Donnelly Cycling just keeps building out their tire line-up with smart, specific, functional tread designs.Everyone familiar with Donnelly knows of their affinity for designing and naming tires after general riding requirements key cycling airport or city designations, and with this Donnelly EMP Tubeless Adventure Tire, EMP, or Emporia, Kansas- location of the Dirty Kanza. The EMP tire is a departure from Donnelly's usual tread design, getting a tighter directional tread block pattern without a well-defined center strip like most all of their other tires. This is still a reasonably fast tire, but one built that can not only handle the roughest gravel sections and fast hardpack, but also the sandier, softer zones. Larger, carefully shaped and voided aggressive shoulder-edge blocks add substantial traction, power, and stability when required.

A supple, lightweight 120 tpi Tubeless Ready casing has a flexible puncture-protection belt underneath the tread zone, which is wide and comprehensive enough to protect the sidewall, even at the lower pressures afforded by tubeless use. Donnelly's tubeless design has proven worthy in cyclocross and gravel/adventure use. We recommend NoTubes Race Sealant for pure gravel or rocky adventure use, or the standard formula for general purpose adventure, allroad commuting, or hardpack trails. The 700x38mm tire was truly developed to get from the start line to the finish at Dirty Kanza, while the 700x45 may be best for adventure and bikepacking on terrain that requires more flotation and/or cushion.