In the US – which, unlike Australia, has a thriving gravel race scene, often conducted on gravel roads – the Gravel King SS would be most at home on well-made gravel roads and hard-packed dirt: a fairly narrowly defined band between Grade 2 and Grade 3 gravel. That’s where I think our Gravel Gradient comes in handy, helping to define where a tyre’s true strengths lie. That has its pros and its cons – you can find products that are perfect for very specific terrain, but you also have lots of things that aren’t quite right for what you ride. The cycling industry’s schtick is hyper-compartmentalising its products, finding niches within a niche for bikes, apparel, gear – and yes, gravel tyres.
Pricing is on the more affordable side of average, but with a bit of an ‘Australia tax’. These share the same casing, so I wouldn’t expect any real issues – it’s not like they’re a wafer-thin ultra-optimised cotton tyre with a day-long lifespan. I haven’t experienced a puncture or sidewall tear in either the SS or the SS+, and I’ve had overwhelmingly positive experiences with the durability of the Gravel King SK and Slick tyres that I’ve used at various points over the past few years. Now, pegging it as a “race day” tyre seems (to me) to imply some fragility, but happily that’s really not the case. In the 700×38 size, it’s pretty light (a claimed 410 g, but my samples measured just south of 400 g), and rolls fast enough that it really doesn’t feel meaningfully slower than a road tyre. The performance of gravel tyres varies depending on the conditions in which you ride them, and those conditions vary dramatically depending on where you are, what you ride, and how you ride it.Īs noted, Panaracer describes the Gravel King SS as a “race-day tyre” for “dryer gravel and dirt”, which strikes me as a fairly accurate description. It goes a little something like this ( and a-one-two-three-four): I’ll kick off with the disclaimer that applies for any gravel tyre review. Mid-last year, Panaracer sent over a pair of the Gravel King SS in 700×38 and Gravel King SS+ in 650x48b, and I’ve been using them as part of my rotation since. So if you’re extra lucky, you just might be able to score a set of Flamingo Pink or Pansy Blue tyres. In each size there’s the choice of black or tan sidewalls, but in a couple of sizes Panaracer also releases two limited colours each year. The 650b version is a big-volume, plush-riding semi-slick. There’s just one 650b size offered: 650x48b (or 27.5”x1.9, depending on your preferred format). In either variant, you have a wide range of widths to choose from in the 700c wheelsize: 700×28, 700×32, 700×35, 700×38, and 700×43. The SS+, meanwhile, has a bead-to-bead layer of anti-puncture ‘ProTite’ material, giving a little insurance against tread and sidewall gashes in more rugged terrain. The standard SS has a puncture-resistant belt to bolster the 126 TPI casing, with a Zero Slip Grip (ZSP) compound. Like the rest of the Gravel King family, there are two casings offered – the standard version, and a beefed-up + version. The tread pattern of the SS and the SS+ is the same. A central file tread gives way to a diamond pattern, with more aggressive blocky lugs on the shoulder which remind me of a more tightly spaced SK shoulder pattern. The tread pattern looks a bit like if the Gravel King and the Gravel King SK had a baby. The SS (Semi-Slick) more or less combines elements of both the Slick and SK tyres to create what Panaracer calls a “dryer-condition, race-day-ready and fast-rolling tyre … made for riders who want to go fast while maintaining great control, traction and climbing prowess.”
That gap was filled by the Panaracer Gravel King SS and its hardier sibling, the SS+. They’re both great tyres in their own right – the Gravel King SK in particular is one of my benchmarks – but some bright spark at Panaracer wondered if there was a gap in the market for something in between. There are two models, though, that get the lion’s share of attention: the Gravel King SK (with small knobs, hence ‘SK’), and the Gravel King Slick. Across the line-up – which offers everything from what are basically road tyres to chunky mud-oriented gravel tyres – there’s something for most conditions. There aren’t many gravel tyres with a following as devoted as those in the Panaracer Gravel King range.
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