FMB has been sewing up new tubular tires left and right over the last month or so. First we spotted an all new tread design on Aspire Racing’s bikes for tackling fast mud back at the start of October, then came some chubby variants on their SSC Sprint to take on gravel racing, and now CX Elite World Champ Sanne Cant is rolling on a series of three treads in natural silk that are available to mere mortals as well.
FMB Grippo Speed fast mud cyclocross tubulars
Although these were the first to be spotted out of this bunch on pro bikes, the Grippo Speeds are only today available for regular consumers. The new tread design is more open that the current SSC Super Mud design, and has many fewer edges than the Z-shaped design.
That revised shape though is also less squirmy for much faster rolling through mud that isn’t so slick. Also with solid shoulder blocks, it should offer much more stable cornering and when riding off-cambers. FMB will offer the new tread design in the standard 77€ cotton casing and the 109€ version with latex protected sidewalls.
FMB limited World Cup natural silk cyclocross tubulars
These have probably been floating around all season undetected. Likely already raced under current Elite Women’s World Champion Sanne Cant. But because it is almost impossible to discern a silk tubular from a high quality cotton one at a distance, we didn’t really notice.
What we can see now though is that FMB is offering the natural silk tubulars in a limited edition labeled as ‘World Cup’ with the rainbow stripes.
The silk World Cup tubulars will offer even more supple casings (think something like 900tpi for silk vs. 300tpi for the best cotton construction) and improved resistance to water and tire rot. That means the tires don’t really need FMB’s signature extra latex sidewall protection, and should be both lighter and possibly even last longer.
FMB hasn’t said anything about how many of these limited edition tires they will make available to consumers, but they have already been available since last week in three variants. All three are exclusively in UCI-ready 33mm wide. And at a surprisingly affordable 120€, you can get them in the three most popular FMB treads – the fast file tread Sprint 2, all-rounder arrow tread Slalom, or the heavy mud Z-tread Super Mud.
FMB Sprint 2 XL fat 40mm gravel tubulars
Last, but certainly not least FMB is fattening up for gravel racing. While they have been making a single tubular for XC racing, the French tire maker had so far kept all its cross tires under 34mm wide, with road tires topping out at 27mm. Now a new 40mm tubular joins the family to take on gravel racing.
For what FMB is calling Pro Adventure racing, the new fat gravel tubular takes the existing tread design of a Sprint 2 cross tire and expands it out on a wider cotton casing. So far the only info we have is based of these photos of a set of XL pre-production Sprint 2 Pro gravel tubulars. They feature standard black tread and FMB’s signature green latex sidewall protection. We’re hoping to find out more, and see them available to consumers soon.
