Bought these to replace a set of knobbly tires that ended up being too wide for my frame by a nano meter.
I went out on a trip with every kind of gravel you'd expect to find, smooth rolling hard-pack, squishy mud, freshly laid gravel, chunky deep stuff, baby-heads, and pavement. These worked best on the pavement up through loose gravel, but as soon as things got wet, or when the grade went to the double digits, things got sketchy.
I probably ran the psi too high for some of the stuff I encountered, but I didn't have these set up tubeless. The tire and my rim don't much like each other, and I couldn't get a tight seal to set the beads. That's the only reason I set this to 4 stars. If they could be tubeless for me, probably would be the best summer tires around.
I purchased these tires to be more road biased but still climb the gravel/fire roads here in the Bay Area. The suppleness of the tire works well with my Topstone's kingpin suspension to add another layer of comfort. The 38mm X 700c tires actually are about 40mm wide on 25mm ID rims (they are marked 40x622). The 120 tpi casing is noticeably supple and was a little bit of a challenge to get on the wheels (HED Eroicas) with a single tire lever (crank brother's awesome one) but that also meant that a regular floor pump was able to set the bead on the rim. After three months, the bead has stretched and removing from the wheel is very easy.
Performance wise, The + casing has allowed me to forge rock strewn stream beds as well as bomb smooth tarmac hills cornering hard. The file tread and supple casing means that lowering the tire pressures allow me to climb gravelly fire roads and trails up to about 14-16 degrees of incline ( any steeper, and I have to get out of the saddle and then the tire slips and its game over). On the road, I can keep up with most group riders but I'm sure that the width and my gearing (46/30 & 11-34) start to be a factor. The extra wide tread does feel more confident at high speed cornering.
Wear is okay- at 1500 miles, the rears have worn the file tread off the center 10 mm wide section and has flattened. The fronts are barely showing wear. however, I did get a 2 mm cut on the rear tire near where the tread is worn. I was fortunate and didn't even know until this morning when I discovered that I had almost no air in the tire. It would hold air at 25 psi- unloaded. I believe that the wear is about where the protection starts to become an issue. I've already ordered another rear and am pretty sure I'll get near 3-4000 miles off the fronts.
If this was my only wheelset, I might consider the Gravelking SS next time. However, if you have another set for off road duties like me, I feel that the Gravelking slicks are a good all around tire. I am considering 35mm when the fronts wear, but am not willing to trade the offroad capabilities that 40mm allows because some of the fire road climbs do take 10-20 miles of road riding to get to. Having a very competent road tire that can cover some offroad in a pinch is the best compromise for me and allows me to run a more aggressive gravel tire on my other wheelset for the closer rowdy rides in my local regional park.
I'm using the GravelKing+ 35mm as my mostly urban tires. Riding pavement and some packed gravel. These are a super smooth riding and very grippy turning tire. I really like the way they ride.
I�ve been using GravelKing tires on my bikes for touring around the world for 4 years. They get the job done, last a long time, offer a soft ride and look good to. I ride them tubeless and have never had a puncture.
The Panaracer GravelKing+ have stood up well, and excelled when riding at speed across dry, hard-packed trails and darting on and off-road. A great choice for rides that take in a lot of paved road as well as off-road riding. But if you're riding through pure mud, you'll need to opt for more aggressive tread.
I put these 35's on my Surly Straggler to replace the stock Knards it came with. I do most of my riding on city pavement and didn't want a full on gravel setup. These ride great on pavement and absorb the bumps nicely. I also hit some dirt and gravel occasionally with no issues. They're beautiful too, I just left the bike in my living room to stare at it once these were on. Coming from a 23 road bike setup for years putting these on was life changing. Still feels like a road bike, but with added comfort and confidence.
My use is primarily country secondary roads mixed with a little bit of gravel exploration. I use the 700c x 38mm with tubes on a Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen (57c). I find the tires to be very responsive and relatively light for the size. Running them at 50-55 psi with the tubes has worked very well for me (215 lbs.) I have ridden these tires over the fall and have had no issues at all with punctures or flats. I am very pleased with them.
