If you live in the Pacific Northwest or the New England region it is fair to say that in most years at least the latter half of the cyclocross season will regularly feature mud. It also safe to say that you can face serious mud, where highly effective traction and control must come from two features of your tires: bite and shedding. You have to have a tread pattern that bites though the mud to clench firm ground, and the same tread must release the mud as quickly as possible as mud can easily be followed by a grass slope, wood flyover, or pavement section. That is cross, after all. The Schwalbe X-One Bite TL Easy Cyclocross Tire was built for mud, and like all of the best mud tires for cross it still has to handle the variety of surfaces and conditions you face on a race weekend in December, so though the X-One Bite can master mud, it was also built to keep you going all over the course.

As an Evolution series tire, the X-One Bite is a race-ready product made with the highest grade materials and technology, among them the OneStar rubber tread set-up. OneStar is Schwalbe's race road/cross triple compound rubber, which delivers the best combination of lightweight, grip, traction, and low rolling resistance. As you'd expect, the firmest compound is in the center and it trends softer as you go outward. The X-One Bite, as you'd expect, has a more open tread pattern, allowing the treads to dig and engage, while pushing outward and creating traction by paddling the mud from off the sidewall as well. Schwalbe goes against tradition with their tread, moving to rounder knobs, but smart angling, ramping and siping while building complementary sets that truly shine in the lower pressures afforded by tubeless. The directional tire basically has a 4-3 set-up with the knobs running almost in a line across the breadth of the tire but creating virtual center section that while open for grip and traction, also allows for speed on harder, firmer sections of the course. The shoulders give enough resistance for cornering as well, and will be suited for soft grass and snow as well. Frost and ice may be a different story, but OneStar delivers uncommon grip once you find your pressure and comfort levels with the tire and conditions

The key to effective tubeless set-ups has to be mount-ability and how quickly and effectively the tire seats the bead to create a proper seal that won't burp. Yes, you need sealant, and Schwalbe recommends Stan's NoTubes version. The goal is to run a lower pressure set-up (without burping) for added grip and control from the larger footprint the conforming tire matching to the surface. Schwalbe's Tubeless Easy system ensures this, and you will have best results on rims with 19-22mm tubeless ready internal rim widths. The suppleness of the tire is delivered by the 127 TPI casing and MicroSkin protection layer, which move freely together. That suppleness helps you set the bead, as well as giving the tire the ability to conform and deform as necessary, with the protection you need to avoid sidewall cuts or tears.

The X-One Bite TL Easy Cyclocross Tire will be a complementary tire for you this season unless it is uncommonly wet early on. It will make a great front tire on softer courses where you need more all around bite up front, perhaps with an X-One AllRound in the back, or as a front/rear pair when things are just incredibly sloppy, the sand is soft, and the transitions more technical. We all know the capabilities and use for a mud tire, but every once in a while a mud tire will surprise in more variable conditions. Ever have a Sunday that was so different from the same course as ridden on Saturday? Then you know how it goes. As you build out your tire quiver this season the X-One Bite should be available, if not needed, most race weekends.