With summer finally arrived, the RCUK Winter Bike has been treated to a subtle makeover.
The Portland Design Works mudguards have been removed, the Selle San Marco Concor limited edition saddle fitted, and the Yksion Powerlink and Griplink rubber removed from the Mavic Ksyrium Elite S wheelset and replaced.
Panaracer’s new Race Type A EVO2 tyre has been fitted in the stead of Mavic’s front and rear specific rubber. Ours is the 23c profile, a lightweight offering (a claimed 210 grams) and so, we hope, suitable for summer.
It is, as the name suggests, an evolution of an earlier design from the Japanese tyre firm, and one they claim is suited to ‘multi-use’. It gives every appearance of a racing tyre (the name is something of a giveaway here, too) , but we’ll see how it stands up to the regular rides of our test schedule, routinely conducted on rough and occasionally debris-strewn country lanes.
There’s a PT Shield ‘bead to bead’ puncture protection belt, and the gravelled gutters of our regular routes will offer a suitable test of its robustness.
The AX Casing is 120 threads per inch, so we’re expecting suppleness. We’ve rolled out on Panaracers with a thread count as low as 27tpi during the winter, so these should be a treat.
An early ride suggests some validity to Panaracer’s claims for its ZSG dual compound rubber: stickiness, and so adhesion, from the side of the rolling surface, but hardness at its centre.
We’ll let you know how it fares after a longer test. Check back soon for a full review.
The Panaracer Race Type A EVO2 tyre is available in 23c and 25c sizes, in black only, and costs £39.99.
