Schwalbe Aerothan Ultralight Tubes

DEVELOPED IN A FIVE-YEAR collaboration with German chemical giant, BASF, these are very clearly not your everyday tubes. For starters, there’s the price-tag: upwards of $50. Per tube.

There’s also no rubber—something of a curiosity, given Schwalbe has built its reputation as one of the world’s pre-eminent rubber tyre manufacturers.

Instead, Schwalbe’s website rather ambiguously trumpets Aerothan as: “the wonder material from the Schwalbe