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| The new Ultremo is slick and black, like its predecessor, but Schwalbe altered most of its innards for '09. | Schwalbe is best known for its sub 200-gram, slick-tread Utremo R clincher tires. We were invited to ride and preview the German tire maker's redesigned racing clincher-the Ultremo R Evolution, which uses an entirely new compound and, inside, a revolutionary new Vectran cloth for puncture protection. We put some miles on the new Ultremo tire in the hills surrounding Lake Biel, where DT Swiss and Schwalbe were co-hosting media camps.
TRIPLE-COMPOUND DESIGN
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A graphic from Schwalbe illustrates the placement of the Vectran anti-puncture trip and the orientation of the three tread-rubber compounds.
| Beneath the Ultremo's slick tread are three different types of rubber: a resilient, lightweight base layer to keep the tire feeling lively; a harder, more durable center compound; and a grippy rubber mixture on each side of the tire crown to maximize cornering grip. The outer layers use a reformulated rubber that uses a special "triple nano carbon" material to put more rubber on the road and increase the tire's rolling efficiency. Carbon or silica granules are commonly used to toughen rubber compounds in tires, and Schwalbe's tests have shown that the smaller the particle, the better the tire performs. To give you a comparison to work with, if the standard particle used to compound tire rubber was the size of a baseball, the triple nano particle would be a peanut.
VECTRAN PUNCTURE RESISTANCE
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| A tight weave makes the Schwalbe's Vectran armor a magnitude more puncture proof than the unidirectional fibers that other tire makers, including the previous Ultremos use. | Vectran is a trade name or a ceramic polymer fiber that top tire makers use as a protective layer to prevent punctures. Schwalbe hooked up with a U.S. firm (Warwick Mills) that weaves ballistic cloth for police and military armored clothing. The ultra dense cloth is patented, and, to prove its effectiveness, Schwalbe produced a weighted spike that swung from a two-foot lever onto the tire. Without the weights, the spike (a hardwood toothpick) would easily puncture a standard Vectran-protected tire. With four-pound weights, the toothpick would penetrate the rubber, but bend 90 degrees when it contacted the Ultremo's high-density Vectran layer. Although the chances of rolling through an intersection planted with thousands of hardwood toothpicks is remote, the demonstration was convincing, to say the least.
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| Schwalbe's tire testing device drops a weighted spike from about three feet, onto the inflated tire. The tip of the spike breaks at the Vectran layer. The spike easily punctured the original Ultremo tire. |
NEW DEFINITION OF "RADIAL"
We, and most of the cycling world have been taught that the more flexible a tire behaves on the road, the faster it will roll. Schwalbe throws a wrench into this theory by introducing a radial aramid (generic noun for Kevlar) tape below the tread crown. "Radial" is used to describe the fact that the fibers of the special cloth are unidirectional, and aligned with the axis of the wheel. The Ultremo R tire, however, is not a true radial tire, Schwalbe notes, because the Ultremo's carcass fibers are biased. The radial band is supposed to reduce rolling resistance by creating less distortion at the contact patch.
LOWER WEIGHT
Although the books say that the new Ultremo R Evo weighs 195 grams, the factory says the production models are coming in around 180 grams. Add their new 49-grams tube, and you can see why Schwalbe describes their best clincher as "the first proper racing clincher."
WANT MORE COMFORT?
Standard Ultremo R tires are 23-millimeters wide (the industry standard), but there is a movement afoot towards higher volume, lower- pressure tires, as the rolling resistance over rough pavement is enhanced, as well as cornering traction and ride comfort. To this end, Schwalbe is offering a 25-millimeter version of the Ultremo R Evo-which we will be riding very soon. The larger casing tire was not on hand at the presentation, but we were told that first-production tires were rolling off the assembly line.
WANT MORE PROTECTION?
There are those among us that find ways to puncture that are beyond reason. Schwalbe recognizes this, so it developed an additionally two layers of protection: "SnakeSkin", which is a layer of anti-abrasion cloth that covers the tire carcass from bead to bead; and a special under-tread layer of rubber that contains millions of ceramic chips. The cloth reinforces the sidewalls against cuts, and the ceramic matrix prevents glass shards that embed themselves into the tread from migrating through the carcass and causing a puncture. The double treatment ads about 30 grams to the tire, which is named, the Utremo DD (double defense).
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| Schwalbe's Ultremo tubular carried the yellow, white and green jerseys at this year's Tour de France. |
UTREMO TUBULAR
For those who want the professional advantage-with the same puncture protection of the new Ultremo R Evo, Schwalbe hand makes a tubular Ultremo tire with exactly the same features. The 260-gram tubular is quickly becoming a favorite among the world's top racers. As a side note, the valve stem of the tubular Ultremo is removable, which allows for the use of liquid latex sealants such as Stan's NoTubes.
Had enough tire talk? If you haven't, then visit www.schwalbe.com to check out the entire Schwalbe lineup including the more affordable Stelvio racing clincher and tubular tires-both of which, are RBA favorites.
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| Wearing the Swiss colors, riding German Schwalbe tires in Switzerland. |
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