Originally Posted by
Moisture
Take a look at Chaoyang tires - just do a quick search on google. A fraction of whatever you would consider to be a "normal price.." every bit as good, if not better. Don't waste your money on a rebranded version of the same thing.
Panaracer is a tire manufacturer, and Soma's tires (and many other small brands) are manufactured by Panaracer. They are not rebranded Chaoyang tires.
Originally Posted by
Lbxpdx
thanks for the recommendation, unfortunately they don’t do 27” and their 650b’s are all knobby.
I combed through their catalog, and it looks like they
do have a few reasonably-svelte non-knobby 650b road tires in the 40mm-ish ballpark, the Flying Diamond and the Viper. I'm not sure to what degree that can actually be sourced, and if you're trying to avoid puncture protection layers, unfortunately it appears that only the cheapest options are available without a nylon breaker below the tread.