Teravail Kessel Tire - New Aggressive Tread for All Mountain Riding

Words by: Liam Woods

Intro:

Teravail might not be a common tire brand you see on mountain bikes, especially aggressive ones, but they are headed in that direction. With two solid mountain bike tire options and tons of road and gravel tire options, the newly added Teravail Kessel tire brings the brand into the aggressive tire market with an amazing first offering. We previously reviewed Teravail’s cross country and trail tires, the Honcho and the Ehline, and we have had only great things to say about them for tires of that tread compound. So we were hoping for much of the same with the new Kessel and were stoked to get these tires onto our preferred bigger bikes. With an open tread pattern and tall yet ramped lugs across the tire, Teravail set out to make a great all-around aggressive tire that will handle any type of terrain you can throw at it.  We have been able to get a few riders on these so far with a few weeks of riding to really see just how well these tires stack up to our other favorite choices. 

Chance Seely riding the Kessel 29" x 2.4 Tan Durable Casing

Design:

The Kessel tire was designed to grip in the most aggressive conditions possible: loose, wet, steep or chunky trails. With an open tread pattern, the Kessel makes keeping the grip a key factor. It has a dual compound to handle the rubber conditions. There is a softer rubber on the side knobs to increase traction and a slightly harder compound in the center to improve rolling speed. The pattern is made up of tall center lugs that are ramped on the front side to further improve rolling speed and squared backsides to maintain control while braking. The center lugs alternate between the two, as the slightly wider knobs feature a sipe down the lug to help spread rubber over rocks, roots, or uneven terrain. The other center lugs are a solid block of rubber to keep the traction consistent and not too squirmy during hard cornering. The side lugs also feature an alternating pattern with a solid square knob that features a sipe for traction and an “L” shaped side knob that holds your traction when you lean hard. One thing to note is that the center lugs have a solid spread out pattern, while open and clear to shed debris, the knobs are evenly spread to create a nice transition between the center tread and the side knobs for smoother cornering control. 

Teravail Kessel Tire Mounted in 29" x 2.4 Durable Casing (front) and Ultra-Durable Casing (rear)

Sizes and Weights:

The Kessel tire is available in both 27.5” and 29” tire options as well as two casing compounds. The 27.5” tire is only available in 2.5” width but has both Durable and Ultra-Durable casing options, with the Durable available in both black and tan sidewall options. The 29” offering has two width options, 2.4” and 2.6” and the same casing options and colors as well. The Durable casing is more like your traditional mountain bike tire with a 60tpi casing to provide cut resistance while still conforming to the trail. The Ultra-Durable casing gets the same 60tpi woven casing, but also has the addition of the 120tpi layer to improve both slicing resistance and helps improve the stiffness of the tire when the riding gets aggressive. Our test tires came in at the average weight for tires of this design, all tires were 29" x 2.4. Durable casing with Tan sidewall weighed 1015g, the Durable with Black sidewall weighed 1020g and the Ultra-Durable weighed 1245g. 

First Impressions:

Mounting up the Teravail Kessel tire was like any other common tubeless tire, not too hard to get on the rim. The bead seated just fine and there was no sealant seepage at all. I first tried these out on some Revel RW30 rims with a 29mm internal measurement, which just also happens to be what Teravail recommends for this tire. The shape of the tread and casings are really ideal for what I look for in a tire, not too round, not too square. I like something that has some shape to it but is still square enough to lean on those side knobs when cornering. The center tread is quite tall which helps keep most of the tire off the ground when riding on flat or paved roads. I mounted up the Durable casing in front in a 29” x 2.4 and the same size in the rear but in an Ultra-Durable casing. Normally I ride either the new Maxxis EXO+ casing upfront and a DD out back and that is very similar to how these tires feel. Mounted up and ready to rip, the Kessel also has a pretty mean look to it, which is always a plus. When you feel the rubber, it's extremely soft, very sticky with a slow rebound. You can especially feel on the side knobs how much the rubber will conform to the trail, it's one of the softest rubber compounds I have felt I think. 

