In between the Thunder Burt and the Racing Ralph, Schwalbe has a brand new fast-rolling prototype XC racing mountain bike tire, that doubtless is coming to market very quickly. Getting a World Cup XCC short-track and Olympic-distance XCC racing debut prior to now few days in Nové Město na Moravě, the brand new small-knob tread was on the bikes of many alternative groups AND raced in different moist & dry circumstances…
Prototype Schwalbe First Trip fast-rolling XC race mountain bike tire
The prototype Schwalbe XC mountain bike tire we noticed in every single place on the Nove Mesto World Cup is a wholly all-new design that seems to fill the fast-rolling hole in between the dry circumstances Thunder Burt and extra grippy all-around-racer Racing Ralf. It seems to share the identical Tremendous Race clear (tanwall) sidewall building we’ve seen on the XC race circuit for a few years. And it clearly will get Schwalbe’s quickest red-striped Addix Velocity rubber compound.
However this new prototype Schwalbe XC tire tread sample appears to share little or no in shaping with any of Schwalbe’s different XC race-oriented tires.
All-new quick XC tread design
The one hyperlink could be the three central rows of small sq. studs for quick straight-line rolling. However even right here they’re greater than on Burt, with wider spacing and a much less pronounced in-and-out offset of the outer row. These tweaks presumably would enhance grip in additional different -wetter and muddier- circumstances, with out sacrificing pace.
Transferring out in the direction of the shoulder, there’s an all-new row of transition tread with a low-profile, barely trapezoidal lug spaced-out with 4 tiny horizontal bars in between. Then lastly, there’s one other spaced-out row of the identical new trapezoidal block however a bit bigger for the tire’s shoulder.
These easy extra open-spaced and equally-offset transition & shoulder lugs ought to present extra constant grip whereas cornering, improved shoulder assist, whereas additionally digging into unfastened terrain when wanted.
Different attention-grabbing XC tread particulars
Not like the Racing Ray & Ralph, this new XC tire will not be front- or rear-specific. However it’s directional with lug edges barely pointing ahead on the prime of the tire – for quick rolling however good braking.
Additionally, whereas a whole lot of extra aggressive trail-to-enduro tires make use of share edges for further grip, this new XC racing tire follows extra of the rounded-knob development we noticed debut on Schwalbe’s Racing Brothers replace a couple of years again – which Schwalbe prompt additionally improved braking whereas cornering.
Total, each tread lug will get a sipe to permit the person block to deform extra for grip over irregular obstacles – sq. cutouts for the middle, horizontal strains minimize from the transitions, and angle strains minimize into the shoulder knobs.
The prototype Schwalbe XC tire additionally seems to function a extra rounded general cross-section, with these shoulder knobs prolonged additional across the curved profile of the tire. There’s additionally not an enormous relative distinction in lug peak from the middle to the tire’s absolute periphery. All of that implies a tire that may be leaned extremely far into a tough floor for quicker cornering.
Is it a dry, combined, or moist circumstances XC race tire?
With out figuring out particulars from Schwalbe, we’d should assume that that is meant to be an all-conditions XC race tire. We have been fortunate with combined climate in Nove Mesto to see who rode the brand new tires and when. Within the weekend’s races that stayed utterly dry, Schwalbe XC racers appeared about evenly cut up between this new prototype and the prevailing Thunder Burt. However, each time there was a menace of rain, it regarded like the brand new tire prevailed.
Within the wettest, muddiest races of the weekend, we did spot a couple of riders swapping in a Racing Ralph for extra rear-wheel grip.
However loads of riders additionally caught with a pair of the brand new tire, even in essentially the most slippery moist circumstances.
Schwalbe XC prototype tire timeline
We’ve solely noticed this new prototype Schwalbe XC mountain bike tire at one XC World Cup thus far – and so they’ve all been 29″ x 2.4″. We did see them on bikes from at the very least 4 completely different producers – Cannondale, Canyon, Scott, Thömus – and doubtless on greater than 6 groups. Not everybody on all of those groups was using the brand new tire, however they have been form of in every single place.
Not one of the tires we noticed had a manufacturing stamp with the official identify of the tire, so we might solely speculate what it is likely to be – Lightning Lou, anybody? And so we don’t but know when they are going to be obtainable. But when I needed to guess, primarily based simply on the sheer variety of these tires floating across the first spherical of the XC World Cup, I’d guess we would see an official launch within the subsequent month, and positively no later than Eurobike.
We’ll let you understand as quickly as we all know extra. Till then…
