Panaracer’s Crosstown range is designed as a bombproof urban tyre and it certainly does put up with a lot of abuse around town. There’s a price to pay for that, though, and the price is a fairly high weight and a slightly dead ride.

The Crosstown looks rugged on first appearances, with a deep tread that’s heavily grooved to move water. There’s a puncture strip below the tread too just in case you roll over anything sharp enough to get through all the rubber. They’re heavy tyres, the 548g 28c tyre that we tested fully 100g heavier than the 32c Kenda tyre it replaced. You feel that weight when you’re rolling, and the thickness of the tread means the tyres not particularly supple. It’s not a big deal on short urban rides, but it does feel a bit dead even compared to other well-armoured rubber.

Grip is very good especially in the wet, the Crosstowns start to scrabble a bit when you lean them over but they’re not designed primarily for that. The reflective strip is a definite bonus about town, massively improving your visibility from the side.

Overall it’s a good tyre, but you can buy better, and you can buy better from Panaracer: the RibMO that we tested earlier in the year is a much better bet for most town riding, it’s lighter and the new puncture proofing technology it uses promises to make it very sturdy. Panaracer’s new T-SERV, which also uses the Protex anti-flat system also looks like a good bet for around town, and we’ll try and get a test of them soon.

Neither has the reflective strip of the Crosstown though, so if the combinations of tough puncture protection and increased visibility outweighs the downside of extra weight the Crosstown could be the tyre for you.

Verdict

Not a bad tyre by any means, but a little heavy and slow compared to newer urban offerings.

All the deals displayed on our review pages are pulled from a constantly updating database feed of the best affiliate deals available. The criteria for deciding on what are the best deals is who is offering the lowest, delivered price. In most cases we will be showing the very best deal available online, but sometimes you may be able to find an item cheaper. If you can please feel free to post a link in the comments box below. To find out more about affiliate links on road.cc click here.

road.cc test report

Make and model: Panaracer Crosstown 700x28c tyre

Size tested: n/a

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
9/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
6/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
9/10
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
 
5/10
Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
 
7/10
Rate the product for value:
 
7/10

Did you enjoy using the product? They were okay

Would you consider buying the product? I’d probably go for a newer design

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Only if they wanted a super durable tyre with reflective and weren’t too worried about the ride

Overall rating: 6/10

About the tester

Age: 36  Height: 190cm  Weight: 100kg

I usually ride: Schwinn Moab, urbanised with 700cs  My best bike is: Trek 1.5 with upgrades

I’ve been riding for: 10-20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track