The Schwalbe Thunder Burt has been around a while, but Schwalbe recently introduced new casings for their tyres and made the Thunder Burt available in a more modern 2.35” / 60mm width, or so they say…
The ThuBu is Schwalbe’s fastest rolling XC/Gravel tyre akin to the Maxxis Aspen. With minimal center pattern but big-for-what-they-are side knobs. It’s popular with XC racers as a dry weather tyre especially on hardpack.
The new Super Ground casing is very similar to Schwalbe’s old SnakeSkin and offers sidewall protection while weighing a little more than the lighter SuperRace casing. Little is relative as I measured my 29x2.35” sample at a porky 770g! That’s a good 100-130g more than the previous version, which, granted, was only available in 2.25” / 57mm width. Funnily enough I measured my “2.35” at 56mm wide when new and it has since settled at 58mm mounted tubeless on a 27mm width rim.
As with all Schwalbe Evolution tyres, the Burt set up tubeless without fuss and is holding air very well with no sealant seeping through the sidewalls
Performance
Needles to say the ThuBu is borderline dangerous in the wet. The Schwalbe rubber compounds work well in the wet, but the there is simply no thread to work with especially in the mud. Performance on wet roots and rocks is predictable yet slippy.
Dry hardpack is where the Thunder Burt shines! Traction is surprisingly good in all but the softest conditions, predictable and with an astonishing amount of lean-in traction on pretty much any dry-over-hardpack surface thanks to the nice side knobs. The minimal center tread offers excellent rolling and decent traction unless power is applied abruptly, which makes the tyre easy to spin out. Braking traction is naturally poor.
The new SuperGround casing seems to work well and there is no squirming or bouncyness when run at my typical 1.3-1.5bar pressures.
Conclusion
The Thunder Burt is 100% a rear tyre and personally I would not run it in the front. The new casing’s weight is also very disappointing and the Speed compound doesn’t seem to resist wear very well despite being Schwalbe’s hardest MTB compound. The tyre in the pictures has done 1600km and is close to being worn out with little center tread remaining and the side knobs tearing quickly. Surprisingly enough the sidewall decals are also peeling which was not a problem with the previous generation. I will be testing the Racing Ralph in the rear next as both the weight and wear rate on the Thunder Burt have proven disappointing.
Dry grip: 3.5/5
Wet grip: 1/5
Braking traction: 1.5/5
Side traction: 3/5
Rolling: 5/5
Was looking for actual measured size for 2.35" and found out your post, great! I do however have another opion about the usage of Thunderburt in wet/muddy conditions. I rode 2.25" at 2023 Tahko MTB (120km, wet, rainy and very, very muddy conditions) and they performed very, very well. Tread has lot of small height knobs and even tho they are closely spaced, they clear well because of the low height of knobs. Therefore grip is there and lots of small knobs means lots of grip, like non studded winter tyres on cars. For sure there are specific mud tyres which gives you more grip, but then RR is so bad, that overall you'll lose time when racing (unless mud is super thick and course does not have easier sections, in which case TB does not work). There are also grippier tyre compounds available, but TB is not that bad actually. But design of the Thunderburt is not bad at wet conditions in my opinion, and when you have sooo low rolling resistance, it also means so much in racing, and to be specific in XCM racing, not XCO. And all in all, well, you also need to have some riding skills as well.
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