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review
£67.00
VERDICT:
An exceptional tyre that will make you faster and happier
Weight:
299g
Contact:
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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- Excellent
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- Average
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- Poor
- Bad
- Appalling
The Compass Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight is the lightest and narrowest of its tyres that can be set up tubeless. It's good. Very good. Compass calls it its 'Goldilocks' tyre, and for going fast or far on rubbish British roads or gravel, in all weathers, it is indeed Just Right.
- Pros: Light, supple, comfortable, fast, grippy
- Cons: Price, need latex-based sealant, possible sealing faff
Compass has its handmade tyres manufactured in Japan by Panaracer, but the process and materials are unique to Compass. These tyres indeed cost a pretty penny, but if you want the pinnacle of real-world performance over varied surfaces, they're worth the cash.
At the end of 2017, Germany's Tour magazine rated the Bon Jon Pass as one of the five fastest tyres in the world – but that was the 355g standard casing, not the more supple 300g extralight version reviewed here. Also, Tour's testing ignores the single largest benefit of large-volume tyres: reduction in suspension losses. That's the energy you lose when you and your bike get bounced up and down over a less-than-perfectly-smooth surface.
You know that energy- and speed-sapping feeling when riding off-road, hitting a section of farm track that a tractor has driven over? Each and every bump up and down is lost energy, and you need to push harder to maintain forward momentum. While testing tank-driver seats, the US Army found that the human body could absorb up to 2,000 Watts of vibration energy as your muscles, bones and organs rub against each other. So every millimetre of vertical movement passed from your tyre to your rim to your hubs, up through the frame to your saddle, pedals and handlebar, is robbing you of speed. Large-volume, supple tyres at low pressures can remove some or all of that vertical movement, as the sidewalls deform and reform over uneven surfaces.
Another very important factor is the cumulative fatigue and discomfort that only comes after many hours out battling rough roads – sore back, arms, neck, wrists and arse. It's fair to postulate that if you tried riding any of the four other tyres in Tour's top-five review, you'd be shaken to bits or spend a lot of time repairing punctures on your average austerity-Britain 'road'.
Set your Compass
The Compass tyre range is pretty simple to understand. There are two tread types: a slick herringbone pattern and a properly-chunky square knobbly. There are 700C, 650B and 26in diameters, widths from 26 to 55mm, and a mixture of either standard or extralight casings in black or tan sidewalls.
The logical competition for the Bon Jon Pass is the 35mm Schwalbe G-One Speed, which weighs in at 450g and includes a butyl liner in the sidewalls so it can run with non-latex-based sealants like Slime Pro. The G-One Speeds are £62 RRP but as often happens with large brands, they can be had cheaper. What you're paying extra for with the Bon Jon Pass is considerably lower weight and, critically, a more supple sidewall.
That 300g you're saving over a pair of Schwalbes equates to half a water bottle. Compared against the road.cc Hairsine Ratio at an average of 1.91g lost per pound spent to save weight, choosing the Compass Bon Jon Pass Extralight over the Schwalbe G-One Speed was 'worth' £157 of savings elsewhere. Ergo, at £67 RRP, the Bon Jon Pass is a ridiculously cost-effective weight saver.
Bubble bubble toil and trouble...
Setting up the Bon Jon Pass tubeless requires a latex-based sealant, Compass recommending Orange Seal. I only had enough Orange for the front tyre, so used Stan's on the back. Over a period of days the sealants bubbled through the sidewalls of both tyres, and kept coming. Compass's UK distributor replaced the tyres and on the second setup everything was fine. In their own words, 'It's quite possible that the pair you got could have slightly too thin of rubber. Our tires are all handmade and the application of rubber can vary slightly. Typical we'll see tires seal up just fine after a week or two, so I imagine you received a particularly thin set.'
Personally, I'm okay with this – we are at the cutting edge of lightness/suppleness, and with good customer support it's a slight annoyance and a few days' delay; you may want to blag a bottle of sealant into the process too, if you've lost a bit or can't work out how to swap it over between tyres (the fabulous MilKit system sorts this out).
