Schwalbe One Tubeless

German tyre company Schwalbe has been a proponent of tubeless road tyres since the release of the excellent Ultremo ZX tubeless tyre I tested two years ago. Those tyres have now been replaced by the new One Tubeless, which takes the company's top-end race tyre and offers it with a tubeless bead. And the result is a very fast and supple tyre with all the benefits from ditching the inner tube, fewer flats.

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Setting the tyre up was easy. I used Stan's new Grail wheelset, a wide profile rim, with the tubeless tape and valve already installed. I simply fitted the tyres, poured in a small amount of latex, and inflated the tyre using a track pump. The tyre popped up onto the rim first time, with the reassuring pop sounds indicating the bead has locked into the rim securely. When tubeless installation is this easy you wonder why everyone doesn't run tubeless, but I know some tyre/wheel combinations can be a little less straightforward. Another member of the road.cc team found it somewhat harder getting one on to a Shimano XT 29er rim, but he also said it was a struggle getting anything on to those - these Schwalbes were by no means the hardest he'd fitted on them.

Schwalbe offers the One Tubeless tyre in a number of width options, right up to 28mm. I chose the 25mm, a popular size these days. I experimented with pressures during the first few rides, in the end settling on about 90-95psi for my 66kg weight, going lower or higher depending on conditions. Being able to run lower pressures is one of the benefits of tubeless - there is no tube to pinch if you hit a hole or crack in the road, so you can safely get away with lower pressures.

The tyre feels very similar to the regular One clincher tyre, with the same grippy yet fast rolling tread compound used across the top of the carcass. The tubeless variant has a wonderfully supple feel on the road surface, tracking the contours of rough roads really well. The tread compound is very durable too, impressive considering it's pitched as a race tyre. It doesn't cut up at all, and even after some of my off-road excursions down bridleways and along the Fosse Way they show no signs of damage. I wouldn't venture off-road on a regular inner tube setup for fear of puncturing, but with tubeless you certainly can do, and these new One tyres, despite being designed for racing, provide impressive durability.

Schwalbe says it has spent three years developing these new tyres and proudly declares the One to be its fastest tyre in its promotional material, saying the rolling resistance of its tubeless tyre is less than an ultralight racing tyre with an inner tube. It's tricky testing rolling resistance in the real world and getting accurate data, but they certainly don't feel slow compared to the regular One tubed tyres when tested on the same bike, on the same roads, in the same conditions. The tyre is substantially heavier, 318g for the 25mm tyres tested, but remember you're losing the weight of the inner tube.

Finally, let's look at the price - £56.99 is a lot of money for a tyre. Tubeless tyres tend to be more expensive than conventional ones - of course you are going to be saving on regularly shelling out for inner tubes not to mention the time and inconvenience caused by punctures. That said, the Schwalbe One is at the uppper end of the scale even for tubeless tyres. In its defence it is a tubeless race tyre and it's also the best riding tubeless tyre we've tested - even better than it's predecessor the Ultremo ZX. It's also worth stressing that £56.99 is merely the rrp, shop around and you can find this tyre for considerably less than that. 

With such easy tubeless installation as this, zero maintenance and no punctures, fantastic rolling resistance at lower pressures, fast enough for racing and durable enough for everyday riding with the toughness to tackle more adventurous roads and trails, I'm not sure why I would ever go back to regular tyres with inner tubes. If you're fed up with punctures and have tubeless ready rims (as many new bikes do these days) Schwalbe's One tyres are a good buy.

Verdict

Schwalbe's racing tyre with all the benefits of tubeless technology plus enough durability for everyday riding