Anyone with Panaracer GravelKing SK 26-622?

Searching for a narrow gravel tire for my road bike. I guess the limiting factor will be the ultegra 6800 rim brake. So I was looking at the

  • Panaracer GravelKing SK 26-622 (favorite if it can fit…don’t know what the SK version adds to size…but looks best as gravel tire)
  • Panaracer GravelKing 26-622
  • or Challeng Strada Race 25-622

Would be happy to hear if anyone used these (or other gravel tires) with (ultegra) rim brakes?

If someone is using these tires could you measure the width of the tire on the rims?

These are great tires in my opinion. I have them in a larger size 35x622. On my road bike with i21 rim width they were true to size. On my gravel bike with i23 rim width they stretched to 37. Both bikes are disc and brake clearance wasn’t an issue for me so, I can’t really speak to that.

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Thanks for your comment, appreciated. Good to hear that the tires are mostly true to size which is what I heard from a friend too (even though conclusion was that with the rims never know 100% exactly and might just give it a try to find out). Still thinking a bit.

Meanwhile a saw the IRC Marbella (Marbella Tubeless X-Guard - IRCbike.com) listed on the web site with 700x28 but on the data sheet link (https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2554/3744/files/irc_datasheet_marbellatlxg_rgb.pdf) also with 700x26.

If you plan on riding gravel at all, I would go with the gravelking SK vs. the GK slick. I used the slicks in 28 mm as a pure road tire and found them to be quite fragile. The sk however is great, very flat resistant and reasonably fast on pavement (I ran 32s on a different bike with more clearance though).
I was able to fit the 28 gk slicks with a DT 460 rim Into Shimano 5800 calipers without maxing out the clearance.

My absolute favorite is the good old Panaracer Pasela. They are cheap, light and have very supple sidewalls while the tread area is well protected against cuts. And they look classy too imo.

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Thanks for your input and examples regarding clearance :+1:!

Interesting, will keep these in mind. Remind a bit of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus options…these have a small option too like the SmartGuard 25-622.

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There’s a new Gravelking version about to drop. A semi-slick version

https://gravelcyclist.com/videos/meet-the-new-panaracer-gravelking-ss-semi-slick-ridden-reviewed/

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Thanks for that info. Good to know…although I would want the most rough option (SK) with small size and SS has no smaller version than 28-622.

I haven’t tried the SK, but I have GK Slicks in 32mm for my “all road” setup on the gravel bike. They’re great, and I’m sure the SKs are too.

Here’s another option if you’re looking to broaden your search: Marbella Tubeless X-Guard - IRCbike.com

For what it’s worth, that’s probably what I’d go with if I were looking for a narrow gravel tire, just purely based off my own research.

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Thanks for your input.

Yes, could be an alternative, I stumbled across these during this thread already:

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For the record, from the panaracer rep, SK = Small Knobs.

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