I do a mix of on-road and light off-road (mostly road though) and really liked my Intense System 3s, but after losing 3 to bulging treads I decided to try something else (apparently there was a bad batch so I may go back to them later).

After a fair bit of hunting around and asking questions I decided to try some Panaracer Razers, they're a fair bit lighter than Intenses (by around 100g each I think). I haven't had a chance to ride them properly due to the weather and things going on but today I had to nip out to B&Q (probably a 10 minute round trip) and I really didn't like them, I think it was the sparse population of low knobs on the tyre – they felt 'noisy' and a bit uncomfortable compared to the almost continuous and fairl smooth centre tread of the System 3s. It also felt like there was less cushioning (particularly on the rear) than the System 3s, despite supposedly being wider tyres (although I can't see them being close to their quoted 2.1" size, they more like some 1.9"s I've used).

Now obviously when you've ridden and become familiar with any component, any change is going to feel odd until you get used to it and a 10 minute ride isn't anything like long enough to form an opinion, but I was wondering whether anyone else had ridden Razers on the road and what their experiences were. The weight drop alone should make a difference although I didn't get on with much lighter Small Block 8s either as I found them a bit draggy.

A few long rides and some climbs should make things clear.

They seem fine on-road to me (and on hardpack), they scare the bejesus out of me on off-camber moist stuff though.

thought mine felt quite fast, including on the road. not felt too unstable either (have the wider 2.3 – which are like 2.1's really).

What MTB recommended them a while back, but recently slated them & i've seen other bad reviews – wonder if i've got too used to them and would actually be better on something else. hmmm

Well I certainly need to give them more of a go before forming an opinion, I guess that for me they just felt different to what I'm familiar with.

WTB did slate them recently in a dry tyre review but also slated the Michelin XC Dry2 for being inconsistent in the wet, so I'm not convinved that that means a huge amount. There's a review on Bike Radar giving them 4.5/5 and listing them as their "favourite fast trail tyre" and another giving them 4.5/5 stars (and I'm pretty sure that was a WMB review), both reviews were for the 2.3" MX, I've got the 2.1" XC PR. Generally I've seen good reviews (which is one of the reasons I went for them) as a dry tyre with warnings that they're not great in damper conditions (semi-slicks generally are).

Perhaps a more conventional semi-slick would have been a better mainly road option, but I'll persevere and give them a fair go.