Across t'internets the consensus is that the extralight Compass tyres do take a bit more curating to get properly sealed, but nothing major. Maybe leaving them lying on each side for a day, a bit more shaking, a bit more air – that sort of thing. I found them to be a bit looser than other tubeless tyres I've had on the same rims, another layer of rim tape doing the job of seating the beads. This being a tubeless-related review, of course There Will Be Letters. Suffice to say, as ever, even a considerable faff at setup is more than recompensed by every single second of subsequent supple, fast, comfortable, grippy, puncture-free rolling, for many thousands of miles of smiles. Correspondence will be entered into, if only to restate the above.
Size-wise, at 50psi on a 17mm rim they measured 36mm, that width only dropping by 0.5mm down to 35psi. So no stinting, but if you're running wide rims with not much frame clearance, be aware.
Pressure drop
I've done quite a few tubeless setups over the years, and have a pretty good eye for ballpark pressure. With the Bon Jon Pass I opted for 35psi front and back at the outset based on my Thumb-O-Meter and 75kg weight, and on my first run I found at high cadences I got a wee bit of pedal-induced bounce. On my next ride I went a few psi higher in the back and the bouncing disappeared; when dealing with large tyres, even a few psi can radically change how they feel and perform. Experimentation is the key here, to dial in your preferred characteristics.
> How to choose your tyre pressure
Out on very mixed surfaces the BJPs excelled. I hardly noticed broken patches of chip seal, or small gaps and lips of manhole covers. I found myself thinking up tests for what I could and couldn't feel through the bike's contact points. Riding in a small bunch, I realised I wasn't signalling road surface irregularities as much as I should be to my sub-30mm-shod brethren following behind. And when our return route included a mile or so of gravel track I had to slow noticeably and pop to the back, lest my unfettered ability to grip and speed over the surface left everyone forlornly lagging.
Of course, people have been riding much, much faster and further on narrower tyres for a century – 2018's Paris-Roubaix was won by Peter Sagan on 28mm tubulars. But that's to miss the rather significant points that pros are paid to suffer, they are followed by team cars, and flats generally don't make that much difference outside of the last 50km. Also, increasing numbers of even pure-road bikes now include some form of suspension in the head tube, seat tube or seatstays to reduce vibration. For you and me, adding a few mm of tyre suspension can and will make a significant difference to everyday comfort, speed and grip.
And speaking of grip, at around 35psi the BJPs couldn't be faulted – even descending steep, twisty, slick roads washed with a thin layer of farm detritus. I haven't yet found the limit of their grip, but I imagine it's a fair hike outside of my personal performance /risk-averse envelope.
> Buyer's Guide: 16 of the best gravel and adventure tyres
Compass recommends not going as low as 35psi because of the chance of possibly damaging the fibres in the sidewall through excessive flex, leading to a loss of sealant/pressure. Signs of premature wear are increased visibility of the crosshatching in the sidewall itself where the microfibres have broken. By how much such abuse would shorten the life of the tyre is an open question, and whether any performance benefit was worth it would be entirely up to you.
Back in February I reviewed the Compass 38mm Barlow Pass in the standard casing, and was blown away. At the time I noted the BJPs as being my target tyre for my Merida Ride 5000, and now I've tried them I feel validated in spades.
Everything I noted in the Barlow Pass review applies to the BJPs, and they're lighter/more supple to boot. What you may lose in going a few psi higher to reduce pedal-induced bounce, you get back in lightness and feel. I can't quantify it, suffice to say I'm hanging out for a truly dry Highland summer's day when I can put some serious effort into cornering the bejesus out of these down a few glens.
Verdict
An exceptional tyre that will make you faster and happier
road.cc test report
Make and model: Compass 700C x 35 Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight
Size tested: 700C x 35mm
Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
They are for anyone who can fit them, who wants a faster, more comfortable ride.
