Air-filled tubes inside tyres! Schwalbe’s Procore

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Traction, meet protection…

Two stems for two chambres
Two stems for two chambres

Okay, so they’ve been teasing this for quite some time, but Syntace has been back in touch with more details about their forthcoming dual-chamber tyre system.  Dubbed Procore (not First Ride), the system locates a 55-85psi “core” within a standard tubeless-ready tyre.  Think tubular rather than inner tube: the core doesn’t stretch to fill the tyre- it simply sits inside, against the rim

At the heart of the system. Actually, it is the system.
At the heart of the system… is the system.

Looking to measure a little over an inch in diameter, the core serves several functions: as protection for the rim, as protection for the tyre (against snakebites), as a lock for the tyre bead, and as an emergency backup should the outer tyre puncture.  The result is that the tyre proper can be run as low as 14psi for silly levels of traction and suspension.

One for retention,  one for traction.
One for retention, one for traction.

Developed in conjunction with Syntace, the Procore system will work in any tubeless-ready wheel measuring wider than 23mm inside (and to which its owner is willing to take a drill).  All three wheel sizes will be offered (26in ain’t dead!) and the system is expected to add about 200g per wheel- though Syntace note that the ability to run lighter tyres will offset some of the gain.  Procore has already seen top-level downhill and enduro victories under Emmeline Ragot and Nico Lau.  More at Eurobike…

schwalbe.com


Comments (12)

    Can you patch the core when a thorn puts a hole in it?

    I won’t lie, I’m interested. Will be interesting to see prices and real world experiences.

    I’m interested especially if you can use them with other manufacture’s tyres. Apparently procore pair will cost around 150 euros and available in early 2015.

    Didn’t Nico Lau have a race-ruining puncture at the last EWS?

    How would you get a thorn into the inner core? It would have to be a nail driven straight into the tyre to reach it (unless you got a puncture and ran flat for a while untill one got through I suppose).

    I guess you would still use latex to add some puncture resistance? To the tyre that is, not the core…

    idle post ride pub chat produced this very idea over 15 years ago between me and my mates (I’m sure we weren’t the first or only people to have thought of this), glad to see somebody actually doing it!

    it’s almost like having a rubber tube inside a tyre, why has no one thought of it before? oh, wait..

    I like the cut of your jib RD….

    I seem to recall Downhillers used a two-tube set up back in the day. If you got a flat tube,bosh! CO2 inflator out, then back to riding. Weight factor and puncture resistant tubes killed off the trend. I would want the Procore stem 180 degrees opposite (if possible). Sorry slight OCD content!

    First thing I thought too cliffyc, but then remembered that’s where the rim joint is, probably best not drill through that.

    What’s it FOR? UST works perfectly as it is. Why do I need a little shrunken tube inside my tyre? Why would I run a tyre at 14psi? It’d squirm around like a drunken submariner with a ferret in his y-fronts.
    Ah, this crazy world of bicycles.

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