Review: Teravail’s New Warwick Tire

Teravail isn’t exactly the most well-known tire brand out there. Formed in 2015 to be the in-house tire brand for the country’s largest bike industry wholesale distributor, QBP (Quality Bicycle Products), Teravail is still a rather new entry to the rubber game. In a space dominated by big brands like Maxxis, Schwalbe, WTB, Kenda, Bontrager and Specialized, you’d certainly be forgiven for not knowing about the company or its products. But the name is worth remembering because they make some pretty good rubber—with the fast-rolling yet aggressive Warwick as their latest offering.

Upon close inspection, there appears to be quite a bit going on with the Warwick’s tread pattern. The main center knobs are stepped and ramped at the leading edge for smooth rolling, but have quite a bit of real estate on the U-shaped trailing side for solid straight-line braking performance. The secondary center lugs are also ramped for rolling and provide a nice braking edge, in addition to being pocketed for extra bite. The center knobs use a harder rubber compound to improve both rolling and wear, while the side knobs are softer for better cornering grip on intermediate surfaces.

The side knobs are buttressed quite well to prevent the large lugs from folding over under hard cornering. They also alternate between a large rectangular knob that’s siped, and a smaller, square knob with a pocket molded into it. The pockets basically increase the number of edges that can bite into the trail, which tends to help when riding in dry, loose conditions.

As advertised, I found that the Warwick excels in loose terrain, but it’s a pretty good all-rounder as well. I’ve ridden it in both dry and wet conditions, and while it’s certainly not a mud specialist, especially when it comes to pure climbing traction in the wet, it actually does quite well at both cornering and braking on slippery surfaces. There are definitely worse tires to get caught out in a deluge on. Particularly for how smoothly, quietly, and quickly they roll. The Warwick will give a Maxxis Minion DHF a run for its money when it comes to rolling efficiency, but probably brakes better in the wet than the DHF can.

In dry, blown-out trail conditions, where it’s actually made to be ridden, the Warwick is stable on every surface I’ve put it on. It offers good grip over roots, claws up smooth rocks with ease, grabs off-camber side-hills with confidence, and when it does start to break looks while cornering, it does so predictably. It doesn’t just give out on you and put you on your face.

The Warwick is on par weight-wise with other tires in the aggressive trail category, and respectable for how beefy it is, but even the lightest-casing option in the narrowest width is over 1,000 grams. I don’t think anyone’s really scoffing at that number these days, but I personally love staying as close to 1,000 grams as reasonably possible for the terrain I’m riding. Having said that, these tires have such low rolling resistance that they actually ride lighter than they weigh in many circumstances. The pair I’m running came in at 1,130 grams and 1,360 grams for 29×2.3″ and 29×2.5″ respectively. Both are the Grip rubber compound on the Durable casing.

Teravail offers the Warwick in more versions than most brands tend to, and with actual common-sense naming conventions. Rather than making up a bunch of confusing terms and acronyms to describe rubber and casing options, Teravail just says what it is. For the Warwick, they make “Light and Supple”, “Durable”, and “Ultra-Durable” casings, and “Grip”, and “Fast” rubber compounds. Pretty self explanatory, right? They also make two widths, two diameters, and two sidewall colors.

They don’t make every single combination, though. For instance, they only offer the 27.5″ diameter in the 2.5″ width, and the Light and Supple casing is only made with the harder rubber compound. Still, there’s a lot to choose from. Here’s a complete rundown of the Warwick offerings, with actual weights of the six tires I have on hand:

 

Warwick 27.5″

27.5 x 2.5″, Black Sidewall, Light and Supple, Fast Compound, $70 MSRP

27.5 x 2.5″, Tan Sidewall, Light and Supple, Fast Compound, $70 MSRP

27.5 x 2.5″, Black Sidewall, Durable, Grip Compound, $85 MSRP

27.5 x 2.5″, Tan Sidewall, Durable, Grip Compound, $85 MSRP

27.5 x 2.5″, Black Sidewall, Ultra-Durable, Grip Compound, $90 MSRP

 

Warwick 29″

29 x 2.5″, Black Sidewall, Light and Supple, Fast Compound, $70 MSRP | 1,060 grams

29 x 2.5″, Tan Sidewall, Light and Supple, Fast Compound, $70 MSRP

29 x 2.5″, Black Sidewall, Durable, Grip Compound, $85 MSRP

29 x 2.5″, Tan Sidewall, Durable, Grip Compound, $85 MSRP | 1,360 grams

29 x 2.5″, Black Sidewall, Ultra-Durable, Grip Compound, $90 MSRP | 1,607 grams

29 x 2.3″, Black Sidewall, Light and Supple, Fast Compound, $70 MSRP | 1,025 grams

29 x 2.3″, Tan Sidewall, Light and Supple, Fast Compound, $70 MSRP

29 x 2.3″, Black Sidewall, Durable, Grip Compound, $85 MSRP

29 x 2.3″, Tan Sidewall, Durable, Grip Compound, $85 MSRP | 1,130 grams

29 x 2.3″, Black Sidewall, Ultra-Durable, Grip Compound, $90 MSRP | 1,334 grams

I’d honestly probably be on the Light and Supple casing option if Teravail offered it with the softer rubber compound, since where I currently live has very few sharp rocks to worry about. But, I’m not surprised they don’t because most tire brands don’t offer their stickiest rubber in their lightest casing. Apparently people who don’t need burly casings also don’t need grip.

It’s really not a deal breaker, though. The medium casing level offers an excellent bump up in stability for a relatively low weight penalty. The carcass on the “Durable” casing is a touch stiffer than a Maxxis EXO Plus, but suppler and lighter than Double Down. There’s a solid amount of pinch flat and cut protection and the tire holds its shape impressively well during hard cornering. All things considered, the Grip Compound, Durable Casing 2.5 option is, in my opinion, the one to go for.