Prototype Schwalbe XC Mountain Bike Tires Make World Cup Racing Debut

In between the Thunder Burt and the Racing Ralph, Schwalbe has a brand new fast-rolling prototype XC racing mountain motorbike tire, this is most likely coming to marketplace very quickly. Getting a World Cup XCC short-track and Olympic-distance XCC racing debut up to now few days in Nové Město na Moravě, the brand new small-knob tread used to be at the motorcycles of many alternative groups AND raced in numerous rainy & dry circumstances…

Prototype Schwalbe First Ride fast-rolling XC race mountain motorbike tire

The prototype Schwalbe XC mountain motorbike tire we noticed in all places on the Nove Mesto World Cup is a completely all-new design that looks to fill the fast-rolling hole within the dry circumstances Thunder Burt and extra grippy all-around-racer To set up Racing Ralph. It seems to proportion the similar tremendous racing The clear (tanwall) sidewall development we’ve got noticed at the XC race circuit for a few years. And it obviously will get Schwalbe’s quickest red-striped Addix Speed rubber compound.

But this new prototype Schwalbe XC tire tread development turns out to proportion little or no in shaping with any of Schwalbe’s different XC race-oriented tires.

All-new rapid XC tread design

The handiest hyperlink will be the 3 central rows of small sq. studs for speedy straight-line rolling. But even right here they’re larger than on Burt, with wider spacing and a much less pronounced in-and-out offset of the outer row. Those tweaks would probably beef up grip in additional numerous -wetter and muddier- circumstances, with out sacrificing velocity.

Moving out in opposition to the shoulder, there is an all-new row of transition tread with a low-profile, quite trapezoidal lug spaced-out with 4 tiny horizontal bars in between. Then finally, there is every other spaced-out row of the similar new trapezoidal block however a bit of greater for the tire’s shoulder.

These easy extra open-spaced and equally-offset transition & shoulder lugs must supply extra constant grip whilst cornering, stepped forward shoulder strengthen, whilst additionally digging into unfastened terrain when wanted.

Other fascinating XC tread main points

Unlike the Racing Ray & Ralph, this new XC tire isn’t front- or rear-specific. But it’s directional with lug edges quite pointing ahead on the most sensible of the tire – for speedy rolling however excellent braking.

Also, whilst numerous extra competitive trail-to-enduro tires make use of proportion edges for added 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 advised additionally stepped forward braking whilst cornering.

Overall, each and every tread lug will get a sipe to permit the person block to deform extra for grip over abnormal stumbling blocks – sq. cutouts for the middle, horizontal strains reduce from the transitions, and angled strains reduce into the shoulder knobs.

The prototype Schwalbe XC tire additionally seems to characteristic a extra rounded general cross-section, with the ones shoulder knobs prolonged additional across the curved profile of the tyre. There’s additionally now not an enormous relative distinction in lug top from the middle to the tire’s absolute periphery. All of that means a tire that may be leaned extremely a long way into a troublesome floor for sooner cornering.

Is it a dry, blended, or rainy circumstances XC race tire?

Without understanding main points from Schwalbe, we might must suppose that that is intended to be an all-conditions XC race tyre. We had been fortunate with blended climate in Nove Mesto to look who rode the brand new tires and when. In the weekend’s races that stayed totally dry, Schwalbe XC racers appeared about calmly cut up between this new prototype and the prevailing Thunder Burt. But, on every occasion there used to be a risk of rain, it gave the impression of the brand new tire prevailed.

In the wettest, muddiest races of the weekend, we did spot a couple of riders swapping in a Racing Ralph for extra rear-wheel grip.

But a variety of riders additionally caught with a couple of the brand new tyres, even in essentially the most slippery rainy circumstances.

Schwalbe XC prototype tire timeline

We’ve handiest noticed this new prototype Schwalbe XC mountain motorbike tire at one XC World Cup to this point – and they have all been 29″ x 2.4″. We did see them on motorcycles from a minimum of 4 other producers – Cannondale, Canyon, Scott, Thomas – and almost definitely on greater than 6 groups. Not everybody on all of those groups used to be using the brand new tire, however they had been more or less in all places.

None of the tires we noticed had a manufacturing stamp with the reliable identify of the tire, so lets handiest speculate what it could be – Lightning Lou, someone? And so we do not know but when they’re going to be to be had. But if I needed to wager, primarily based simply at the sheer collection of those tires floating across the first spherical of the XC World Cup, I’d wager we may see an reliable release within the subsequent month, and no doubt no later than Eurobike.

We’ll mean you can know once we all know extra. Till then…

schwalbe.com