These are fantastic gravel tires. Great on tarmac as well as on gravel. I needed something that excelled when climbing in loose gravel conditions, and these are excellent. The only downside is they are an absolute bear to put on your rims. I had a lot of tires on my wishlist to try, not anymore - these are it!
I'm a 240lb rider, and I chose the X1 Plus in 700x45 for UNBOUND 100 because I was concerned about punctures on such a rocky course. These tires had a lot of grip/stability, and I think the puncture protection gave me the confidence to ride more aggressively. I haven't seen official tests yet, but I think it's fair to say that the additional bead-to-bead puncture protection makes the X1 Plus slower than the X1 R variant (e.g. test data shows the GravelKing SS Plus are slower than the SS.) I took the X1 R to the 200k Rift in Iceland, and it turned out that course's risk for punctures was even worse than Unbound's. Even so, the X1 R's never flatted. All around, the X1 series is a great tire with a lot of grip. I'll be sticking with them.
Have had these on the bike for over a month before reviewing. They are pretty amazing, super grippy and fast rolling - faster than the semi-slicks I had before from another brand. Have been through gravel, sand, dirt, sharp rocks etc. and they never skip a beat. Haven't had any punctures yet either (knock on wood), which is almost unheard of for me... I always seem to find the one sharp thing in the road. They also don't throw small gravel/stones like the SK's. Packaged nicely as well.
Really like these Panaracers. They feel great on both fast, hard packed gravel as well as the chunky, rocky, single track. They survived 2024 UnboundXL and lots of single track mountain bike trails, and still manage to feel at home on the group ride. They were a bit of a pain to muscle on the wheel the first time, but once there they are so stiff they seat immediately. The plus casing feels bomb proof. Despite hard, fast descending on rough terrain I haven't seen a single puncture. That being said, if I was mostly taking these on good gravel roads, I'd probably drop down to the regular casing. Only note is that they feel a smidge slippy on long descents, however that may be the stiffer casing.
These roll great and have decent traction. What's not to like?
