Zipp Tangente Course G40 gravel tire First Look

Welcome to the gravel game, Zipp. The Indianapolis-based brand is best known for its wheels, but Zipp’s Tangente Course G40 gravel tire joins a family of tires that Zipp has also been mating to its wheels for years. The G40 is the only gravel tire in Zipp’s lineup, though, which means there’s likely some new products coming from Zipp to cater further to gravel riders.

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The G40 itself is tubeless, and as you may have guessed from the name, it measures out to 40mm wide. It features a tight center tread to keep rolling resistance to a minimum on smoother terrain. Grippier lugs on the sides join that center tread to hook up with loose or wet terrain while cornering. There’s plenty of space between the tight center tread and the more scattered side lugs to help shed mud.

All of that gets married to a pretty cool-looking brown sidewall. The casing itself is 127 TPI. The tire is advertised at 465 grams.

Zipp also says the G40 features a bead-to-bead puncture protection strip, which will certainly come in handy as gravel racecourses become more and more technical. It also means you can hypothetically run lower tire pressures; Zipp says the G4o is intended for use within the range of 30-65psi.

This appears to be Zipp’s first major shift toward the gravel segment. The G40 would certainly pair nicely with a set of Zipp’s 303 wheels, though I wonder if Zipp has immediate plans to follow up this gravel tire launch with other gravel-specific or gravel-appropriate products. Time will tell.

We just received a few pairs of the G40 for testing and will be hopping on them immediately to give you a full review in the very near future. You can also get your hands on them next month. The G40 will cost $65 and will hit shelves in April.