Over 500 miles so far on everything from pavement to rocky singletrack, I don't pull my punches and these tires haven't flinched. I've been using the standard GK 32's for road riding for years and thousands of miles, and no issues and no complaints. The GK+ were relatively painless to install, and they've performed flawlessly so far. They're fast and they're bulletproof. Maybe not the most supple tires in the world, but smooth enough to keep my longer mixed surface rides fairly comfortable. Highly recommended.
Previously ran GravelKings (no "+") on both my and my wife's single speeds. She's at 700x38 and I'm at 700x35. Haven't found a tire that I like more yet for this application, so the addition of puncture-avoidance is a bonus. No difference in ride quality and tread pattern is the same, so this will be my future go-to for replacements. About 4 years ago, we started doing mostly urban rides around Atlanta that occasionally include dirt paths between neighborhoods and long gravel stretches while our 700x25c road bikes collect dust.
Getting these tires seated (tubeless) on 21.5mm internal rims was unlike anything I'd experienced to date and, while I eventually figured it out - tube in for 24 hrs (any less = failed attempt), remove tube/leave one bead seated, add sealant, use a booster pump - the amount of experimentation (aka failed attempts) required to even seat these things was nuts. Flash forward 1 month and after 6 rides with these tires on my gravel bike, I ripped them off. Sure the ride is nice, they corner well on pavement at high speeds, and provide acceptable control on light gravel/dirt roads, but 3 punctures over the course of those 6 rides is simply unacceptable.
Hoo boy. Big Panaracer fan, not a big review writer but these GK+ missed the mark and made me feel like I wasted my money. I�ve run and loved the SKs for many many tubeless miles without a hassle but these, on the other hand...no thanks. I picked these up from BTD within the first week on sale, and had a nightmare of a time getting the bead seated on the tubeless DT rim on which I�d previously run Panaracers. Strike one.
Finally got them holding air, added sealant, and both tires leaked like a sieve through the sidewalls. Pulled them off to throw tubes in them, and the bead had stretched so much that they would never be able to safely be run tubeless again. With tubes, they ride more harshly and less lively than classic GK slicks. I�m not sure if they were mislabeled, if the tubeless casing was defective, or what happened, but these are NOT tubeless appropriate and were a huge letdown.
I bought these to use on my cross bike.I wanted a tubeless road/trail tire to soften the ride on local trails.I have mounted many mountain bike tires tubeless without trouble.The GK's side walls leak like crazy even after adding 4.5 oz of Stans sealant and 50 miles of riding.Out of desperation I coated the insides of both tires with flexible contact cement.and 3 oz of sealant.No change.I put tubes back in.They are fine rolling tires and are reasonably fast, loads of grip.I gave tubeless 1 more try and added a much thicker layer of contact cement, 2 oz of Stan's Race sealant to 1 tire.Most of the leaks stopped.The few stubborn leaks were sealed with Gorilla glue. I have ordered some Orange Seal Endurance for the rear tire and have removed the contact cement. Am hopeful! I had previously purchased Vittoria Zero tires and they were just as bad. 4 leaky tubeless tires in a row. Stan's regular sealant was the constant factor.The Orange Seal has better reviews,so maybe this time? Great Customer service by Ron of BTD.
Purchased these for a gravel race with a lot of pavement and have really grown to love them. Usually run them tubeless at 38 psi and up to 50 on a recent all pavement ride. They do get a little squirrely on loose gravel and I wouldnt run them in mud. Initial tubeless setup had a lot of sealant leakage throughout the porous rubber. After about 5 rides seemed to diminish. Greatly reduced rolling resistance over the SK, which I really like for more technical conditions.
These were great for our C&O Canal towpath adventure. The park service has been resurfacing portions of the path and these 32c tires are absolutely perfect for the packed gravel resurfaced portions. Definitely still need 38c for portions that have not been resurfaced yet. I'm awaiting my new bike for that!
I put these on my road bike so I had the option to ride some dirt if I wanted to. I do a very small amount of gravel/dirt climbing every now and then. Great for my use case! But I wouldn't use these for more technical or advanced trail use.
The thing that didn't work quite as well as I had hoped was riding on gravel. We had a 15% grade and no matter what I tried my tires spun out and I couldn't get traction to climb. Rocks and gravel and dirt/sand shot out as I tried to pedal. Other than that climb the tires worked great.
