'This isn't your father's endurance tyre' - the updated Specialized Mondo is made for Strade Bianche, Paris-Roubaix and anywhere else the road gets choppy

Along with a revamped line of gravel tyres, Specialized has rolled out a new version of the Mondo, its tried-and-true endurance tyre. The new Mondo has a revised tread pattern and sidewall construction to create a modern tyre for endurance riding on and off asphalt.

The new Mondo is part of a growing subsection of tyres best described as “thick slicks.” Formerly, this category consisted of either touring tyres or gravel tyres, but now, with road bikes offering bigger clearances and the growing popularity of gravel bikes, there is new demand for tyres that are, by all intents and purposes, road tyres with an extra handful of millimeters.

Yet, those millimeters can make quite the difference in improving the ride feel across several different types of surfaces, whether it's a particularly wet road where lower pressure is required, choppy or gnarled pavement or light, hard-packed gravel. The Mondo, like similar options from Pirelli, Rene Herse, Continental, or Enve, has been designed precisely for that need.

While it is only being brought to market now, the tyre has undergone extensive testing at the highest level of sport, including the 2024 Paris-Roubaix, where Lotte Kopecky rode them to victory across the infamous cobblestones. It has also been spotted at Strade Bianche, and State-side, the 35mm version was ridden by Specialized gravel pros at the early-season gravel races, which were more pavement-heavy.

Here's what's new:

• More durable and puncture-resistant—a strong “anti-puncture” slayer of reinforcement under the supple rubber tread pattern and a new “mesh” patterned sidewall guard provide much improved durability.
• Faster rubber at the core – instead of completely prioritizing durability at the expense of speed, the Mondo retains the Gripton T2/T5 dual compound that has been developed for the faster road tyres in the Specialized line-up.
• Light weight – weighing in at 310g for 28mm, 330g in 32mm and 360g in 35mm, fair marks that put it around the middle of the pack for similar endurance tyres.

The Mondo comes in two versions:

- The Mondo TLR is a more robust tubeless option that is available in 28, 32, and 35mm widths, and comes with a pricetag of $80 / £70

- the Mondo Folding, is a more stripped down clincher choice, which comes in 26, 28, or 32mm width and retails for $55 / £45.

First Ride Impressions

We received the new Mondo tyres a few weeks in advance of the product launch in both 32mm and 35mm widths. The 32mm tyres immediately found a home on my fixed gear commuting bike, with tubes, while the other set went on some Enve 5.6 wheels as a part of a long-term review of the top “thick slick” tyres in the market.

The first real test was setting the 35mm Mondos up tubeless at home without an air compressor. With these Enve rims, I've had about a 50% success rate, but more often than I like, I've had to make the trek of shame to my local bike shop to help me out. Luckily, the Mondo fit easily onto the rims with a crisp snap coming at only 35 PSI.

Aesthetically, the sidewalls stand out with their new "mesh" design and criss-cross pattern that feels like sandpaper under my thumb. Compared to most sidewalls that feel almost silky, this roughness immediately showed promise as sidewall cuts are always my fear when riding slick tyres across rough terrain.

Whether the sidewall mesh is successful over a long testing period remains to be seen. I've only logged a couple hundred miles on the Mondos, but the concept is intriguing.

Right off the bat, the Mondo tyres jumped out as a strong performer on the road for a tyre of its size. Around my home roads of Phoenix, Arizona, the pavement alternates between being immaculately smooth and choppy. In particular, the local climb up South Mountain has seen better days. While the gradient would be conducive to a pure lightweight road bike, the tarmac makes the climb and descent a rough ride with standard road tyres.

The Mondos seemed to strike the right balance of being light and fast enough to feel like a climbing tyre but also sturdy, with the right tread and volume to absorb the bumps and imperfections of the surface. In the end, using these tyres yielded my second-fastest time up the climb, only a few seconds off my personal best from 2017, when the road was still in better shape, and I rode it aboard a climbing bike complete with race wheels and 25mm tyres.

Thick slicks, however, aren’t reserved just for the pavement, however chunky. To really put the tyres through their paces, I went into the dirt with the same bike, wheels and pressure. At the 35mm width, I ran 42 and 44 PSI in the front and rear, respectively, and the tyres performed well on the gravel and smooth trails of Papago Park in Tempe. Where the reinforced tread structure helped the Mondo retain speed on the road, the reconfigured sidewall gave it the dynamism to handle the rocks and unevenness of the different diverse surfaces.

The Mondo is not a purpose-built gravel tyre, but that has more to do with its size rather than its makeup. From a first impression, the Mondo seems to hit the right balance between speed on the road and control on light gravel, which puts it right near the top of its class.

To put it simply, this isn't your father's endurance tyre. The Mondo is another example of how the category of tyres is changing with better all-around options for a broad spectrum of riders and riding surfaces.