Here’s what French tyre company Hutchinson has been up to. Nothing earth-shattering, but a quiet rounding out of its tyre line, and the introduction of a more trail-friendly Squale downhill tyre.
The Squale is its downhill tyre that it’s been developing along with its downhill team. The tyre now comes in a 2.3in size as well as the existing 2.5in size. For all Hutch tyres, tyres over 2.3in now has a triple compound, with 50a centre knobs and 42a outer knobs – but with firmer, 60a rubber underneath to support the knobs when cornering.
The Squale also has a textured surface for whatever extra grip it can give.
The Squale in knobby detail.
Hutchinson has rounded out its range of 27.5in treads with the Cougar, the Toro, Cobra – adding the Python, Squale and more to the range.
The 27.5in lineHow about sticking these treads on to your Dugasts? As used at the Olympics…
With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)