Compass says: "The Bon Jon Pass is our Goldilocks tire: at 700C x 35 mm, it fits bikes that have extra clearance around the Stampede Pass (32 mm), but not enough space for a Barlow Pass (38mm). Bon Jon Pass is accessed via a relatively smooth gravel road on the Olympic Peninsula. The moderate gradient allows you to let your bike fly, and these tires are perfect for surfaces like that.
On pavement, the Bon Jon Pass will outcorner narrower tires thanks to its greater width and its lower pressure, both of which keep more rubber in contact with the road surface. The Bon Jon Pass will glide over chipseal where narrower or less supple tires will chatter. If your bike can fit this tire, you won't be disappointed.
The Bon Jon Pass is tubeless-compatible in both standard and extralight casing.
When used with tubes, we recommend the SV17 or SV18 tubes.
Made in Japan."
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Standard model
Clincher, folding bead
Tubeless-compatible
Tan sidewalls
Low rolling resistance
Excellent grip
Superior comfort
Light weight
Classic appearance
Clincher tires with the ride of a good tubular
Maximum pressure with tubes: 90 psi (6.2 bar)
Maximum recommended pressure – tubeless: 60 psi (4 bar)
355 g
Extralight model
as "Standard" model, but with:
Ultra-light, ultra-supple casing
Choice of black or tan sidewalls
Further improved comfort
Ultra-low rolling resistance
303 g
Rate the product for quality of construction:
10/10
The look and feel of the tyre off the rim is perfect – for a handmade tyre they are beautiful and consistent.
Rate the product for performance:
10/10
These are fast tyres, period. World-beatingly fast.
Rate the product for durability:
9/10
Those on test have an 'extralight' casing, but if you aren't riding through rocks that shouldn't affect the longevity. Reports from the internet show BJP's lasting many thousands of miles.
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
10/10
These have to be the lightest tubeless tyres of their size in the world.
Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
10/10
At the usable pressures, they are very comfortable.
Rate the product for value:
7/10
At £67 each these aren't cheap, but it's not outrageous for a top-end tyre (you can certainly pay more) – especially for the performance.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
These are designed to make you faster, and they do exactly that without compromising ride quality.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
The comfort and grip afforded.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
The setup faff.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
Compared with other world-beater tyres, the price isn't bad. Roughly on par with other large volume quality tyres.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
I'd love to give these tyres 5/5, I really would, but taking price into account, at £67 and unlikely to be discounted, the BJPs are one of the most expensive clincher tyres you can buy and that holds them back half a star. Though I believe they are worth every penny.
About the tester
Age: 45
I usually ride: Merida Ride 5000 Disc My best bike is: Velocite Selene
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: cyclo-cross, club rides, general fitness riding, mountain biking, Dutch bike pootling.
Living in the Highlands, Mike is constantly finding innovative and usually cold/wet ways to accelerate the degradation of cycling kit. At his happiest in a warm workshop holding an anodised tool of high repute, Mike's been taking bikes apart and (mostly) putting them back together for forty years. With a day job in global IT (he's not completely sure what that means either) and having run a boutique cycle service business on the side for a decade, bikes are his escape into the practical and life-changing for his customers.
Latest Comments
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Being a titchy lightweight I find the minimum pressures shown on bike tyres are considerably higher than I would use....
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Bruyneel saying publicly that Boonen "should shut up" is all you need to know about both Bruyneel and the doping regime at his team. Dirty in both...
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I like it because it's a bit different, but it's way out of my price range. Wonder if it will take off, or will we be talking about in 15 years...
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Cyclists used the roads before cars - it was cyclists who petitioned the government to put a hard surface on our roads.
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Nice. I'd ride that Madone now.
Add new comment
20 comments
Comfort and grip - 10/10 (when they stay inflated)
Build quality - 3/10
Value for money - 0/10
Bit of a late response to this thread - but have now used these tyres on and off for the past year. I probably average 70% on road and 30% off road with my Stigmata. I also use it for commuting to work.
