User submitted reviews
Review by Anonymous
I like these tires for mixed terrain. They were mostly great at a recent gravel race that was 50-50 road and dirt. But I ignored other comments about how poor they do in thick mud and paid for it. They became slicks when the mud got heavy and the bike felt like it was riding on ice. Overall a good tire when the dirt is light and dry.
Review by Anonymous
These tires are great for gravel roads, single track, and old forest roads! Tubeless, minimal air loss, and very comfortable on rough sections.
Review by Anonymous
I love the gravelkings, this is my second pair. I set them up tubeless and had a hard time getting them to sit correctly on the rims with my floor pump (eventually got it) but imagine it'd be a lot easier with more pressure. They look and feel great!
Review by Anonymous
The plus casing is completely worth the higher price. The confidence of rolling this tire came the normal or another tire, can't put a price on it. I really enjoy the compliance and traction. The tire measures true to the label on a 21mm internal rim.
Review by Anonymous
Great tires! I did flat in the rear tire. I sliced the side wall. The slice was huge and the tire was not faulty. Riding tubeless, my sealant wasn't sufficient. I put in a tube and continued my ride with no problems.
Review by pkoonce99
I have been really happy with the Gravel King tires. The first few months I threw a lot at these and they have handled everything flawlessly. The dirt trails of Forest Park in Portland to some choppy gravel in eastern Oregon I haven't had any worries with these monsters!
Review by Anonymous
Great tires, fast shipping, no damage/defects
Review by UltraCrit
GravelKing SK/SK+ are IMHO the most versatile tires in my gravel tire collection. I swap tires more than most, and I always find myself coming back to this tire. It grips sufficiently well on loose-over-hard (where the SS/SS+ would start to slip) without compromising *too* much speed on tarmac. I've heard other cyclists complain about punctures with GK tires in general, but I've had fairly good luck. (Interestingly, another comment I heard from others was that GK tires toss more debris into the rider on your wheel's face, so take that for what you will.) I've experienced average to above-average wear. On a final note, I'll add that the non-directional nature of the tread makes installation easier (sometimes finding those rotation arrows is more challenging that it should be).
Review by Anonymous
I got these just as a replacement for the Rene Herse Barlow Pass. The latter were great but I had a puncture and they had a decent amount of miles and wanted to try something with a bit more tread. A wider version wasn't available and I got the 38s but I found them quote narrow relatively speaking so a 40 or 42 would have been good, although I don't find these lacking for traction either.
Really great but they need less pressure than you think based on how narrow they look.
Review by WALEY Rider
This is the second set of Panaracer Gravel King tires. I like gravel riding but I spend most my time on road and rail trails. This is a great solution to going on all surfaces. I really like the tread on these better than my first pair. Everyone needs to understand that these gravel tires are extremely hard to put on. I never had a flat on my last pair and expect the same on this pair. This summer heading to Michigan Upper Pennisula ride that offers both gravel and road routes. The 28mm is so hard to find a good gravel tire. Now I can decide which ride option I feel like without any problems. Finally, the tires are great looking. I got the brown sidewalls and they really look nice.
Review by Anonymous
Great tire. holds up well and works well across different surfaces. Over some pretty large rocks some of the traction comes off the back tire. but it not terrible
Review by Billo99
Love this tire. Running a 38mm coming from a 43mm and live the handling. Was debating 35mm in an attempt to get at a reasonable �all rounder� - I like the fun of the gravel bike on my road routes but want a tire that doesn�t slow me up too much but still capable off road. Mounting on Enve AG wheels a bit difficult - just getting over the rim - soapy water in spray bottle helped significantly. I know this is a function of the combo of wheel and tire but just sharing in case it helps. Not a fault of the tire itself. If I had it to do over again, I think I would try 35mm first but love the construction of this tire.
Review by turbo_pdx
don't know why this tire is so popular, I'm guessing because of good marketing, and they look cool.
it feels SO slow on pavement AND gravel, and on gravel doesn't offer nearly as much grip as other options by Schwalbe, WTB, Maxxis, etc. It feels especially nervous on loose corners, even worse than many slicks because it's unpredictable. sometimes you have grip... then it disappears unexpectedly as you get onto the long corner knobs.
In addition, the tightly spaced square knobs tend to pick up tons of little pebbles that get wedged into the tread and need to be picked out. I suspect this will lead to flats eventually, since debris gets stuck and pounded in instead of just falling off, but I haven't given them a chance to find out because I took them off after a few rides.
Review by cleo
I used this on my travel bike as an all-surface tire. I was working in Bangalore for many months prior to COVID and was running some semi-slicks, but the streets often had sand and dust buildups (lots of construction) and many of my out-of-town rides had me on mixed to gravel to sand trails & roads. These tires rolled fast enough, great traction, and I was able to set them up tubeless in the hotel room and held air for days before requiring a quick top-off. Great tire!
Review by Anonymous
Been using Panaracer GravelKings for years. Mounted this set on new Light rims with Tubolight liners. Took a long time to seal. Working great now. GravelKings are the best all around gravel tire IMO. Good price here. Will order them again
Review by Scotty K
Replacing ClementDonnelly MSO Xplor's as my gravelmixed terrain tires on my CX bike. Running tubeless on Stan's Grails. One tire went on easily but the other took some work to seat. A compressor helped.
I've put about 200 miles on them so far, on some rough trails, and theyve performed really well. Hook up on off camber was also good for a gravel tire. Seals have held and haven't had any punctures
Review by Jason
Purchased the 700x38, have about 200 miles on them, Ive used these on all surface types(loose gravel, slightly muddy, pavement included) and found great traction running at just under 40 psi. Setup easy tubeless with no problems holding air since mounted.
Review by Judi
Cervelo came with GK and I am continuing with them. Great tire, wears well.
Review by Scott M
I went from the Gravelking SS in a 38 to the SK in a 43. I noticed little drop off in performance on pavement, and the gravel performance is a step up.
Review by Anonymous
Got these for gravel/non-cx riding on my cx bike (hed Belgium wheels). I ride and race tubeless on this wheel set, but I can't for the life of me get these tires to seat. Tried all kinds of high pressure air, all to no avail. So I mounted them w tubes and they're ok. Even rode last gravel season w tubes thinking the casing would then be better formed to mount tubeless this season but didn't work.