Who remember's Panaracer Dirt . Smoke .. Tyres

colintrav

I remember the days when those tyres were the In thing during the early days of MBT 's



Anyone else remember them ?

fivelittlefish

Indeed I do


You may be interested to know that you can still buy them - Panaracer now call them "classic"
I have a set on my HT - they are as good as I remember.

AndyOgy

Wasn't it 'Dart' and Smoke?

But with regard to front/rear specific tyres, did the Panaracer combo come before or after the Equilibrium and Propulsion tyres that were fitted to Konas at around the same time?

And did anyone else ever own a set of white Onza Porcupines?

bomberesque

AndyOgy wrote:

Wasn't it 'Dart' and Smoke??

And did anyone else ever own a set of white Onza Porcupines?

^this and yes, respectively. but boy that was a long time ago!

My first cannondale came with Smokes back and front :shock: . It was good that they intro'd the Dart, the smoke was a bloody dangerous front tyre!

porcs were great but lasted about 2 weeks on the wrong surfaces

pastey_boy

butterscotch tioga psychos were grippy as hell but last about 3 minutes

The Northern Monkey

they were reissued last year. don't know if you can still get em tho..

Tempestas

Dart on the front and smoke on the rear, ah the old days....

also used Porcupines, but they were 'fragile' on tarmac

How about Girvin stems and forks then?

AndyOgy

Wasn't it Girvin who made the Flex Stem?

fivelittlefish

bigbenj_08 wrote:

they were reissued last year. don't know if you can still get em tho..

Yes you can - I bought some in the summer...

.blitz

Tempestas wrote:

How about Girvin stems and forks then?

My Proflex 856 has Girvin forks and up until a few years ago it was sporting a pair of green Michelin Wildgrippers :shock:

elPedro666

Two Smokes, one dart, two lightly used porcs and two porcs still in their box just behind me as I write!

Black porcs unfortunately, never tried the white. Wouldn't ride anything but a Smoke lite/Dart combo back in the day.

[/misty eyed gush]

'Course we had no concept of 'rolling resistance'

elPedro666

hehe
You lot need to get over to retrobike...

lawman

i used my smoke and darts till a few ayears ago, they were sat in the garage for years and then i put them on the maxlight to get it rolling dart is still the garage actually smoke has died awesome tyres, they are truly missed

lawman

speaking of retro anyone remember shark fins??? my dads old univega has one

now thats retro!!!

Tempestas

AndyOgy wrote:

Wasn't it Girvin who made the Flex Stem?

Yep, that's the one...who needs 120mm of travel anyway, that's what your wrists are for

prawny

I had a green tinged dart 2 given to me at bike 98(?) best front tire I ever had for tracking, not so hot for braking but I was a kid then and skidded everywhere anyway. I locked it up in the snow once, the front slid in a perfectly straight line, excellent.

fivelittlefish

http://www.bikedock.com/posit/shop/sear ... 4&format=1

http://www.bikedock.com/posit/shop/sear ... =PANARACER

ESHER SHORE

anyone remember Tioga Farmer John tires? (tomac)

and "Cosmic Trail" fluro frame pads and shoulder bag!

MacAndCheese

ESHER SHORE wrote:

anyone remember Tioga Farmer John tires? (tomac)

and "Cosmic Trail" fluro frame pads and shoulder bag!

When I first go into MTBs, it used be Tioga Factory DH and Factory Mud that used to be the tyre to have, I think just because they had Tioga in massive white writing on the side.

dave_hill

elPedro666 wrote:

Two Smokes, one dart, two lightly used porcs and two porcs still in their box just behind me as I write!

Black porcs unfortunately, never tried the white. Wouldn't ride anything but a Smoke lite/Dart combo back in the day.

[/misty eyed gush]

'Course we had no concept of 'rolling resistance'

I used to run a Porc up fornt and a Smoke Lite at the rear on my Bontrager. Heck of a combination.

Tyredocter

The one that springs to mind is the Raleigh Extreme from cyclelife.com as it has a similar pattern to the old Michelin Bibcross-remember those?

reluctant

In answer to a question up there ^^^ Kona started fitting Equalibrium and Propultion tyres in 1990 - Panaracers Smoke came out a year or two later, then the Dart a year or two after that. So from my memory, Kona were the first guys to sell a front /rear specific pairing.

tri-sexual

i still got some ,2 of each, 2 had white walls- cant remember which 2
i'll get them out and take a look
i have loads of bikes, bits etc

tri-sexual

god, been bugging me had to go and have a look
yep panaracer fire xc pro 2.6 x 1.8 kevlar in all black x2
and panaracer smoke lite 2.6 x 1.9 - not sure what you call them but not white walled more honey coloured x2
cant remember when i bought them but seriously retro - not last years release but original

Northwind

I had smoke/dart on my old Carrera, annoyingly I threw them out last year, just thought "These are ancient, they'll be rubbish" without knowing they were a Retro Classic (TM). They were amazing in the day, when everyone else at school had full-centre skinny rubbish. One poor guy had those solid tyres, Green Wellies was it? The ones that you couldn't puncture (hurrah) but compensated by falling off the rims if you cornered too hard.

themanfromdelmonte

tri-sexual wrote:

god, been bugging me had to go and have a look
yep panaracer fire xc pro 2.6 x 1.8 kevlar in all black x2
and panaracer smoke lite 2.6 x 1.9 - not sure what you call them but not white walled more honey coloured x2
cant remember when i bought them but seriously retro - not last years release but original

Think they were referred to as "Gum wall."

Anyone have any Onza Dan & Daves, they were awesome, you could just tank it into any corner and they'd rail round.

elPedro666

dave_hill wrote:

elPedro666 wrote:

Two Smokes, one dart, two lightly used porcs and two porcs still in their box just behind me as I write!

Black porcs unfortunately, never tried the white. Wouldn't ride anything but a Smoke lite/Dart combo back in the day.

[/misty eyed gush]

'Course we had no concept of 'rolling resistance'

I used to run a Porc up fornt and a Smoke Lite at the rear on my Bontrager. Heck of a combination.

Seriously Dave, did that work? Didn't the Porc squirm around all over the place while the Smoke just stuck till the bitter end? I'd rather have that working the other way round (front stuck, back mobile)!

I probably shouldn't start a tyre debate on near twenty year old rubber though... :roll:

Northwind

"What tyres for riding in the past?"

Vegman

reluctant wrote:

In answer to a question up there ^^^ Kona started fitting Equalibrium and Propultion tyres in 1990 - Panaracers Smoke came out a year or two later, then the Dart a year or two after that. So from my memory, Kona were the first guys to sell a front /rear specific pairing.

Hey, I had those Joe Murrey inspired tyres, completely unsuited to UK riding unless we were having a 'California' summer, if my memory serves me (and it dose).
Still got the Kona Hahana they came on as a hack bike,(well its a bit like Triggers broom in Only Fools and Horses five new heads and three new handles ) complete with a 'Butler Cycles' sticker. (Who are now the mighty WIGGLE).