Cotton casings have long been the choice for riders who wanted the fastest, most compliant road ride available, but until now, going tubeless meant giving them up. Specialized is well known in the road tire world for both its tubeless performance tires and its high-end, cotton casing clinchers, but both technologies have not been available in the same tire. The new Cotton TLR changes that. The hybrid Poly-Cotton-Corespun casing pairs a polyester core with cotton fibers, so you get the suppleness cotton is known for alongside the bead security and air retention a tubeless system needs.

The Cotton TLR comes with a second-generation easy-to-inflate 320 TPI casing, vulcanized tread, and a Dual T2/T5 Gripton compound. The vulcanized construction is the key change from the original Turbo Cotton — instead of gluing the tread to the casing, the tread is bonded directly through vulcanization. Specialized claims the new vulcanized construction reduces drag and rolling resistance by 2 watts versus the Turbo TLR it replaces, and puncture protection improves by 15% over the previous cotton offering. That's a meaningful jump for a casing that has historically traded durability for speed.

The Dual GRIPTON T2/T5 compound splits duties across the tread: T2 handles the center for lower rolling resistance on the straights, T5 handles the shoulders for grip when you commit to a corner. These tires are race-proven and designed for high-end wheels like the Roval Rapide, Sprint, and Alpinist , which run 21mm internal widths — the rim width Specialized optimized the casing shape around. If you're running wider rims than that, be aware the tire measures narrower than labeled and the sidewalls sit more exposed.... Read More