Panaracer GravelKing Slick Tread 38 (2023)

The Panaracer GravelKing will take some beating on rough roads in this whopping 38mm size. We've already reviewed both the 26mm and the 32mm versions of these tyres and this pothole-conquering, gravel-busting 38mm version in Nile Blue is just as impressive. It's light for a 38mm at 337g, is very easy to set up tubeless and comes in restrained black as well as blue, green and ivory. What more could you want?

• Pros: Fast, wide and light; easy to set up; excellent comfort; good value
• Cons: Not grippy enough for mud, too wide for some frames

First up, this colour is not subtle. Nile Blue turns out to be Teal or Kingfisher Blue with Toffee Brown side walls that coincidentally match my brown Surly Cross-Check perfectly – but you might not be quite so lucky. In which case, good old fashioned black/black or black/tan are available as well.

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Secondly, these tyres need a lot of space. They are listed as 38mm but when fitted to some new wider rimed Halo Evaura wheels, they came up to closer to 40 (39.52mm) so make sure your frame can take them before taking the plunge.

Setting them up tubeless proved about as simple as you could hope for. The front tyre went up on the first attempt with an Airshot can and stayed up without sealant overnight, and although the rear needed sealant to hold (that's the idea anyway) both have stayed up for the duration of the test period using Stan's Race sealant.

I figured I'd use this fast-acting sealant, which is capable of plugging bigger holes than the standard option, as I was expecting rough conditions over the winter, but I needn't have worried – or if they have punctured I've not noticed it. So it's a win-win.

Panaracer lists the maximum pressure at 60psi, which is about the most you'd want in a tyre this large. Running them at 50 or under most of the time gave me a supple, comfortable ride and no discernible reduction in rolling speed. It also meant that they coped well with the terrible state of Wiltshire's roads.

One section out of my village is appalling, with the whole top surface broken into loose stones floating on top of the very rough sublayer. On any other road bike this section is horrific and jars your teeth, and you risk riding a long way out from your usual position to avoid it. I was shocked recently when I attempted it on a 28mm road tyre at 90psi – It was almost unrideable – but with the GravelKings you're able to keep the hammer down and plough through. Few actual gravel roads are quite this terrible, so it's a good test of any tyre.

'Off-road' they perform admirably as long as you are not expecting them to grip in wet, slippery mud. They work well on a wide range of mixed surfaces and only spun out when I bit off more than I could chew uphill on a wet, muddy track that proved too much for both the bike and me.

They might be called GravelKing but I take that to mean 'US GravelKing', referring to the hundreds of thousands of miles of cindered roads that the US is lucky enough to have – not 'UK gravel' where we tend to use the term to encompass anything non-tarmac that can be attempted on a drop bar bike. I suspect for most users, the horrific state of many of our UK roads will be more than enough to lead them to Panaracer's gates, and on such surfaces they excel. Using them along the canal towpath, mixed with gravel tracks and farm lanes, I've found the GravelKings to be an excellent, comfortable multi-surface tyre.

Blasting into work on the road has proved both quick and comfortable with no drag issues, which you would normally expect for such wide tyres. I cannot say whether they were faster or slower than the 32mm version Dave tested, but I can confirm that I clocked some of my faster times in and out of work so they certainly didn't hold me back.

Downhill, their 38mm width, Zero Slip Grip (ZSG) natural compound and lower pressures provide an instant confidence boost, holding their line perfectly to the bottom of off-camber, nasty loose surface descents around Bath.

Uphill they performed brilliantly on most surfaces, gripping well up my favourite steep climbs, be they rutted or just plain broken tarmac. Only on the slippery tarmac caused by farm vehicle slime did they require an adjustment of my position to stop them spinning, but I suspect nothing else would have made much difference short of a full-on mountain bike tyre.

As for their puncture resistance, I can only say I'm still running on the first lot of sealant – about 40-50ml per tyre – and I've had no leaks, burps or slashes to deal with, so the Advanced Extra Alpha Cord and the Anti-Flat Casing would seem to be doing their jobs of resisting all intruders.

> Buyer's Guide: 18 of the best gravel and adventure tyres

The Panaracer GravelKing faces some tough competition in the market, particularly from the much-loved and well-reviewed Schwalbe G-One. However, at rrp those will set you back over £60, and they're heavier too. I never felt grip was lacking with the GravelKing – even in the wet I was really impressed with the way they just kept holding on – and their rrp of £39.99 makes them very good value against the G-Ones. Not quite a bargain, but close.

Verdict

A supremely comfortable, fast, tubeless-compatible tyre for the worst of UK's roads

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