These are great tyres, fast, supple and grippy with great aesthetics. I'd have no issue using them for training or racing. If you use hooked rims and tubes they will be for you, but tubeless riders will need to look elsewhere in the range.
Pros
+
Fast and comfortable ride feeling
+
Easy to work with and install
+
Great aesthetics
Cons
-
Thin sidewalls are still susceptible to cuts and tears
-
Lifespan may not be huge, these are race tyres
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Specialized Turbo Cotton Hell of the North
Price: £65 / $69
Weight: 280g - 28mm
Widths: 28mm
Hookless compatible: No
Tubeless compatible: No
When I was in my early teens, an old track rider lent me a pair of wheels to race on for a track meeting. He’d had them for years and plenty of big races had been ridden on them. They had Airlite hubs and silk tubular tyres. I can’t remember much about the ride, but the tyres felt and looked very special with their tan-yellow sidewalls and fine tread, and that stuck with me.
I’ve been riding on Specialized’s Turbo Cotton Hell of the North (HOTN) tyres since just about the start of the year. Maybe it’s the romance of holy week or the pre-Paris-Roubaix excitement ahead of the weekend at the time of writing, but the Specialized Turbo Cotton HOTN remind me of an almost bygone era of tyres – when certain lightweight tyres just felt that little bit more special and exciting than some of the top end rubber we use now.
Romance aside, the best road bike tyres of today are excellent and comfortably better than the tyres of yesteryear. The Turbo Cotton and HOTN variants have been very popular and capable models for Specialized. Used at the top end of the sport with some of the biggest races won on them. For example, AG Insurance-Soudal all used these tyres at the women's Tour of Flanders this year. Check them out in our Women's Tour of Flanders tech gallery, they are still very much a competitive option.
They are however not tubeless or hookless wheel compatible or available beyond a 28mm size which in today's market may mean they may be passed over by some riders. Specialized recently updated its road and gravel tyre range, and my colleague Will spotted a curious Turbo Cotton tyre at the Tour of Flanders that appeared to be tubeless compatible, so perhaps an update is in the works.
The Turbo Cotton HOTN variant is a slightly more durable version of the standard Turbo Cotton. The tyre tread is a touch wider and instead of a slick centre tread, the whole tyre uses a fine diamond pattern. The tread itself is also a touch thicker. In short, these are fast, race-ready tyres that have a bit more puncture protection than their Turbo Cotton siblings, perfect for the rougher cobbled classics.
RRP for these tyres is £65 / $69 each, however, you can only find the Turbo Cotton’s on the main Specialized website to buy currently, though you can find the HOTN tyres easily online. I asked Specialized and they also told me these tyres can be ordered through Specialized dealers, the part number is 00018-1508.
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It may be small but the 'Hell of the north' is there(Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
The whole tyre receives this fine tread pattern, and it extends further down the casing than the Turbo Cotton(Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Design and aesthetics
I'll start on the aesthetics front, for me, these are great-looking tyres. They have a warm yellowy/gold sidewall that is a little darker than the light Vittoria Corsa Pro sidewall. It looks great, and I think it's this that in part reminds me of tyres of old, in a good way.
The tread uses a fine, diamond pattern all over and there's a single, red Specialized logo on one side of the tyres which provides the key information. It's small, and you have to get up close to read it, the lack of smooth tread in the centre of the tread is the key differentiator between these tyres and the standard Turbo Cottons.
The red hotch patch has 'Hell of the North' at the very bottom, tyre, size, pressure rating, 320TPI, Gripton and Blackbelt - the specialized tyre technology names. That's it, no text all around the sidewall or big logos, it's just cool.
These tyres are clinchers and are not tubeless or hookless compatible. I've been testing them in a 28mm size with Vittoria latex tubes on hooked carbon wheels, on my own bike. This setup is just fine by me, but if you are fully locked into hookless/tubeless life, they may not be right for your setup. Some Roval wheels currently fit the bill for the specs of these tyres, hence the sponsored pro rider use.
On my scales, a 28mm tyre weighs in at 280 grams, a competitive weight compared to my favoured Continental GP5000 AS TR tyres which I have at about 10 grams heavier.
The tyres use a 320 TPI construction, which refers to the threads per inch count in a tyre casing. A higher number should produce a more supple, comfortable tyre. 320 TPI is about as high as it gets for road tyres. The casing does feel very soft, malleable and supple.
Gripton is a Specialized Rubber compound and is said to maximise grip etc. It's used in lots of Specialized road tyres and generally, they enjoy a good reputation. Look up how many races Team Quick-Step has won on Turbo Cotton tyres. Blackbelt is a puncture protection layer under the tyres tread which helps protect against punctures, it's present on the HOTN tyres.
