Poly-Cotton-Corespun isn't just a material name — it describes a specific construction where a polyester core runs through each cotton fiber, adding tensile stability without sacrificing the casing compliance that cotton delivers. Specialized's Cotton TLR uses this 320 TPI casing in a tubeless-ready format, which means you get the pliable, road-conforming feel of a cotton casing alongside the setup advantages of going tubeless: lower pressures without pinch flat risk, sealant coverage against small punctures, and no tube weight sitting inside the tire. If you've ridden the original Turbo Cotton and wished it would work tubeless, this is the tire that answers that.

Tread compound is dual GRIPTON T2/T5. T2 runs the center of the contact patch for lower rolling resistance on the straights and climbs; T5 runs the shoulders for grip through corners. That combination on a cotton casing feels different than the same compound on a nylon-cased tire — more give underfoot, sharper transmission of road texture, and a tire that rewards running lower pressures than you might default to with a harder casing. Cotton casings conform to the surface rather than riding over it, and dialing pressure down 5 to 10 PSI from where you'd run a conventional tire typically returns a faster, more compliant result.

The vulcanization process is what technically separates the Cotton TLR from the original Turbo Cotton. Seamless vulcanization bonds the tread compound directly to the casing without adhesive layers or seams — Specialized credits this construction with a 2-watt rolling resistance reduction over the glued version. That's not a spec to gloss over: in practice it means the Cotton TLR rolls with less friction than a tubed Turbo Cotton at comparable pressures, and because it's tubeless-ready, you're also eliminating the rolling resistance contribution of an inner tube. Riders who already prefer the cotton ride quality now have a path to running it tubeless without any workaround.... Read More