When first heading out and on some fire road climbs, the tire feels very similar to other popular tires in the category like the Maxxis Minion DHF or DHR2 as far as rolling speed and weight goes. The rubber feels as soft or even softer than that of the Maxxis tires. These certainly are not fast-rolling tires but when grip is the key focus, rolling speed typically takes a second or even third seat as far as priorities go. I will say that these are not the slowest rolling tires I have felt and for the weight of the tires, they actually move right on par with the typical tires you would be riding on a 140-160mm bike. 

Chance Seely riding the Teravail Kessel in Durable Tan sidewall

The conditions in SoCal since I installed these tires have been very inconsistent, which is slightly good for riding new tires but also not great. The plus side is that you can try the tires in wet, hero dirt, kinda slippery, and dry all in about one week of riding. The bad is that you don't get many days with the same dirt conditions to really learn how the tires work and the characteristics of them. So this is really my first impressions and not a full review yet.  Once I dropped in, I could immediately tell that these tires were going to have some serious grip. While it took a bit to figure out the exact balance between grip, traction and where the tires wanted to slide, the rubber is so soft that it helps keep you pointed the right way even when you might be a little out of control.

The rubber is soft and as noted before, the side knobs are even softer than the center lugs, which result in a really nice feeling when leaning the bike over and got using those knobs to grip the dirt. In slightly supported or flat corners at normal speed you can really feel the tire tracking the ground and that gives you tons of confidence. Another nice feature I noticed was when leaning from the center lugs to the side tread, the knobs are set across the tread so there is a nice transition from side to center to side, meaning you can flick the bike around and not have any weird dead zones when doing so. Braking traction was pretty good on these tires. There are sharp square edges to help maintain control while braking and I never felt that I was not able to stop fast enough. While there are some tires that brake better all around, the Kessel has plenty of braking control and seeing that there is only one tread pattern for the front and rear I think it feels really good on both ends of the bike. 

After a handful of rides, the Kessel shows a few battle wounds but has held up without any issues

There were a few times when riding fast with banked corners or some off-camber sections of trails that I felt the tire tread or casing get a little “squirm” when pushing the tires into the ground. Many EXO or Light casing tires will also give this same feel so it's not a negative but if you get any tire squirm or you burp lighter casing tires often, you might want to ride the Ultra-Durable casing version of the Kessel over the Durable. The softness of the knobs also has a little to do with this but once I got the tire pressure dialed in (which was just slightly more than what I normally run) I felt less of this sensation and the rubber and tread design really started to shine. I ended up with about 24/25 psi in the front and 27/28 psi in the rear, just about 1-2 psi more than my typical Maxxis settings. 

Final Thoughts:

As Teravail breaks into the aggressive tire market with the Kessel tire, we are happy to see that their first crack at it looks to have some promising results thus far. With sizes, widths, casing options and weights right in the sweet spot for the most comparable tires on the market, Teravail seems to have a solid offering on the first try. The Teravail Kessel has some key features I love to see in tires, like soft rubber compounds, a nice supporting profile when mounted, different casing options and the open tread design to help get each knob into the soil for keeping all the traction needed when riding aggressive terrain. If you have been looking for a new tire to try to get all the grip possible I would suggest looking into the Teravail Kessel. We only have some first impressions right now, but all the riders on them have positive feedback and we are looking to get more time on the Kessel tire. 

This article was written / authored by Liam Woods. Liam has been in the bicycle industry for over 10 years as a racer, professional mechanic, service manager and as of late, media and content creator. Liam has ridden thousands of different bikes, ridden countless components, tested endless MTB apparel of all kinds and written reviews on it all. He's a key piece to the Worldwide Cyclery "All Things MTB" content creation puzzle. He also makes consistent appearances on the Worldwide Cyclery YouTube channel and Instagram.