I’ve already taken a look at the Giant PSL-2 and today we’re going to take a look at the Schwalbe Ultremo DD. This review comes after 4000km on the DD’s, which is enough that I wore the a flat strip on to the back tire.

Performance

Most ‘flat protect’ tires have a pretty harsh feel. To get some flat protection they need extra layers in the casings and under the tread. Something in there needs to be stiff to stop sharp objects from coming through.

This extra stiffness often translates in to a harsher ride. So you don’t flat, but the teeth are rattled out of your jaw if the tire is too stiff. It’s a fine balancing act between ride feel and convenience.

So do the Ultremo DD’s feel harsh? Not in my opinion. I’d say they felt just as nice as the Giant PS-L 2 tires I used for a while. I’ve had the DD’s on every type of road surface from gravel to fresh, in all weather from sunny to hail/snow and they always felt great.

Even more than feeling great, they always feel like they have plenty of purchase on the road. Hitting 80km an hour down a local twisty mountain road they always feel like they have grip to spare. Keeping the rubber side down is always a good thing.

Punctures?

In 4000km I have not had a single puncture with the DD’s. Yes that’s right, no punctures over all types of road conditions. I’ve been through the odd patch of glass by mistake even and they have just kept rolling along.

Contrast that to the Giants where I was never able to ride long enough that a tire needed replacement due to wear. In my wrap up there I said:

Ultimately this is not the tire for me. I was always getting flats and that simply makes the tire utterly useless no matter how fast the tire is otherwise. Nothing is slower than a flat tire.

It’s probably also worth mentioning that I take a look at my tires after every ride to make sure that I didn’t pick up any debris. That means that the random piece of glass normally wouldn’t have time to work itself through a tire over a few rides.

I’ve treated every tire I have used to this inspection. So the Giants had just as much a chance to stay debris free as any other tire I’ve tried.

Recommendation

I highly recommend the Ultremo DD’s. They feel as nice as any race tire I’ve tried and they don’t flat.

Compared to the GatorSkins (which I’ve put about 2000km on but haven’t reviewed here) they feel much nicer and seem to protect against punctures just as well.

So yes get a pair of Ultremo DD’s, I just got a second pair to replace my old ones. Where I’ve typically run a ‘winter tire’ that had more flat protection and a summer tire that was a bit faster, I’m just using the DD’s now in all seasons.

If you’d like to support the site you can get the Ultremo DD’s on Amazon