Teravail Telegraph tyre

The Teravail Telegraph tyre provides a supple feel, good grip and a generally pretty sporty ride for what is a large-volume tyre. I did find them stubborn to fit on the wheels I tried, but once set up they offer a great performance on your road or gravel bike. And they're less expensive than a lot of the opposition too.

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I've ridden a lot of gravel bikes specced with Teravail tyres but the Telegraph is the first of its road tyres that I've tried. And I must say I'm very impressed – once I'd managed to get them fitted to the wheels...

While their main carcass is fairly supple, the bead isn't, which means they don't have a huge amount of stretch to pop them onto the rim. Even with tyre levers it was an effort that resulted in much swearing and annoyance.

After leaving them overnight stretched over most of the rim they did pop on a fair bit more easily the following morning. But I wouldn't want to use them with inner tubes, where you're almost certainly going to pinch them.

That said, when I removed them about four weeks after I fitted them, they came off without too much issue, which means were you to puncture on the road, you shouldn't have too many issues fixing it.

Anyway, back to the set-up. So, I went with tubeless and the whole process was pretty seamless after the initial effort. The tight fit meant that they popped onto the rim with the use of an Airshot and sealed quickly.

The sidewalls aren't porous, so they held their pressure overnight with just a quick top-up required before their first ride. Once I'd ridden for around an hour to fling the sealant around, they held pressure just as well as an inner tube setup.

From a ride point of view, I found them to be supple for a tubeless tyre and even when pumped up to my preferred firm pressures that suppleness remains.

You get plenty of road feel and feedback, which gives you confidence in the corners, and they roll quite smoothly too. Grip in the wet and dry also inspires confidence, there is a fair amount of 'bite' on the tarmac as you lean the bike over.

Teravail has added a small amount of tread on the side of the rubber, which it says is for cornering grip. But on a hard surface like tarmac you'd actually be better off with a full slick for a greater contact patch. Tread is there to help disperse water, but as you're never going to aquaplane on a road tyre, it's irrelevant.

Overall, the Telegraphs don't offer quite the performance levels of something like Continental's GP5000 or Schwalbe's Pro One tyres – but they not far off, which is especially impressive when you consider that at just £45, they're a good deal cheaper.

I've had no issues with durability. Much of the review period was spent riding on wet roads (well, it was a British summer after all), which often increases the incidence of cuts and punctures, as the water and oil mixture from the road works as a lubricant for thorns and stones.

I have found no damage at all after around 400 miles. And while I wouldn't expect anything else for this distance, there are no signs of wear on the rear tyre so far, which bodes well for the longer term.

The Telegraphs are currently only available in a 30mm width, but 28mm and 35mm will be coming soon. And you do get a choice of black or tan sidewalls. Teravail also offers a choice of casings, with the durable getting a thicker casing, though this is only available in black. We have the Light and Supple version that is available in both colour options.

Value

I'd consider these to be good value compared with most of their competitors.

Performance-wise, I'd put them on a par with something like Michelin's Power Cup tyres. George really liked the 28mm tubeless offering, finding them fast, grippy and easy to set up. At 269g they are much lighter than the Teravails, but they are also considerably more expensive at £69.99.

WTB offers its Exposure TCS Fast in a 30mm size, and I liked the 36mm tyres for their grip when I reviewed them, though they are more expensive and like the Telegraphs they're hard to fit too.

Conclusion

If you want a set of durable wide tyres for the road with an impressive ride quality and grip, the Teravail Telegraphs are definitely a good choice. About the only downside is that they aren't the easiest to fit straight out of the box, but once they are up and running you won't be disappointed by their performance.

Verdict

Tricky to fit, but they make up for that with their good grip and rolling performance and an appealing price