I have used both Barlow Pass and the Bon Jon Pass. Both offer a super smooth ride - on and off road, but the reliablity is terrible, due to poor construction. Forget trouble with installation, it's keeping these tyres inflated that you need to worry about!
I managed around 200km on the Barlow Pass before I noticed leaks in the seam. These got worse and worse, leaving sealent marks all over the tan wall. They also needed constant pumping - daily. I had to buy new tyres during a tour through Ireland as the Compass Tyres needed puming twice daily and it was becomming infuriating. Ended up with WTB Exposure tyres - 2 for the price of one Barlow Pass.
After around 10 months of using the WTB's, I missed the wider tyre for off road riding (and look of the Barlow Pass). I put the shody construction down to a bad batch and ordered a set of Jon Bon Pass.
Both survived the first ride, but deflated over night. The second day of riding was a return to the same old experience. Rear managed a 70km ride, the front needed a top up by 60km. When I got home, I noticed again - holes in the side wall.
I have tried both Oranage Seal and Stans Race sealent (Not at the same time). Both work, but need regular top ups.
Contacted the shop and awaiting a response. Hoping for some sort of warranty.
Would I recommend? No.
How can you give these 10/10 for quality of construction when you had to send the first pair back?! Incidentally I know a few people that had to return them for the same reason, which suggests quality is actually pretty poor.
I tried the standard casing a year ago and similar to others got fed up of pumping them up every 2-3 days. After a week they would be flat and need re-sealing. Also they didn’t actually feel particularly fast, certainly no more so than a G-One. Maybe the ELs are faster but I don’t fancy blowing 140 quid to find out
Overall I think this review should be 3.5 stars “Potentially fast and comfortable but likely to be a pain in the arse if run tubeless”
The first pair were faulty, and returned for a replacement that are flawless. Every brand, every product, at one time or another, suffers defects, which should be replaced under warranty. That's what happened here. In other cases, the same. I haven't read a single instance of a Compass dealer refusing a return. I would argue that in the case of Compass tyres, they are an expensive niche product at the cutting edge of performance, for a particular audience prepared to pay and go through a setup process to reap the benefits. To put them on the same par as a heavier, less-supple mass-market product would be the wrong way to see things. I have the same view of people saying 'tubeless is crap'. Yes, some people have major problems with tubeless overall, don't get the right advice/support, and bin the lot as a bad job. They then lose out on the benefits, every_single_pedalstroke of every ride. No doubt Compass will be working on quality control with Panaracer, to improve things.
After riding a pair of Compass BJP's (standard casing) for a year back in 2016 I would rank them among the worst tyres I've used.
While supple and probably fast rolling I've never come across a pair of tyres that have caused me so many issues (maybe a pair of slightly over sized Nokian/Suomi W240 studded tyres matched to a slightly under sized Maddux rim come close...).
They were super difficult to get to pop and seal on the rim and once mounted the sidewalls never stopped despite trying out different sealants (Caffelatex, Stans, Orange Seal...) over a 6 month period of time.
While running tubeless I had to pump them up every 1-3 days and even then the thread was so delicate that I had several flats that the sealant wouldn't seal. When giving up on tubeless and running with tubes the puncture fest continued.
Switched over to Schwalbe TLE and WTB TCS tyres and haven't looked back. Both brands tyres are easy to mount, roll well and hold air...
About 50/50 in my experience with MTB tubeless, first ever ghetto setup (basically a BMX inner tube stretched over a bog standard rim with relatively cheap wire bead tyres) went up like a charm and worked brilliantly.
Changing to lighter and more porous tyres gave a beautiful supple ride but took ages to seal, and also exposed some of the big name brands of sealant as not actually being very good at sealing holes, instead just producing a lovely sort of catherine wheel of latex sealant all over your bike as you frantically try to get home before losing pressure altogether.
Proper UST rims and tyres obviously did the job but were typically heavier and less supple, so kind of begged the question 'what's the point?'.
Last CX race I entered was a comedy of people trying to run low pressures on tubeless set ups and burping air on the off camber pedals and the sneaky little BMX pump track section. Glad of my latex tubes a 35psi!
