Home > Bike Types > Mountain Bike

2013 Schwalbe Tires – Full 29er, 650B MTB, Enduro Offerings, New Ultremo Road Tubeless, More!

2013 Schwalbe 650B mountain bike tire range
6 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

2013 Schwalbe 650B mountain bike tire range

For mountain bikes, Schwalbe is bringing a ton of options for both sizes of bigger wheels for 2013. Their complete range will be available in 29er sizes, and 650B fans, new or old, will get to choose from Racing Ralph, Rocket Ron, Knobby Nic, Hans Dampf and Rapid Rob (all shown above). The only one missing is Furious Fred.

Schwalbe’s MTB lineup falls into three categories: Active, Performance and Evolution. The budget Active line gets a new KevlarGuard standard protection belt. The Performance line gets a new dual compound tread as standard feature and is designed for the average enthusiast rider. The Evolution line remains unchanged as their premium offering.

The Rocket Ron is a great all-around tire (we’re testing a set now), hooking up well in both wet and dry conditions. But there were a few complaints Schwalbe heard: It was hard to get the bead to seat, and wet root performance could be improved. The new Rocket Ron gets a 15% reduction in rolling resistance, stronger tread blocks with a new V-Groove and a new textured sidewall. The latter is said to make tubeless mounting super easy and reduces sealant bleeding through the sidewall by adding a bit more rubber to the outside. Click through for pics and more…

New 2013 Schwalbe Rocket Ron lightweight mountain bike tire for XC

The new Rocket Ron, above and below, will be available in all three mountain bike tire sizes. The V-Groove feature is the three slits on each tread block. This has the seemingly disparate benefits of giving the tread blocks more surface area for better grip without degrading the strength of the block. The “V” refers to the shape of the slit.

New 2013 Schwalbe Rocket Ron lightweight mountain bike tire for XC

The subtly textured sidewall also provides a bit more protection for the 127tip casing. The tread pattern is slightly revised, and block height was reduced a bit. Combined, they measured the 15% reduction in rolling resistance. Overall weight remains within 5g of the original. It’ll be available in a 26×1.85 (385g), 26×2.1 (435g), 26×2.25 (470g), 27.5×2.25 (TBD), 700×33 (295g cyclocross), 29×2.1 (TBD, new size) and 29×2.25 (525g).

All sizes and weights are for Evolution, some sizes also available in Active and Performance.

New 2013 Schwalbe Hans Dampf Super Gravity freeride enduro and lightweight downhill mountain bike tire

The new Hans Dampf Super Gravity is their “tough as a downhill tire, light as a freeride tire” entry designed for enduro racing. While a 1000g “light” tire may not tickle XC folks’ fancies, Schwalbe says that’s about 800g less than a full on DH tire with tube. For anyone that climbs before their shred session, it’s a good thing, and for actual DH bikes, that’s a 1,600g reduction in unsprung mass. The Hans Dampf gets all-around Snakeskin rubber-on-kevlar production on the folding, tubeless-ready carcass. It’ll be available with their Triple Star Compounds (Pace Star, Trail Star and Vert Star).

New 2013 Schwalbe Hans Dampf Super Gravity freeride enduro and lightweight downhill mountain bike tire

At left, the Hans Dampf Super Gravity tread pattern. Red is their standard casing material, yellow is the Snakeskin sidewall. What’s new is that it runs on the sidewall, around the bead and all the way around to the other side. This helps prevent punctures and cuts. The blue is flexible rubber insert that helps stiffen the sidewall, much like a DH tire. Essentially, it’s a dual ply sidewall with a single ply tread body, all sandwiched together for a very tough tire. While things like Megavalanche and enduros aren’t huge in the US, many Europeans racing them tend to run DH tires to deal with the jagged rocks and punishing terrain. This tire is designed to provide the protection and durability for such things without a punitive weight.

Cosmetically, all of their tires get a slightly new font in a slightly darker gray so it won’t stand out quite so much. They’ll also better feature labeling on the sidewall to clearly, quickly illustrate the benefits and nice, graphical boxes.

For the 650B stuff, here’s the sizes that’ll be on offer at launch:

  • Hans Dampf – 27.5 x 2.35 (regular and Super Gravity) (TBD g)
  • Knobby Nic – 27.5 x 2.35 (TBD g)
  • Racing Ralph – 27.5 x 2.25 (530g)
  • Rocket Ron – 27.5 x 2.25 (TBD g)
  • Rapid Rob – 27.5 x 2.25 (TBD g)
All tires mentioned here exclusive of the Racing Ralph 650B in the original tread pattern will be available around September,  including the road tires below. The new Racing Ralph tread pattern will make its way to all three sizes for fall…they almost did away with that size until the sudden boom in interest for 650B / 27.5 convinced them to keep it (and expand!).

2013 SCHWALBE ROAD TIRES

2013 Schwalbe Ultremo ZX Tubeless road bike tire

On the pavement, the Ultremo ZX gets a tubeless option. Schwalbe says developing tubeless road tires is far tougher than for the dirt because of the higher air pressures. Their goals, beyond making them safe, included being able to seal and seat them using only a floor pump, make them mount easy and keep the weight in check. With the Ultremo ZX Tubeless, they claim to have created a very durable, safe tire with extremely low rolling resistance. Rolling resistance is decreased because there’s no longer friction between tube and tire during deformation. Schwalbe says the tubeless tire’s rolling resistance is the lowest of any tire they’ve ever made, including their ultralight Ultremo ZLX and tubulars.

