WTB Vulpine S TCS Gravel Tyre review – turbo charge your gravel racing (in the right conditions)

If you are lucky enough to live and ride somewhere that enjoys hard-packed, dry trails and finely gravelled tracks, then the latest gravel tyre from WTB is for you.

The S version of the Vulpine is WTB’s fastest gravel tyre, substituting the lightly chevroned centre line of the original for a fully slick ridge. It’s aimed at gravel racers who value speed and low rolling resistance above all else, and definitely isn’t a general, all-round kind of option.

It’s available in 700c x 40mm and 45mm widths and comes with either black or tan sidewalls. Anyone choosing this type of tyre is unlikely to be using 650b wheels, I guess.

Construction

With a full name that includes more letters than a postman’s sack, the WTB Vulpine S 45 x 700 TCS Light/Fast Rolling 120tpi Dual DNA SG tyre proudly wears its tech on its sleeve. Its defining feature is the fully slick centre line, differentiating it from the standard Vulpine, which has a central ridge with tread. The shoulders of both tyres are identical, with a rounded profile that has larger lugs on the edge with smaller knobs next to the centre line.

The idea with the Vulpine S is to provide the least rolling resistance possible when going in a straight line while still providing grip when cornering. As WTB says, it is a ‘race-focused’ tyre.

As for the initialisms: TCS stands for ‘tubeless compatible system’, ‘Light/Fast Rolling’ denotes the tyre’s level within the range (although all their gravel tyres are this level), 120tpi is the thread count, with higher numbers indicating a more supple ride, ‘Dual DNA’ is the rubber compound that combines durable and grippy areas and finally, ‘SG’ indicates that it has puncture protection in the sidewalls.

WTB claims that a 700 x 45c Vulpine S with tan sidewalls weighs 560g, and the two I tested sat on the scales at 560g and 567g, so pretty darn close to spec.

The ride