On a Rampage

The Panaracer Rampage 2.35 is almost here.

The wait is not quite over yet. These tires are so hot, the very first batch that was air freighted in came and went in a matter of hours. After hours to be exact. I just happened to be cruising the message board I sponsor, and caught a post about having these in stock.
Needless to say, I bought some immediately, and I should have bought more than I did. By the time I realized this, they were gone.
This was from the advance shipment that is just the tip of the iceberg of what is actually on the way.

So... what is all the hubbub about?

We haven't really had a tire like this for 29ers yet. Most of the high volume tires on the market, have a low tread pattern, making them unsuitable for wet/slick riding conditions. Some of the other large volume tires are prone to flatting due to an insufficient casing. Either way you cut it, we were just pain missing something.

And that is a high volume, aggressive knobby. And this tire is big. Similar in volume to the 2.3 Exiwolf, but with big honkin' knobs. The rubber compound seems to be on the softer side too, which aids in those tricky slick situations. And weight is around 770 grams, about on par with some of the other big meats we currently have.

How does it ride? Well, I have 2 good rides on them so far. I am impressed. I'm running them as a front and rear combo, with the rear tire facing the same direction as the front. On the sidewall, the tire will tell you that you can run the rear tire either way, but for our terrain up here, I feel it is better to run the rear the same way as the front when given the option.

As most new tires do, they do pick up a lot of gravel, but I was not expecting marble sized bits and small rocks when climbing up on the dirt road. There was also a noticeable gain in rolling resistance compared to the Exiwolf/Ignitor I did have on there. The center knobs are big, and you feel their presence despite the fact that they are ramped.

Get them on dirt though, and it is a whole different story. The rolling resistance is just the tires way of saying "Hey ground! C'mere!". Traction was all there.
Saturday's ride took us through some intermediate trails with a couple of attention getting movements, but said trails were covered in about 4" of freshly dropped leaves. Actually finding the trail was based upon luck, and finding unstable and/or wet stuff underneath the leaves was all too common. The tires did not relent in their ability to hang on.
On Sunday's ride we turned up the heat. The riding was a lot more technical, and despite knowing the trail 6 Flags as well as we do, there were a lot of hazards. The only one who did not have a traction related disaster was yours truly. I did slip out a couple of times on some off camber and hidden roots, but the slide was always cut short. The large side knobs really got the job done.
*On a side note, I switched from an Ignitor up front, back to an Exi because the Ignitor, with it's many smaller knobs would tend to snag and then kick you off line. I preferred the somewhat predictable and more controllable manner in which an Exi would let go.

We ran the whole spectrum of conditions, mud, standing water, wet roots, dry roots, off camber boulders, roots, wet leaves, dry leaves, and dry leaves hiding any and or all of the above. If there was any set of conditions to put a tire through it's paces, we had them Sunday.

All I can say, is that if you crave raw grip, these are your tires. Your frame may not clear these though, there is a lot of rubber here.

The verdict, two thumbs up and a big muddy grin.

It is so good to finally see tires like this hit the market. It is definitely the shape of things to come. On deck are more big wheel offerings from WTB and Kenda, to name just a few. We will be there when they arrive.