Schwalbe

Super Swan Tubeless Tire

In a poem about wild swans, Yeats describes the ideal 'cross weather: "The trees are in their autumn beauty, / The woodland paths are dry, / Under the October twilight." We can't speak for the literary leanings of the engineers at Schwalbe, but we choose to believe there's a connection between that poem and the Super Swan Tubeless Tire, which is made for pure cyclocross speed in October races.

The spacious, aggressive tread pattern privileges clean center rolling while the open, U-block shoulder knobs maintain grip and shuttle away soft matter in mucky corners and sand pits. The knobs may not "climb the air" like Yeats' swans, but they do punch up grassy mounds and carry speed through sketchy sections of terrain, both of which are scenarios where Schwalbe's PaceStar Triple compound shines.

PaceStar Triple is Schwalbe's solution to the classic compound conundrum. Instead of forcing us to negotiate every aspect of a course with the same rubber, PaceStar Triple involves strategic durometers at specific points on the tire ranging from a hard, fast-rolling centerline to grippy, smart-cornering shoulders.

Compared to the dual compound construction (which is plenty impressive in its own right), Schwalbe's triple compound maximizes speed whether you're mashing across paved transitions or trying to close a gap while negotiating snaking, cambered lines when, to misquote Yeats, the field "suddenly mounts / And scatters wheeling in great broken rings." Of course, the added puncture-resistance of tubeless means your tires stand a better chance of remaining unbroken, improving your chances of wheeling at the front rather than languishing in the scattered back.