Comments about Panaracer Cedric Gracia 29" Folding Tire:

Just have a few rides on this tire as a rear while using a Maxxis Ardent on the front but so far it's really hooking up on the loose, rocky trails of central Texas. also notice that in sandy turns, it's really tracking well, especially compared to the Ardent.

Comments about Panaracer Cedric Gracia 29" Folding Tire:

I run these when the short knobs of my Ikons just won't cut it, typically when things get a bit loose. They seem to be a decent alternative to the Rampage, where you might want more lateral grip and faster rolling in hardpack terrain. Basically, a step up from a fast racy XC tire, to a more aggressive XC/trail tire, where the Rampage is more of an all-rounder for trail/AM.

They're my tires of choice for Big Bear, where there's there's only a few climbs and some pedally flat sections, but the DHs have been really been beat up to the point that the trail is just 1"-3" of deep coarse powder. I also ran them in Mammoth with great success. In fast chunky trails, where my tires are often skimming the ground, I found them to offer more control than my Ikons.

Where they really shine is on off-cambers. Going back to my Ikons, I still get a bit tense and have my eyes hang on any sideways sloped edge, from ruts, to off camber turns. I really need to get my body involved to keep the bike together and on a good line around those. With the CG XC tires, you pretty much have no worries and can just use the entire trail to your liking, even if it's covered with ruts & off cambers, with rocks & roots, and/or with loose soil. It has controlled braking and good tracking, but traction on dry desert hardpack climbs is only average, as it relies on the friction of the flat tops of the knobs for grip rather than working edges, which isn't so great for any steeps that I like to challenge, as the decomposed granite likes to break loose and act like mini ball bearings between the flat tops and solid ground. Tubeless conversion was easy on Stan's Flow rims, likely due to the quality bead with rubber coating over it. It doesn't seem to like pressures under 30psi (2.0 bar) and gets squirmy, but it inflates rather wide, closer to other mfg's 2.4 tires.

My favorite tires are still my Ikons, but these are my second favorite. With Ikons, I can skill my way around off cambers and chunky sections, but there's nothing much I can do in the deeper loose stuff, as they simply don't steer at all. They are faster and make my ride more fun, as it still leaves me a decent challenge for my skill to handle. Letting equipment handle it all would make things dull, though I understand that loss of grip = crashes for many and that alone justifies grippier tires. Crashing in Big Bear actually led me to buy these tires.