer, but in the 650x48 the winner is Compass? and the same for fragile? Meaning is the barlowpass more durable than the 38c GK? yet the GK 650x48 more durable than Switchback?

so pick and choose tires based on needs, and riding surface?

is the heavier tire better for tubeless, lighter tires better for tubes?

so many stories floating around about Compass tires blowing off on tubeless setup, yet guys are running GK SK tubeless on hookless wheels with zero issues. ( no loud bzzz on the interwebs anyways). blowing off might need a grain of salt too, to my perception way too many people run too high of pressure. the old myth higher psi is better. the SK is a bit more robust at 540g though, is that what helps it with tubeless?

actually the BarlowPass seems to be a pretty robust tire in comparison to size/weight ratios of other Compass offerings.

the other question is, If the Compass stories are true about supple/comfort. Is there any reasons to go to 650x48 over a 700x38 on only debating 'compliance' ?

The Gravel King in 700c and 650b are very different tires. I did a couple thousand miles on both. The 700cx38 is a reasonably supple tire but nothing too exceptional, it rolls ok. The profile is weird, it's a wide tire but it's short, I also think the published weight is wrong but will need to check my measurement to confirm, true weight is closer to 400g which is done by keeping the tire short. The Barlow Pass is, oddly for Compass, a true to size tire which explains part of the weight difference.

The 650bx48 is very stiff and rolls significantly worse than Switchback Hill or even the WTB Horizon. The difference between 650bx48 and 700cx38 is much larger than one would suspect just looking at the data. The wider tire rolls slower, especially above 25ish miles an hour, this may seem silly but all the descents I do I end up anywhere from a few dozen feet to a hundred feet shorter up the next hill on wider tires. This adds up, especially on longer rides. They feel less responsive but give much more comfort on rough roads/gravel. They also seem to hold their speed worse than the larger wheel. I currently ride 650bx47/42 because I like low trail, if I were riding a regular mid-trail or high-trail bike mostly on pavement I would be back on 700cx38. Mostly gravel? 650bx48 but not gravel kings.

I pick my tires 1) how well does it roll 2) riding surface. I regularly ride four different bikes with three different wheel sizes.

Overall the Gravel King tires are much less supple than the Compass offerings, which makes sense as they are much cheaper and do not use the same casing as Compass tires.

Tubeless tires are all about the bead. IMO Compass specified a bead that would work ok for tubeless but would also allow most users mounting the tires on old box section rims with thick velox tape to get the tires on using their hands or normal tire levers. This hedge has led to a lot of issues for both user types. I think the company should have created a line of tubeless tires using a much tighter tubeless specific bead like Panaracer's road tubeless bead and then kept their non-tubeless options as completely different tires.

The issues with Compass blow-off stories are due to the fact that blow-off pressure is achieved at 1.2 times max pressure rating. This safety window is much lower than it should be. I'd never mount current Compass TC tires on the front of a bike and only hesitantly run them on the rear.

thank you!

that gives me a much better idea, without the Expense of trial/error.

very valuable.

funny, was in my LBS buying some water bottles & asked if he had any bikes in the shop w Compass tires so I could check them out inflated. he never heard of Compass tires

I've been using the 700c 44mm Snoqualmie Pass for a while on one of my bikes.

Pros:
- unreal ride quality at 28-32 psi. Suppleness on suppleness. Seriously, believe the hype at this size and this pressure.
- very fast rolling on both pavement and gravel.
- durable tread.
- very well made. Handmade tubular quality and details.
- sweet looking.
- lots of grip on wet roads.

Cons:
- not cheap
- not really designed for tubeless setups despite what compass says. To be fair, I haven't tried to set them up but I've heard it's a pain.
- paper thin. I have actually not flatted them in 1K+ miles on some pretty rough stuff (knock wood) but they are hardly confidence inspiring.
- essentially zero grip in mud or loose corners.

I wouldn't recommend these below 32mm, personally. You need the high volume and low pressure to really get the benefit. Above 32mm, I really like them.

Also made by Panaracer, as are some of Soma's offerings (I'll bet). The Soma Supple Vitesse looks like a Compass tire with a different label.

That thread had 158 posts. Let's see if we can do it better with more posts and still not come to any conclusion other than fans and naysayers will not agree. Some like them and some hate them and most have not tried them, while others do not like the price. Pick your poison or side.

I like my Compass 28mm tires AND my Continental GP4000S II tires. Those are my first and second choices and I have a wheel set of each. Both have been reliable and fast riding. I also prefer the classic tan sidedwalls of the Compass more than the black of the Continetals. Others have their own favorites.

I was post #20 or so. Get posting!