Schwalbe Wicked Will Tyre – All Round Fast Trail Rubber

What is it with Schwalbe’s crazy tyre nomenclature? Not to be confused with the cartoon, talking penis, Wicked Willie, the new Schwalbe Wicked Will promises to be the all-round trail tyre that most of us all-round riders are actually after…

Is this downcountry enough for ya?

As Schwalbe says of the Wicked Will:

“With its semi ramped knobs and XC-scaled skid depth, the tire rolls astonishingly well while stable shoulder knobs and aggressive siping offer uncompromised trail performance. This makes Wicked Will the perfect companion for any mountain bike.

“Suited to its many possible applications, we offer Wicked Will in three different casing options: Super Race, Super Ground and Super Trail. This enables the rider to adopt Wicked Will to their specific situation.”

But what is the Wicked Will?

It’s a 29er only tyre that comes in a 29 x 2.4 width and three different styles. There’s the Wicked Will Super Race, Super Ground and Super Trail – these weigh 820g, 830g and 920g respectively. The Super Race, as you’d imagine is a race version, with a lighter carcass. The Super Ground is the Goldilocks all-rounder and the Super Trail is for harder, faster riders. Currently all three versions come in Schwalbe’s ‘Speedgrip’ compound, which is the second firmest out of its four Addix compounds.

Downcountry, eh? It’s designed to go back up to the top again too.

Overall, Schwalbe is presenting the Wicked Will as its ‘Downcountry’ tyre: An all rounder that’s light enough for all round use, but which can handle pretty much all descending duties that a trail bike will offer up.

Overall, the Wicked Will features a lot of siping – these are the grooves that let the knobs deform to the trail, that also clear water – and aggressive side and shoulder knobs that are borrowed from more downhill treads.

Sipes at home

We only have one price for the Wicked Will from Schwalbe UK and that is £62.99, though it hasn’t said what version that is for. However, expect the new tyre here in time for all of your downcountry epics this summer…

schwalbe.com should have the info up right about… now.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

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.)