The safety part comes from a) the tire staying on the rim, pretty important, but also b) not allowing sudden air loss. Particularly on the front, a blown tube can drop psi quickly enough to cause a loss of control. Like on a mountain bike tire, the use of a little sealant will slow air’s escape, letting you roll to a stop under control. It also eliminates any chance of a snake bite puncture, and (again, like mountain bike tubeless) reduces the likelihood of cut and puncture flats when used with sealant.

Perhaps most significantly, these road tubeless tires are designed with racing in mind. RadioShack-Nissan-Trek’s Cancellara has been racing it in several prologues. The Ultremo ZX Tubeless is a true tubeless tire, meaning you don’t need sealant because it has a full butyl liner. It’s still recommended, but not necessary. This is in contrast to “tubeless ready” which doesn’t have the butyl liner and requires sealant.

Part of making it race ready is the weight. Their goal was sub-300g, and claimed weight is 295g for the 700×23. Other sizes may be added in the future depending on demand, and tubeless may make its way to some of their other tires, too.

If you’re not quite sold on Road Tubeless yet, the Ultremo ZX gets a new with V-Guard. The “V” stands for both Velocity and Vectran. The Vectran is a 2-layer puncture resistant belt and replaces the woven aramid fabric. They claim it improves cut resistance by 35% and reduces rolling resistance a whopping 25%.

2013 Schwalbe Ultremo ZX white road bike tire

If you’re more concerned with aesthetics than performance, there’s also a new white Ultremo road tire. Even Schwalbe admits their black/black compound combo is the grippiest and most durable, but daaaang do these look tight. If white’s not your thing, they still offer their full rainbow of colors.

OTHER COOL STUFF

Schwalbe’s been making bike tires since 1973, and that’s all they make. Unlike Kenda, Maxxis, etc., they don’t make tires for cars, ATV’s or anything else. Just bikes. They own their own factory in Jakarta and make all of their tubulars in house. The location puts their factory in close proximity to the rubber plantations, which reduces shipping (fuel, pollution, etc. – yay!).

They sent along a full presentation on their handmade tubulars, here’s some pics:

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

Threads are spooled on the silver drum into a sheet, then latex is poured on and smoothed to create the base carcass.

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

Two sheets of carcass are connected.

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

The tread is laid upside down/inside out on a form (light gray), a puncture protection belt is glued into the center of it (black with red laser guide) then the carcass is glued onto it.

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

An extruded latex tube inside the tire gives them an even sidewall thickness and better air retention. They use a removable valve core to let you use their Doc Blue or any other sealant to help prevent flats. Every tube is filled and tested for 24 hours before being sewn into the tubular

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

The edges are folded and sewn over each other, then the tube is inserted under a fabric cover.

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

The carcass is sewn shut around the tube, then the base tape (center) is glued over the seam. Voila, a tubular tire.

how a Schwalbe tubular tire is made for road bikes

Each tire is mounted, inflated and checked for “run out” to test for any bulges and make sure it’s round.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Larry Falk
Larry Falk
11 years ago

Can’t wait to try Ultremo tubeless! I hope it has a vectran belt, too.

coop
11 years ago

Larry I have to agree! Can’t wait to try them on my new team evo.I’m running the Ultremo’s now and their great. I’m sure the tubeless version we blow the m away!

Tom
Tom
11 years ago

I’m very keen on the new Road Tubeless too, especially since I think Schwalbe make far better tires than Hutchinson.

However I’m a little skeptical about some of the claims they’ve made – it’s tubeless ready, meaning they’ve laminated a bloody great butyl innertube to the insides. It’s 290g, part of which will be the chunky bead, but there is also plenty of rubber there. They should have gone with either a latex layer like the IRC tires or none at all and let the customer seal it up with a tiny dose of Stan’s.

I wonder if they are comparing ZX tubeless to ZLX with a butyl innertube, which would be a bit disingenuous when anyone who cares about rolling resistance will run latex innertubes.

Likewise I’d love to be proved wrong but I somehow doubt they’ve decreased the rolling resistance of the already pretty fast ZX by a whole 25% by using Vectran. More likely they’ve taken the difference between ZLX (no breaker) and ZX (old breaker) and reduced that by 25%……would love to get a rep or engineer and try and pin the claims down to real data!

chessclubloser
chessclubloser
11 years ago

Did I read this correctly that they are dumping the furious fred tire? Or just not doing it in the 650b size?

Bikerumor
11 years ago

The Furious Fred is still available, just not for 650B yet.

Jaeger
Jaeger
11 years ago

“Ultremo ZX, claimed weight is 295g for the 700×23.”

My Michelin Pro 3 weights 202gram, a Contential Race 28 Light (Butyl) weigths 72gram and a rimtape 27 gram, total 301g.

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/listings.php
(Road Tyres, Inner Tubes , Rim Tape, direct links don’t work)

Not a very big weigth difference so it’s impressive.
I don’t know how heavier a tubeless rim are, but I wonder how things happens when I get a flat?
Would it be too difficult to insert a tube in the tyre?

I really like that one don’t have to put goo into the Scwalbe tubeless tyre to avoid leakage, but how will the goo affect rolling resistance compared to the tubuar and clincher tyres?
I haven’t seen tests who have compared with/without goo in a tyre.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.