One of the most interesting and confounding things about the rise of radial tire construction in mountain biking is that you can’t actually see it from the outside. The angle of the casing inside a tire makes all the difference in the world – as we’ve come to learn by riding modern radials.
But you simply can’t tell anything is different by looking at the tire – either from the outside or inside. So how do we know that Schwalbe cross-country radials are here?
Let’s leave that up to a few pro mountain bike teams and their diligent mechanics…
Schwalbe Radial versions of Rick & Rocket Ron XC race tires
Let’s start with the first hint.
Schwalbe often likes to label their all-new prototype tires with “First Ride” on the sidewall.
But when they are trying to be a little more sneaky, or just changing up something inside, a little white ‘Tech Notes’ box on the sidewall provides a good spot for team mechanics and tire engineers to keep track of variations that could otherwise be overlooked.
Pretty much every in-development Schwalbe cross-country tire we saw this weekend featured this white box. But only a rare few got a tracking number. Could that mean that they’ve already ironed out the details?
Now, we head to a well-organized team truck.
We’re no snitches, though, so no need to call out who mis-typed Thunderbird for Thunder Burt.
Keeping equipment for a professional XC race team organized certainly isn’t easy, so this team has stackable crates to keep them all straight. Thunder Burt, Rocket Ron, Racing Ray, and just Rick. But what’s especially notable are two of the bottom crates: Rick Radial V3 and Ron Radial with maybe a 6 or 7?
Undeniably, those are two of Schwalbe’s fastest-rolling, lightweight XC tires.
And when we previously asked Schwalbe about whether the same radial construction that has revolutionized their trail & gravity tires, would also work for cross-country, they pretty much dismissed the idea. The radial construction does deliver a lot more grip at the same tire pressures. But that extra grip simply added additional rolling resistance at the same time, making it a no-go for XC where any loss of a rider’s power is a sacrifice a racer isn’t ready to make.
Someone actually raced Radials in Nove Mesto?
While ‘unnamed’ team 1 did have the radials at the World Cup, we couldn’t confirm that any of their athletes actually raced them. Remember, radials look the same on the outside.
But… in a different team paddock, we spotted some revealing bike setup notes. But no hiding here, the name of the current XC World Champion gives this one away – breaking down her different settings for Saturday’s XCC & XCO races. Saturday short-track meant a bigger chainring, stiffer suspension, narrower Thunder Burt tires, and higher tire pressures. But Sunday’s Olympic-distance cross-country race toyed with either Thunder Burt Radials or Rick Radials.
Ultimately, the dry dusty Nové Město conditions determined the choice of 2.5″ Schwalbe Thunder Burt tires, with foam inserts. Jenny’s mechanic Álvaro noted T.B. RED for her final race-day setup, with awesomely low 1.05bar front (15.2psi) & 1.15bar rear (16.7psi) tire pressures!
The question is, does the RED make reference to the Red stripe denoting Schwalbe’s fastest Addix Speed rubber compound? The Thunder Burt only comes in Speed – no blue Mid (previously Speed Grip), orange Soft, or purple Ultra Soft rubber for an XC race tire. And for the most part we only saw red-striped Schwalbes around the pits (but there were a few with no visible color stripe). Plus, all of Álvaro’s other notes primarily mention casing.
In any case, XC World Champ Jenny Rissveds is clearly riding, testing, and maybe racing Schwalbe Radial XC tires. And they are doing pretty well for her. She finished second in the second round of the XCO World Cup, her first time back to the Nové Město track where she won her U23 World Championship stripes a decade ago, then on some unique XC tire tech, too!
The post Spotted: Prototype Schwalbe Radial XC Tires Raced on the Cross-Country World Cup appeared first on Bikerumor.