Since I am not going to write about today's ride, or lack there of, I'm going to start "Stuff Review SaturdaysssS!!! with cat" ("saturdays" purely for alliteration purposes. i don't plan on writing on saturdays. so its unlikely that the reviews will ever come on the title day.)
So. Right to it.
Stuff Review Saturdayayay!!! with cat.
Panaracer Rampage
and cat
(the notorious Z.I.P)Grip grip grip. These rubbers grip like man juice on fabric. They hook up great on dry and wet rocks. In the slow technical sections on Laural Mountain I could not imagine a better meat. I have yet to loose traction climbing on moist soil or hard pack. The Rampage sheds mud well, but does not have the knob height to work well in very muddy conditions.
The volume is great. Running them tubeless at about 15 psi for front and rear they have really smoothed out the ride on the big carrot. They sealed tubeless with just a floor pump and very little effort. The weight (by my scale "kinda heavy") is not at all unreasonable for the big size. Cornering is almost to good. I have a tendency to over-steer and on more than one occasion the tire has refused to give traction and launched me over the bars.
grippy to a fault. i over steered, and yes, my head did become well acquainted with that tree.
Unfortunately, the massive amount of grip does not lend itself to rolling speed. I knew these tires rolled slow, but just how slow was made painfully obvious to me at the Month of Mud series last fall. All four Sundays I raced on these tires and watched everyone near by roll away anytime we hit pavement. My bike sounds like a truck buzzing down the road.
Conclusion: The big carrot feels glued to the trail with the Rampages. It never looses traction, but is a hells of a lot harder to move than it was with Michelin ATXCs. I really love the Rampage for technical tracks because they ride and stick so well, but really don't love them for racing. They are just to heavy and slow.
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