Schwalbe S One Preview

Paul Horta-Hopkins

The Schwalbe S One has been designed to handle some of cycling’s toughest races, such as Paris Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders and is available as a hand made tubular or tubeless ready clincher.

We’ve all marvelled at the ability of professional cyclists crashing over the cobbles and mud of the spring Classics and most of us are aware of the adaptations that many of them make to their normal equipment to withstand the abuse that the course hands out. One of those changes is fatter tyres; better able to handle the shocks and offering some relief to battered hands. The Schwalbe S One is a 28mm tyre that is designed to handle the toughest roads, while still being fast enough to race.

The Schwalbe S One is designed for fast riding over less than perfect surfaces, should be perfect for cobbled sportives

The Schwalbe S One has a lot of technology packed under it’s dimpled surface. The S One uses Schwalbe’s Evo Line materials, this means that it uses the highest grade materials and their latest technologies, these include; Triple Star Compound, a mix of materials are used in the tread to give a harder centre section for improved wear and rolling resistance and softer edges for improved grip. Tubeless Easy Microskin, an improved carcass material that is lighter, with improved cut and rolling resistance. Level 5 V Guard is a puncture belt that sits under the tread, Level 6 uses a solid 5mm of rubber protection, so Level 5 is good, without the extra weight.

The S One comes in one size 28x700mm and two types; handmade tubular or tubeless. I plumped for tubeless, it’s the most practical for me. Changing tubeless is a lot easier than swapping tubs. Weights for the Schwalbe S One is a claimed 325g, I’ll let you know how close they come to that.

Underneath that dimpled Triple Star Compound sits a Level 5 V-Guard puncture belt. Now doesn’t all that technology fill you with confidence?

By the time your read this preview I will have already given the Schwalbe S One it’s first test on the Lapierre Tour of the Black country. This 100 kilometre sportive has nineteen off-road ‘secteurs’, which are a mixtures of cobbles, farm tracks and gravel; a perfect test for the S One. I’m hoping for a fast time, but there’s no point trying for a fast time if your tyres are so puncture proof that they ride like tractor tyres, or lightweight racing rubber that fails at the first sight of a cobble. The Schwalbe S One could be the answer to this kind of event.

Schwalbe

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