Specialized S-Works Mondo review: a fantastic all-season tyre for racers, but tubeless seating isn't easy

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The Specialized S-Works Mondo is an excellent all-season tyre with a strong focus on racy performance.

It achieves this without costing the Earth – you can spend a third more on a tubeless all-season road tyre and feel little or no benefit.

The main niggles are difficult tubeless seating and a relative lack of puncture protection, but apart from that, it’s hard to complain and the price of £50 / $70 / €80 is not off-putting.

Specialized S-Works Mondo 2Bliss Ready T2/T5 tyre details and specifications

The Specialized S-Works Mondo tyre is the brand’s top offering from its ‘endurance’ line, coming with the lofty claim it sets a new benchmark for tyres of its type, and that other ‘simple’ endurance and all-season tyres of the time are “dead”.

That said, the Mondo was first spotted being raced at Paris-Roubaix in 2023 – as tough a test as you can get.

It’s certainly at the racy end of the all-season tyre spectrum (alongside the Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR and Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR 4S) then, albeit with a mid-level price.

It’s £40 cheaper than the Continental tyre, for example, and around £30 cheaper than the Pirelli. Among its mid-priced test cohort, it’s undercut only by the Teravail Telegraph (£48 / $75).

Specialized says the Mondo features two compounds – fast-rolling Gripton T2 down the smooth centre line, and grippier Gripton T5 on the textured shoulders. The texture itself is intended to help the tyre bite into the road (or cobbles).

Under the centre line and crossing over the shoulder is a central aramid puncture-protection belt, called ‘Blackbelt’, which is said to have been improved versus the previous iteration by 12 per cent.

This doesn’t cover the whole carcass, but the sidewalls feature a ‘Gridrace’ layer to protect from cuts and pinch flats. In theory, this leaves a gap between the two protective layers, but the upsides are lower weight and improved suppleness (the casing has a 120 threads-per-inch construction, on a par with racier tyres).

It’s a winner on weight, too – at 317g per 700x28c tyre, it’s amongst the lightest in its class, 5g lighter than the Michelin Power Protection TLR (£79.99 / $84.99 / €81), 26g lighter than the GP5000 AS TR and 27g lighter than the P-Zero Race TLR 4S.

Specialized S-Works Mondo 2Bliss Ready T2/T5 tyre installation and setup

The lightweight, flexible nature of the tyre was a boon when mounting it on the hooked Hunt 50 Carbon Disc wheelset I used for testing (this features 22mm internal and 30mm external rim widths).

I was almost able to slide it over the rim without the use of a tyre lever – I doubt anyone with decent technique would struggle too much.

Removing the tyre was also easy, meaning I wouldn't fear having to do a roadside tube insertion as much as with many other ‘tough’ road tyres.

However, initially seating the tyre beads is trickier, where the inherent flexibility seems to leave too many gaps to create enough of a seal for inflation. I needed to use my shock pump to get it to pop into the bead, with two successful seatings after seven inflation attempts.

By the side of the road, the presence of some tubeless sealant may help, but I’m not confident I could reseat the bead using the two CO2 canisters I typically carry, and especially not a mini pump.

On the Hunt rims, the S-Works Mondo tyres measured 28.3mm wide when inflated to 80psi / 5.5 BAR.

Specialized S-Works Mondo 2Bliss Ready T2/T5 tyre performance

Out on the road, the Specialized S-Works Mondo is very impressive – it feels about as close to a race tyre as I’ve experienced from an all-season tyre.

The Continental and Pirelli tyres are similar in this respect, but where they give the impression of a race tyre made slightly sturdier, the Mondo offers an even greater sense of grip.

This largely comes down to the compound and texturing on the shoulders, which combine to feel very secure when traversing poor roads. I could tip into a bend at speed and have high confidence that the tyres would stick when the road was wet, too.

It doesn’t perform miracles to make wet or damp conditions feel like a dry summer’s day, but it’s the best tyre I’ve tested in this regard.

It also feels very quick for an all-season tyre and delivers great transmission of road texture, which further feeds confidence.

I’ve seen two small knicks appear in the central portion, where the faster Gripton T2 compound is, but I live in an area where roads have their fair share of detritus in winter, so this is to be expected – and is down largely to luck.

That said, it’s fair to note a few customer reviews on Specialized’s website that lament the tyre’s apparent fragility, but this should be viewed in context – it excels as a harder-wearing supple, fast tyre, rather than a puncture-proof tank track.

How we tested | all-season road tyres

I tested this selection of the latest all-season tyres through the northern hemisphere’s late autumn and winter.

Testing conditions varied wildly, from a prolonged period of dry, mild days to the aftermath of storms Ashley, Bert, Connell and Darragh. By the end of testing, I had covered in excess of 1,500km.

I used a Hunt 50 Carbon Disc wheelset for testing consistency, and assessed ease of installation and removal – after all, while we hope all-season tyres will save us from punctures, it’s never guaranteed.

Each tyre’s specifications, sense of speed, grip and suppleness were also assessed, with the overall goal of indicating where on the all-season tyre spectrum each sits – and relative value was also addressed.

All-season tyres on test

• Specialized S-Works Mondo 2Bliss Ready T2/T5
• Michelin Power Protection TLR
• Teravail Telegraph ‘Durable’
• Vittoria RideArmor TLR
• Pirelli Cinturato Road TLR
• Schwalbe One 365 ‘Performance’

Specialized S-Works Mondo 2Bliss Ready T2/T5 tyre bottom line

The Specialized S-Works Mondo is an excellent tyre pitched towards the faster end of the all-season tyre spectrum. It’s speedy-feeling, tenaciously grippy and delivers lots of confidence when the conditions are poor.

The caveats are it’s tough to seat from scratch and might be a little less resilient to punctures compared to heavier and tougher alternatives.

That said, this is always a trade-off to weigh up. Specialized might do well to introduce a tougher version of the Mondo in the future to cater for those who want more reliability.

But viewed as a high-performance all-season tyre, there are few to hold a candle to it, especially at such a competitive price.

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