Although to many tyre choice on a bike tends to come down to what the local bike shop have that's cheap, there's a few things beyond that which mountain bikers look at when buying tyres. The first main thing tends to be the use that the tyre's going to get. Shove a slick tyre with no tread on a bike that's going to get used in the mud, and you're going nowhere. Put a mud tyre on and go and ride on a hard surface and you'll be puffing and panting like Ivor the Engine with the flu. The Fire XC Pros fit in somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. As the XC in the name implies, this is a cross country tyre. Cross country riders expect some grip in the mud, but not at the expense of putting so much grip on the tyre that it's hard going all the time. Panaracer seem to have managed that quite well with the Fire XC Pro, although the special blend of mud in certain parts of South Wales still manages to bring everything to a sudden halt the moment you put a wheel in it.
The low rolling resistance of these tyres is compounded by the size of the tyre. They are available in 2.1", which seems to be the most popular size for many riders these days or, for those who enjoy all day expeditions or just want to be perverse (I fit into at least one of those categories, depening on who you ask) there's a 1.8" tyre which is quite startlingly narrow. With 65psi in a 1.8" tyre it's almost slightly alarming how easy the bike is to pedal, although when it starts getting rough the pressure will need to be dropped somewhat before you find your bike bouncing around everytime you hit a root or rock.
With commuting to work and the odd trip into a nearby forest to get muddy, I've put a fairly large mileage on these tyres. Despite this, the wear has been minimal. Something which helps with this is the fact that, unlike many MTB tyres these days, the Fire XC Pros aren't front and rear specific. What the means is that whereas many tyres come in a set of two, one designed for the front and one designed for the rear, the Fire XC Pro can be installed at either end of the bike, simply putting the tread a different way around depending on which wheel you're putting it on. The practical upshot of this is that when you notice that your back tyre is starting to wear, you can just swap it for the relatively unmolested front tyre. Marvelous.
All in all, I'm really impressed with these tyres, but there's one really important issue that I've not addressed yet. Colour. As mountain bikers, colour is the single most important thing about our bikes. Fortunately Panaracer have anticipated this, and given us the Fire XC Pro with a choice of Red, Blue, Yellow or Black sidewalls. Even after six months on the bike, the red sidewalls are still very, very red. Which is good really, because I'd have docked a star if they'd faded.
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Price
£30 per pair
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