When Panaracer ruled the earth…

Early ’00s maybe? I think you can still buy Fire XCs but not their mutant brother the Speedblaster.

Was clearing out the shed tonight and found an abandoned tyre with weird squid sucker tread pattern. On inspection a single Panaracer Speed Blaster tyre was lurking amongst the cobwebs, dead slaters and solidified paint tins. Probably one of the worst tyres ever made. Slow-rolling and no grip unless cranked right over, when it chucked its side knobs in no time.

So poor the internet tried to forget about it…?

http://www.bikekatalog.pl/2010/komponenty/718/Panaracer.Speed.Blaster.Race.Lite/

Anyone else remember them?

I have some 1.8s in the garage.

They were very very light, I raced on them a bit.

I’ll raise you,white Onza porcupines.Scott at4 handlebars and powerstraps.

I’ve got a Smoke / Dart combination in my shed.

20- years later you can still buy Tioga Factory DH’s.What other vintage stuff is still in production (unchanged)?

IRC mud mads, excellent mud tyres, terrifying on tarmac.

When I first got my giant trance the oe nevegals were shocking, the bike shop reccomended panaracer cedric garcia’s and since getting them I’ve always had a soft spot for panaracers, got fire xc and trailrakers on spare bikes

Yesterday I finally took the Panaracer XC off my rear wheel,worn out treads & a slash in the sidewall.Served me well,looks like I’ll be looking for another one for next winter 😐

What was the mud tyre? Trailraker I think? Again great on mud, terrifying on anything solid. Give me my Maxxis Beavers any day!

Smoke/dart ftw.

kilo – Member

When I first got my giant trance the oe nevegals were shocking

Kenda OE is comically bad, it’s basically a slander on their own good name. They must make a fortune from OEM to make it worth the damage tbh.

Most of my gang ran IRC Kujos with the dark reddish sidewalls for a good few years. Always quite liked the trailraker, never got on with the fire xc

I still like the Fire XCs, mainly for the sidewall colour. I had the red ones on my old hardtail (it was red) and put the blue ones on my wife’s bike (it is blue). It looks nice and they work well enough. I even have them on my Malt 2, but they don’t make a champagne silver sidewall version, so it’s just the normal black ones this time.

I remember riding through some truly horrible slop on some Trail Rakers with no problem.. then reaching some tarmac and going down like a sack of spuds. Still… designed with one purpose in mind and they did work.

I’ve still got Fire XC Pro’s and Trailrakers on bikes in the garage…

For the full set, Pasela’s on the tourer and tandem as well. I like Panaracer tyres. 🙂

Still use Fire XC Pros. They’re alright except in the sticky mud or over very slippy roots. But then I have to run high-ish pressures because I’m a fat biffer. Great in the dry.

I do have a soft spot for Fire XC Pros, they’re just a bit narrow and low volume compared to modern tyres.

I popped my pair back on for a laugh a couple of weeks ago and was amazed how much faster they were when climbing compared to my usual Purg / GC combo. Downhill they were an absolute hoot, more grip than they had any right to have.

Quite a fan myself. Amused me no end asking the local Panasonic dealer about ordering them in, they totally refused to believe me Panasonic make tyres, heh.

Anyway, FXCs work well enough on mixed surfaces, though on wide rims they’re bloody square.

Ran a Trail Raker all winter, amazing for goop.

Rampage SCs are the best, but very very fragile, and succeptable to thorns.

Did anyone else ride Panaracer Spike mud tires – I brought a F and R over from NZ with me in 1998, my first folding tires. Massive upgrade from the Farmer John’s I was riding at the time.

Mate rode those…terrifying on everything but real mud.
I had the Smoke/Dart combo (2.2 school dart) – utterly brilliant combo…best I’ve ever had.
Panaracer sold the mould and no-one makes it any more…the 2.1 dart was utter mince compared to the 2.2…I wish for them on every ride, real confidence inspiring tyres.

Did anyone else ride Panaracer Spike mud tires

Still have a set of those (very little used) in my garage. Quite amusing in a way on tarmac – you could feel them walk sideways on the corners.

I last used Trailblasters at CYB. Interesting…

I sold the trailrakers and the cinders, Trailrakers were good in the mud, terrifying everywhere else, the cinders were just plain awful.

I had a set of IRC Serac XC 1.9’s, I liked them, they are still on my sisters bike.

A few years ago I really liked the Razer MX as a very fast rolling XC tyre.

