Schwalbe Pro One x Spartacus tyres, Wizard Works tool roll, Rapha sunglasses, and vegan bars and gels

By Jack Evans

Published: Friday, 29 April 2022 at 12:00 am

Hello dear readers and welcome to this week’s edition of First Look Friday. We’ve got a packed edition today, with some rather divisive white tyres from Schwalbe, some shiny new sunnies from Rapha to protect your eyes from the glare of said tyres, a cool tool roll from Wizard Works and some tasty on-bike vegan nutrition.

If that isn’t quite enough for you, you’re in for a treat – this week has been stuffed to the gunnels with new tech from across the world of cycling.

We rounded out last week with our coverage from the 2022 Cycle Show at Alexandra Palace in London. Key news included the release of Chris King’s first-ever wheelset to use its own rims, Reilly’s aero titanium bike and Mini Cooper’s (yes, that Mini Cooper) re-entry into the cycling market. Cannondale also leaked details of its updated Topstone Alloy gravel bike.

This week saw the release of Quoc’s SPD-compatible Chelsea Boots, the news that Wahoo has purchased RGT Cycling and Cadex teasing a new wide-stance triathlon/time-trial bike.

If you want to keep up with everything going on at the good ship BikeRadar, why not subscribe to our newsletter?

Schwalbe Pro One x Spartacus tyres

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White is for the world time trial champion’s jersey.
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This set of white Schwalbe Pro One tyres were among the eye-catching tech on display at last week’s Cycle Show at London’s Alexandra Palace.

This limited x Spartacus edition honours the great Fabian Cancellara. The white colour is inspired by the world time trial champion’s jersey that Spartacus wore for four seasons.

Look closely and you’ll see stripes of colour on the sidewalls: yellow for Cancellara’s 29 days in the Tour de France Yellow Jersey, red for his Swiss nationality and blue for the Tour of Flanders he won three times. Together, they make up the colours of the West Flanders flag.

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This limited edition is claimed to perform as well as the black version.
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Speaking to BikeRadar at the Cycle Show, Schwalbe’s Tim Ward said creating a white tyre was “technically more difficult” than black.

In a standard tyre, he explained: “There is a carbon black filler that goes into the rubber mix compound, which gives you the black colour.

“Going away from that means using more silica, which gives more grip but encourages the wear rate.

“The carbon black filler also helps protect the tyre rubber against UV light degradation, and if you take that out you have got to use other compounds to replace them.

“Technically, in terms of its construction the tyre isn’t significantly different from a normal Pro One.

“But the white rubber compound is, and making it performance-wise on par with a normal black rubber compound is technically more difficult.”

Schwalbe says the 28mm Pro One x Spartacus tyres are designed to be run tubeless and feature the Addix Race Compound for “minimal rolling resistance and maximum grip”.

  • €72.50 each, limited to 2,000 pieces