I'll admit I smirked at the 'tubeless easy' logo when I pulled the Schwalbe Pro One tubeless tyres out of the box. In my experience, road tubeless has proven handy in reducing flats, but 'easy' is not a word I would use for describing the installation or changing of road tubeless tyres. The Pro Ones proved me wrong; they are indeed easy to use. Plus, the 240g tyres are light, fast-rolling and – thus far – flat-free.
The new Pro One uses a triple-compound tread with a harder central area for better efficiency, soft shoulders for cornering grip and a very soft base layer beneath both of the others that doesn’t contact the ground but helps lower the rolling resistance. Schwalbe tests rolling resistance on a drum with a 50kg / 110lb load weighting a wheel spinning at 30kph. In that test, the durable Schwalbe Durano 'costs' 29 watts of resistance.The Schwalbe One clincher measured 22w, and the One Tubeless 19w. The new Pro One, Schwalbe says, burns just 17w of your effort to turn it.
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Small holes like the one at the centre are sealed before you even realise your tyre has been punctured
The Pro One is available in 23, 25 and 28mm widths. I tested the 23mm, which I weighed at 240g (the same as Hutchinson's 23mm Atom tubeless tyre) but measured it at a plump 26mm when mounted on Bontrager's Aeolus 5 TLR D3 carbon clinchers. This is roughly 20g heavier than an excellent clincher like a Continental Grand Prix 4000S or a Vittoria Corsa CX Open. When you do the rest of the math — adding in 60g for sealant or 80g for an inner tube — the weight becomes a wash. This is a big step forward for road tubeless.
I rode the Pro Ones on a variety of surfaces, from choppy gravel roads to buttery smooth tarmac, and did a few rides in the rain. After about 400 miles, the treads show a fair amount of wear, including small cuts. The tradeoff for the positive grip and supple feel of soft rubber is shorter life.
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