Anyway, maybe I'm just bitter and resentful, but I'd only ever go tubeless again if I was racing mountainbikes, for everything else I'll just suck up the occasional roadside puncture repair and maybe treat myself to latex innertubes for the good bike
Just in case anyone reads this review and determines that tubeless is crazy difficult to set up and not worth the trouble - this is not normal.
Last week I set up my very first tubeless setup - Schwalbe x ones on DT Swiss tubeless rims. I kid you not the whole process took 20 mins for the whole bike. They inflated and sealed first time with a bog standard track pump. Tubeless doesn’t have to be a dark art if you don’t want it to.
I'd have to agree with this. I set up my Ere Research tyres on Cero wheels with a hand pump (Topeak Mini Morph) and again the whole process took around 10-15 minutes. I always think the most important thing is fitting the tyre first with a tube and inflating before leaving over night
It's not the most important thing though I understand why people might think that. You can put a couple of wraps of tape on a rim, shove on the tubeless tyre while the tape is all crinkly, and inflate without any issue. The air pressure flattens the tape down. Trying to condition the tape first with an inner tube is a time-consuming and unnecessary faff which also, in my opinion, risks making the valve hole in the tape too big.
This viewpoint reached over many tubeless installs.
my favorite tyre... love them although tubeless is 'tricky' but they are very nice with Challenge latex tubes as well.
FYI. TPI is sub 30TPI and thread is +3mm both on the extreeme end of the sprectrum but the paper thin carcas is just super subtle dispite doing the oposite of whats is generaly aknowladged.
I usualy ride them arround 2.8-3.2bars weighing 90-95kg on a 8.5kg bike with two bottles and 6-7kg of bikepacking gear. At 4 bars they are not nearly as nice.
Oops - duped comment
Do they do a 'Jovi' tyre?
This ain't a song for the broken-hearted
BonJovi.jpeg
The article presents a strong case for road tubeless tires.
They are very smotth and well protectec whit butyl aor latex tires as well. The ubtle carcas and thick thread just make a very good tyre.
Any idea what the puncture resistance of these tyres is like?
Bicycle Rolling Resistance reviewed the regular Bon-Jon Pass tyres and thought they were pretty terrible when it came to puncture proofing. As these are the extralight versions you'd think that they could potentially be more puncture prone.
Being able to run at lower pressures and sealent will help ward off some punctures but certainly not all of them.
Protection is very good IMHO (incl wett danish autum/winther roads full of tyre killing flint), +3mm thread gives you very good protection. Tubless or not... no difference between std and Extralight in terms of puncture proof. Sidewalls are more fragile for the extralight with its paperthin -30tpi carcas.
The 'extralight' bit is the sidewalls - they have the same tread as the standard casing, so puncture resistance should be the same.
This post on RidingGravel is pretty insightful: http://ridinggravel.com/forum/?p=post%2Fcompass-rolling-resistance-actua...
There seem to be two camps: people who love the BJP extralight and haven't had issues, and people who have found them to be prone to flats, and have switched to a (almost certainly) heavier, stiffer tyre.
Anecdata abounds on this topic, with people holding passionate views either way. My £0.02 is that the *only* tyre I've destroyed in 10+ years of serious road mileage was the go-to venerable daddy of crap road tyres, the GP 4Seasons, where the sidewall got cut by Hampshire flint. Does that make it 'prone to flats'? Well, I did used to get flats, but then I was living in the flintiest, thorniest bit of the UK.
Unfortunately, the standard industry test for puncture resistance doesn't really work well for supple, wide tires. It puts a 1 mm needle on the tire and adds weight on top of the needle. The more weight the tire withstands, the more puncture-resistant it's deemed to be.
The problem is that this is a static test. It assumes you come to a stop on top of a steel wire (like those left by the roadside from exploded truck tires), sticking straight up. In the real world, that isn't how punctures happen, unless somebody has strewn thumb tacks onto the road. (And we know that those puncture pretty much any tire, unless the tread is thicker than the tack.)
