Panaracer GravelKing Tire [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

 On the bike, your only contact to the ground is your tires obliviously. But what is overlooked is getting good traction. Make sure that contact point is solid! Panaracer offers the GravelKing for those venturing on and off the roads. Our friend, Alex, has been riding them see what they think! 

Overview

I had always wanted to get into cycling, but I'm not sure why it took me until this year to do so. Starting off this year (2019) I started watching a lot of cycling videos and looking into it and I got the bug. As a 22-year-old, I did what any 22-year-old with a lot of time and a decent job would do when found a new exciting hobby- I went all in. I got myself a gravel bike in the beginning of the year and rode it almost every day. It was FUN and truly made me happy. I was able to have this much fun and get a good exercise in at the same time for a couple hours without dreading it??? Yes!

As the months went by, I started to want upgrades. Ater doing some research I found that one of the best upgrades and cheapest you can get on a bike besides yourself is tires. After days of reading forums and reviews and articles I came to the conclusion that there was one product in common everyone recommended in most of those and had a good reputation: Panaracer Gravelkings. I knew I had to have these. I looked on google to see who had the best prices and Worldwide Cyclery came up on top. They were having a sale at the time, but I knew low prices wasn’t the only important thing so I checked the reviews. Google said they had 99% positive reviews!!! That’s more than any of the other sites that were selling these tires I wanted. Best reviews for the site and prices I knew I had to take the opportunity and snag them so I did. I decided to get the 38mm slick versions (not the SK’s) with the brown sidewall because I do a mixed of road, paved trails, and light to medium gravel so I knew for my type of riding I wouldn’t need the SK versions. I chose 38mm because Specialized website says that’s the max clearing tires for my bike.

After ordering them they came in very quickly. They looked amazing and I couldn’t wait to get them on. I was able to get my hands on a tubeless specific wheelset but I didn’t want the tires those came with on because they were only 35mm and knobby while I wanted something wider and slicker like the Gravelkings. The Gravelkings were tubeless ready so me and my LBS obviously went that route. I immediately took it for a test run and was amazed. There's debate that wider tires make you slower or faster. In my situation I definitely felt faster. It felt as if the tires absorbed any small to big imperfection on the road. They definitely felt wide, coming from 30 mm tires. My rides are extremely more comfortable and faster. Not only that but the brown sidewall looks so cool! I keep getting compliments on both the tires and the color. If I had to describe these tires in 3 words, I'd say fast, smooth, sick.

Lately I been seeing a few of my friends I ride with getting flats on their innertubes more often than usual. Sometimes they will check the innertube and they will be no object but only a small tiny hole. Feels good not having to worry about innertube punctures with these tires being run at tubeless. Although I do know I'm not 100% immune to flats! Knock on wood- I still haven't had a flat.

Final Thoughts

Now my bike truly does feel like it can “do it all” (of course except mountain bike trails). I don’t feel disadvantaged on the road nor on gravel. I'd highly recommend these tires to anyone!