On Test Now: Schwalbe S-One and G-One tubeless tyres
Schwalbe, the German tyre company, is going all in for tubeless in 2016. New CX, gravel, and a classics-style road tyre will compliment a line flagship line of road race tyres, and all of these models are tubeless-ready, or tubeless easy as Schwalbe calls them. The first of the new tyres that Bike Hugger has acquired are the S-One and G-One. I’ve been hot for these tyres since Interbike.
The S-One is tyre designed to conquer the legendary Paris-Roubaix, the high point of the northern European spring classics. In the modern trend, this tyre carries a lot of volume. Nominally 700×30, the S-One mounted up at 31.4mm on a 21mm internal width rim (25mm external width). At 353gr measured weight, the S-One weighs 24gr less than Schwalbe’s only slightly older “One” tubeless road tyre in 700×25, a fact that underscores how fast and how far Schwalbe has been pushing their tubeless technology. The new Pro One tubeless road tyres will only be a few grams heavier than standard versions of the previous One tyres. While we wait on the 700×25 Pro One tubeless clincher, I’ll be giving these S-One a go, assuming I can find the right bike to fit these. They’re a little too big for my road bikes, but when it comes to my gravel/CX bikes I’m even more keen to try out:
the G-One 700×35 gravel tyre. 428gr on the scale and 36.7mm when mounted on a 21mm internal width rim. I’m really excited about this one. For my bike when fitted with fenders for the wet winter, the 35mm size is perfect, but I might be inclined to try the 700×40 when summer comes around. The tread is a courser dot matrix than the S-One, and the round dot-shaped knobs are siped. The initial ride felt good, even compared to the Compass Barlow Pass tyres, but I’ll need to log a bunch more miles to really get acquainted.