In the real world, the tire rotates. What matters is whether it picks up the obstacle or not. If it picks up the obstacle, the obstacle gets hammered into the tire with each revolution. For steel wires, it's then only a matter of time until it punctures the tire. For glass, if the tire has a really tough puncture-proof belt, the glass gets pulverized before it can penetrate the tube. The best defense is to prevent the tire from picking up the object. (Or remove it quickly, as racers do when they wipe their tires after riding through glass.)
How do you prevent the obstacle from getting picked up by the tire? Mostly, it's about the stiffness of the tire. If the tire can deform around the obstacle, it just rolls over it, without getting cut or picking it up. Two ways to make a tire softer:
• make the casing more supple
• make the tire wider, so it rolls at lower pressure.
That is why wide, supple tires get far fewer punctures that narrower tires, without needing puncture-resistant belts that slow down the tire and make it ride harshly.
Isn't a wide tires with puncture-resistant belts even more puncture-resistant? Of course, it is, but the question is how much puncture-resistance you need, and how much speed and ride quality you want to sacrifice. For most of us, wide, supple high-performance tires puncture so rarely that it's not an issue, and we'd rather enjoy the speed and comfort of the supple tire. If you get a lot of flats, then high-performance tires may not be a great choice.:-(
Unfortunately, the standard tests of the past – whether it's for rolling resistance on a steel drum or for puncture resistance with a needle – didn't work for wide high-performance tires. That is the reason why, until recently, wide tires invariably were stiff, harsh and slow. Only by testing tires on real roads, with real riders, have we been able to (re-)discover how wonderful wide tires with supple high-performance casings can be.
Jan Heine
Founder
Compass Cycles
Unfortunately, the standard industry test for puncture resistance doesn't really work well for supple, wide tires. It puts a 1 mm needle on the tire and adds weight on top of the needle. The more weight the tire withstands, the more puncture-resistant it's deemed to be.
The problem is that this is a static test. It assumes you come to a stop on top of a steel wire (like those left by the roadside from exploded truck tires), sticking straight up. In the real world, that isn't how punctures happen, unless somebody has strewn thumb tacks onto the road. (And we know that those puncture pretty much any tire, unless the tread is thicker than the tack.)
In the real world, the tire rotates. What matters is whether it picks up the obstacle or not. If it picks up the obstacle, the obstacle gets hammered into the tire with each revolution. For steel wires, it's then only a matter of time until it punctures the tire. For glass, if the tire has a really tough puncture-proof belt, the glass gets pulverized before it can penetrate the tube. The best defense is to prevent the tire from picking up the object. (Or remove it quickly, as racers do when they wipe their tires after riding through glass.)
How do you prevent the obstacle from getting picked up by the tire? Mostly, it's about the stiffness of the tire. If the tire can deform around the obstacle, it just rolls over it, without getting cut or picking it up. Two ways to make a tire softer:
• make the casing more supple
• make the tire wider, so it rolls at lower pressure.
That is why wide, supple tires get far fewer punctures that narrower tires, without needing puncture-resistant belts that slow down the tire and make it ride harshly.
Isn't a wide tires with puncture-resistant belts even more puncture-resistant? Of course, it is, but the question is how much puncture-resistance you need, and how much speed and ride quality you want to sacrifice. For most of us, wide, supple high-performance tires puncture so rarely that it's not an issue, and we'd rather enjoy the speed and comfort of the supple tire. If you get a lot of flats, then high-performance tires may not be a great choice.:-(
Unfortunately, the standard tests of the past – whether it's for rolling resistance on a steel drum or for puncture resistance with a needle – didn't work for wide high-performance tires. That is the reason why, until recently, wide tires invariably were stiff, harsh and slow. Only by testing tires on real roads, with real riders, have we been able to (re-)discover how wonderful wide tires with supple high-performance casings can be.
Jan Heine
Founder
Compass Cycles