Dart 2.2 was a beast of a front tyre. I used to run it with a 2.35 Z-Max on the back. Tremendous combo. Looked great on the P20 with their amber walls

On a par with OEM Specialized of the day?

used to run FIRE XC Pro until recently. great tyres in hardpack forest trails

The (none OEM) 2.5 Stick-E Nevagals were really good tyres but the sidewalls were too delicate. Brilliant on dry trails but the stones and gorse of Dartmoor destroyed them in seconds. It was only the fact that most bikes came with the crappy OEM ones that gave them the bad name.

If they’d made them with stronger sidewalls (similar to Maxxis 2Ply) they’d have been an awesome performing tyre.

Tom Kp

Was a Dart/Smoke user back then, in 2.1 and they got me everywhere! Local trails involved a bit of tarmac to reach them so was burning through a set every 150 miles, my dad refused to believe it was just down to wear despite him hearing them ripping layers off the tread as I rode out of the street 😆 (I was about 13-14).

Amazingly you can still get them not cheap but still with tan walls, seriously tempted to fit some to the 5 and scare myself!

Like Willard , I once coordinated the colours of firexcpro’s to my bike.Blue ones. Made me look pro. 😉
Still have a pair of the skinny trailrakers, which used to be great for Epping mud bath horror rides.
Unused for years. 🙂

Ah, Dart ‘SC’ 2.2 front and Smoke rear saw me through the mid 90s until I started flirting with IRC Mythos, Conti XC & Hutchinson Alligators, leaving it too late to return as they were long gone by the time I realised everything else of the time was just not as good.

Trail rakers are pretty good in the worst of the claggy muddy chalky mess of winter done here in Hants but not if you intend to ride your bike to the trails on the road…

I had a pair of spikes.absolutely terrifying on anything other than thick gloop. On the road the bike went anywhere but forwards in a straight line. Still got some trail rakers but mud x are way better. Mate did alps with the white room in some 2.25 fire xc pros. He is still alive today !.

In my old riding group, we all use to ride Fire XC Pro. Some still do and won’t even consider trying anything else!

Those tan smoke/dart, they’d be on my retro build 🙂

I run 1.9 Trailrakers (26″) on my HT and in the mud they are great, on the road not so good 🙂

My Maxxis Shorty (650b) on my FS are also fantastic in mud and for some reason not anywhere as scary on the road.

I’m not sure about Panaracer anymore as I’ve more or less switched to Maxxis, has Panaracer got ‘modern’ rubber compounds and designs?

I run 1.9 Trailrakers on my HT in winter. Yes they’re draggy on the road but what the hell are you doing on the road silly? 🙂

I so wished I had fitted my trailrakers for Erlestoke last year. Best quote I saw was ‘like giving your bike rugby boots’

Me and my mate used MACH SS(es) one summer… They were fast! but the threads used to come peeling out of the sidewalls after a few rides.

has Panaracer got ‘modern’ rubber compounds and designs?

The soft compound Rampage is sticky and with ramped, slashed knobs.

My mate had these on his Cadex carbon because his Dad had loads of money. We lived 6 miles from each other, think they made it through the month.

Smoke/Dart. Second coolest tyres ever made (after white porcs of course). Still the easiest tyre to track bikers through the woods if you’re 15 and lacking in other interests.

I believe that ^^ is a Dart 2, and not the original 🙂

Had a few pairs of fxcs, they were light and rolled well, uninspiring grip tho and a bit skinny for my tastes. Rampage (and nevs obviously) are good all round but too wet or dusty (spain) and they were a bit scary.

Like smoke dart bitd but wouldn’t say I was shredding much gnar back then what with <21″ bars, stems that crossed postcodes, rigid forks and canti brakes. Would be interesting to run some back to back with current treads*.

Panaracer sold the mould and no-one makes it any more…

seeing as how they blatantly ripped off the nevegal with the rampage can’t kenda or someone else be “inspired by” the smoke dart combo?
Zerocool have you tried the nevs in UST flavour? They do a 2.35 DTC, I’ve run quite a few as rear tyres, hold out well, dunno how grippy they are on the front tho.

IRC Kujo/missile check, loved them, possibly more to do with volume/looks/bulletproofness than outright grip tho.

*interesting but not £64 worth of interesting but if others have ridden the current version of S/D and rate them I’ll consider them when I need new rubber.

I moved on from the Dart/Z-max to Mythoc XC and thought they were brilliant. I rebuilt a Cannondale Raven a couple of years ago and put them on that. They were fast but not much grip. Makes you wonder! Onza Porcs were crap IMO