I've picked up a few cuts here and there, but nothing major yet and no flats (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Performance
I've installed these tyres on my own road bike, installation, even being careful with the latex inner tubes wasn't an issue, the tyres certainly aren't super tight, on my rims at least, taking them off was also easy.
It's not a point specific to these tyres, but it's so much easier to fit a tube into a non-tubeless specific tyre. Trying to run a tubeless tyre with a tube can be a bit of a fool's errand due to how tight they fit these days. If you do want to run a TPU or latex tube, these are the right tyres to do it with, along with the standard Turbo Cottons of course.
I have ridden with Continental GP5000 tyres for years and 4000s before that but instantly clicked with the Turbo Cottons. They feel fast and zippy for starters, I certainly couldn't feel much of a difference in perceived speed or effort compared to the GP5's, they felt a little bit more supple, with perhaps a hint more comfort which I'd like to think was the 320TPI construction and thin casing. I've grown to really like using them, they just feel a bit more special.
I've ridden them in a pressure range of about 65-75 PSI, and on a range of road rides, from easy early morning spins to absolutely flat out on the local chain gang. Grip hasn't been an issue from the start, I've hit corners about as hard as I can in the dry and have felt confident in the amount of grip on offer. I don't think you will have an issue there. In the wet, I'm a bit more cautious, but I can't say I've felt the tyres have made me worry on wetter roads.
The HOTN tread is 4mm wider than the standard Turbo Cotton(Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
The beads aren't tubeless compatible (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
The 320 TPI casing is generally very supple and soft (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
These tyres were designed for cobbled classics, I have ridden the Paris Roubaix Challenge, and for me, as an amateur without a team car, I think I would want something a little bit more durable than these tyres, the sidewalls would be susceptible to cuts and I would want to run lower pressures than they would allow with tubes I think. But for speed on a range of different surfaces, they are an excellent option. For me riding in the UK, they are pretty great for everything.
Some independent testers have looked at these tyres and the results are positive. Bicycle Rolling Resistance tested them and gave them a 4.4/5 rating, finding this model to be 5% slower than the standard Turbo Cotton, still plenty competitive though. The regular turbo cotton, one of the fastest clincher tyres also did well in Aerocoach rolling resistance testing. It's not the same model, but I thought I would include a link to the free data.
The major criticism you hear levelled at Turbo Cotton tyres is the fast wear rate, no one wants their tyres to wear out prematurely. But holding one in your hand, you can appreciate these are lightweight, race-orientated tyres, if you're doing everything with them you should expect your tyre lifespan to be a bit shorter. After four months, mine are looking good, I've picked up a few small cuts in the tread here and there and have had no punctures. So far so good all told, it's going to vary between riders though. Some of my riding companions seem to puncture every other week and go through tyres like nobody's business, others seem to do a couple of seasons on the same pair.
If you like a tan coloured sidewall, these tyres will fit the bill (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Value
With an RRP of £65 and lower prices to be found online, these are about in line with or slightly cheaper than other premium road tyres right now. I think they offer good value but there's a bit of a catch in that you need to be running hooked rims with tubes, which limits things a bit now. Performance-wise though, they offer excellent bang for the buck and look great doing it but they are lightweight performance-minded or even race tyre. If you use them all winter etc, don't expect them to last forever.
Verdict
I really like these tyres, they feel fast and testing has shown fairly low rolling resistance, they offer great grip and look really nice to my mind. The styling and tiny 'Hell of the North' logo add to the cool factor to me, and the pros are still using them for some races.
They may be something of a dying breed though, with the dominance of tubeless now and the rise of larger volume tyres which we know to be faster overall in the majority of scenarios. An update may well be on the way, but if you have the right wheel setup it might be worth bagging a pair whilst you can.
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Testing scorecard and notes
Design and aesthetics
A quality contruction with proven Specialized tyre tech, pretty stylish too
9/10
Performance
Very good, fast, supple and gripp, no flats for me
9/10
Weight
280 grams on my scales, competitive
8/10
Setup
Not tubeless compatible, setup very easily on my hooked rims with latex tubes
9/10
Value
RRP of £65 / $69, can be found for less, cheaper than some premium road tyres, perhaps a bit more fragile than some
Tom joined the Cyclingnews team in late 2022 as a tech writer. Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another. He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic, with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop. This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike, and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.
He has ridden and raced bikes from an early age up to a national level on the road and track, and has ridden and competed in most disciplines. He has a keen eye for pro-team tech and enjoys spotting new or interesting components in the wild. During his time at Cyclingnews, Tom has already interviewed some of the sport's biggest names including Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Alberto Contador. He's also covered various launches from brands such as Pinarello, Ridley, Specialized and more, tackled the Roubaix Challenge sportive aboard his own rim-brake Cannondale SuperSix Evo, tested over 20 aero helmets in the wind tunnel, and has created helpful in-depth buying advice relating to countless categories from torque wrenches to winter clothing.
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