TEXT & PHOTO by Nicholas Haig-Arack

What’s old is new again. The bike industry is a wheel that constantly spins. All old technology is eventually reconceived for a new audience.

When Bruce Gordon made this bike for me in late 2015, the category of “gravel” was still in its infancy. Bruce had been making bikes designed around his 700x43mm Rock n’ Road tires since 1988. At the time, not many other plump rubber options existed for 700c rims – after all, most bikes weren’t designed to clear such fat tires! But now in 2025, we have plenty of good options for tires, and most gravel bikes are designed to clear 700x43mm tires at a minimum.

My, how things have changed – and yet they’ve also stayed the same.

One personal favorite tire of mine is the SimWorks Homage. I’ve used the 26″ version on several vintage MTB basket-bike cruiser conversions over the years. The Homage tire is fast-rolling, lightweight, easy to mount, and nice-looking. The Homage is super reliable for those kinds of rides where you intend to “just go out for a cruise” and end up riding some cutty trails and urban singletrack.

The original tire mold, the Panaracer Mach SS, was designed as a cross country mountain bike racing tire in the ’90s. I wouldn’t want to use the Homage as a proper XC MTB tire – it’s a hardpack-specific tire, which means that the center file tread is great at rolling fast on paved road surfaces or really smooth, packed-down dirt, but in wet conditions, it can be a little slippery. It’s a dependable and stylin’ tire for turning your vintage MTB into a utilitarian ATB.

With the recent tubeless update, the Homage is recontextualized as a great gravel tire. Tubeless allows you to run lower pressures and should ease your worries about puncture flats, which makes the Homage even more confidence-inspiring than ever.

SimWorks worked with Panaracer to make the Homage TLC, a tubeless-compatible version. This recontextualized the Homage in my mind – instead of a chill, casual ATB cruiser tire, I saw the Homage as a fast-rolling gravel tire. After a very easy tubeless setup on my HED Belgium rims with WTB sealant, I mounted the Homage TLC 700x43mm tires on my Bruce Gordon and took it out for some test rides.

As it turns out, the Homage TLC is a great choice for a gravel tire. Most of my “gravel” rides around Sonoma County involve 70% riding on rough, cracked road surfaces and 30% riding on buff singletrack. The Homage TLC felt really fast on the road, with no perceivable tread sensation – it’s obviously not a slick, but it feels as fast as the Panaracer GravelKing SS that it replaced. It’s considerably less “buzzy” on the road than the Bruce Gordon Rock n’ Road tire that I used for a very long time on this bike. Unlike the fast-rolling Homage, the BG RnR tire is all tread, with a unique “zipper” profile that feels good on loose surfaces but tends to drag on pavement. In fact, the closest comparison I can draw is that the Homage TLC feels like the BG RnR after the center tread has been worn down enough to quiet down the buzz. The Homage TLC is already there in the “sweet spot,” right out of the box.

I’ve now been using the SimWorks Homage TLC for over a month and I’ve had zero problems. Overall, I would recommend the Homage TLC to anyone looking for a good dry-weather gravel tire. I’m planning to use this tire at Lost & Found and Grinduro this year, so if you see me out there, say hi!