Powerful and snappy: Schwalbe presents downhill superstar "Tacky Chan

Schwalbe investierte fast drei Jahre für die Entwicklung des Tacky Chan.

Photo: Irmo Keizer

His name is reminiscent of a karate-savvy movie star, but he is set to become the star of the downhill tracks. Together with the world's best downhill athletes, Schwalbe spent three years working on perhaps the fastest downhill tire. The "Tacky Chan" is now available in three carcass thicknesses, two wheel sizes and two rubber compounds.

The development in brief

With the Magic Mary, Schwalbe continues to offer one of the most successful gravity tires. But the demands of the new generation of racers require more. This is how the project started with the downhill team "Commencal Mucoff", which has world-class riders such as Amaury Pierron, Myriam Nicole and Thibault Daprela under contract

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The demand was for more predictable characteristics, more grip but also less rolling resistance. To achieve this, tires of the "Big Betty" model were initially put under the knife. A total of twelve different cuts were made and tested before the actual development of the new tire began.

An initial version was developed for the steep tracks and was already ridden in the 2021 season. Over the offseason, this first prototype was revised and the version of the "Tachy Chan" was created, as it is presented today. It couldn't have been bad, as Amaury Pierron used it to win the overall classification in the 2022 Downhill World Cup.

The tire

Compared to the Magic Mary, the side lugs of the Tacky Chan are said to be significantly more stable and less prone to tipping. This should make the moment between grip and slipping more predictable. However, it should be mentioned that the Tacky Chan is a performance tire that can be ridden on both the front and rear wheel. However, it only really shows its strength with an active riding style, where pressure is built up over both wheels.

Tacky Chan was developed as a downhill tire, but can also be used on enduro and trail bikes. The model is available in six versions:

27.5 x 2.40, Super Downhill carcass, Addix Ultra Soft rubber compound
27.5 x 2.40, Super Gravity casing, Addix Soft rubber compound
29 x 2.40, Super Downhill casing, Addix Ultra Soft rubber compound
29 x 2.40, Super Gravity casing, Addix Ultra Soft rubber compound
29 x 2.40, Super Trail casing, Addix Ultra Soft rubber compound
29 x 2.40, Super Trail carcass, Addix Soft rubber compound

First riding impression

Simple bike park trails are perhaps not the perfect test environment for a downhill tire. Due to the World Cup, the most interesting trails in Leogang were not rideable. Nevertheless, some of the Tacky Chan's characteristics came into their own. For example, the rolling resistance, which is surprisingly low for the coarse tread, while other tires with an ultra-soft rubber compound are noticeably slower.

Where large forces are at work in berms, the tire is very stable despite around 1.4 bar and does not tip over. As a result, the grip remains good and hardly slips, even if you want to provoke it. Now the fast rubber still has to prove itself outside the bike parks.

schwalbe.com