Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
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Panaracer Trailraker tyres
After the mud-fest that was SSMM 2004 and a dreadful winter featuring more mud than a 70’s Christmas album, I realised I needed a decent set of gloop tyres....
After some research, it was quite apparent that the best tyre for the job should be the Panaracer TrailRaker, with it’s unique ZSG Ultima compound providing stunning levels of grip, widely spaced central tread pattern to clear mud unbelievably fast and large side knobs offering predicatable cornering in all conditions. Although available in both 1.95 and 2.1 widths, I opted for the skinnier of the two as I reckoned my relatively low body weight, coupled with the fact I want to cut through the mud to the terra-firma below, rather than glide across the surface.
To pass my ultimate test, I chose the not-at-all bike-specific trails around my hometown of Harrogate (un-drained and low-level - anyone who has ridden them in winter will tell you they are pretty damn muddy). Having ridden the same route many, many times on my old boots, I knew exactly what was in store for me. On top of this, we had a rainstorm of almost biblical proportions the night before so I knew that if these tyres came through this test, they would be winners.
The first test came on a steep, tricky narrow stepped section, past a stream and out of a short gully. The tyres grabbed the sloppy mud under them, scrubbing the speed off with no problem. The grip through the technical section was phenomenal – no sign of any scrubbing out or slipping on the unpredictable ground. As I pedalled hard out of the gully, they gripped well with no loss of traction, even though I deliberately pushed hard and shifted my weight around to try to coax them into losing grip.
First test passed.
A short road section followed, and even though these tyres have a very aggressive tread pattern and it felt a little like driving a tractor, they span relatively well and I managed to keep up a decent pace. Once past the road section I had the trickiest part of the ride, the one that would really test the TrailRakers. A long, muddy and sheltered section dropping down through the woods towards a beck meant perma-mud and riding at water-table level. They griped fantastically throughout, never spinning, always gripping. Almost before I had started I was out the other side of this test, passed.
One point worth noting at this stage is the amazing mud-clearing capabilities of the tyres – where before my previous set would have increased in size and weight three-fold, these had cleared completely – and this meant no build-up between tyres and frame as well.
The final unique conditions I encountered, which they didn’t perform so well on, was grass. Due to the aggressive tread, they were trying hard to cut into the grass, ploughing it up and slowing me down. As I reached the far end of the section I looked back to see several sets of tracks made by other bikes, mostly light marks on the grass, whereas the tracks I had left were deep and defined and left me breathless on a section I normally would coast through, although this didn’t concern me too much as grassy fields make up such a small percentage of any route I would ever be riding.
In conclusion, these tyres filled me with a confidence I had long-since forgotten since the dry, dusty conditions of early summer of last year. Almost perfect.
Looks/styling :: 10/10 (Aggressive – they look like they mean business)
Design/materials :: 10/10
Performance :: 10/10
Value :: 8/10
Fany fact
After a day’s ride, ensure the pub you're in has enough steak, if not, leave.