DW Drops in: Continental Tyres UK

If you’ve been living in a box over the past few years you most certainly will not have noticed the momentum that Continental’s rubber hoops have been having of late.

It has to be said that when we think of downhill tryes, Continental didn’t up until recently figure, we’ve all been Maxxis’d and Michy’d out over the past few years but things could be changing…I wanted to find out more.

The German Tyre manufacture has grabbed mountain bike tyre design and function by the horns, and with the UK headquarters almost on our doorstep…it would have been rude of us not to take a closer look.

On arrival I was immediately thrust a cup o’tea by Brodie, as Rob and Shelley exchanged the usual banter and welcomed me into Conti Towers. It was evident that things are hotting up, with a few new tyres, scheduled to be released next week at Eurobike. I was hoping to get the jump on it but I’m sworn to secrecy, at least I can let you know that you will be interested in at least one of their releases.

Rob, took time out to show me around the massive warehouse…I don’t think I have ever seen as many new tyres in all my puff, piled high awaiting delivery to Conti’s customers…it was very impressive to say the least to see what I was told was only about 4 weeks worth of tyres…and they’re stacked 6 feet tall and stretch the length of the several whole warehouses!!

Of course Conti do all sorts of tyres, the whole range is massive with road, touring and mountain being their main cycles lines…no BMX yet, although we here if an Atherton continues with his Olympic quest they could be on the cards…watch this space.

On the subject of other cycling disciplines, Conti has it sown up…in fact the top road and track tryes are exactly that, the “tubs” they produce for the top road and track teams are hand made by women in Germany…who we hear they’re very protective over their own manufacturing process…so there’s no touchy feely while they’re being made in the factory.

The track tubs are even served up in a pizza box to keep them good, while the Pro Tour riders as well as those in the know, opt for the “Pro Limited” labelled road tyres…if you thought DH tryes were expensive…think again.

This brings us onto the mountain tyres…Conti have a massive range catering for the causal off roader, through the XC whippet and right up to the extreme downhiller/freerider. It’s no surprise that since the signing of The Atherton’s, that Conti’s R&D department have been getting some great feedback, which translated in to tyre talk, means new and more innovative treads than almost anyone else out there.

With a new DH tyre due out soon, which of course, I can’t really talk about it but I can mention “Der Kaiser”, Conti’s intermediate/Dry conditions 2.5 DH tyre and the “Der Barron” (formally aka Rain King). You’ll see the likes of Rob, along with his Conti UK team running these at National and Regional events in the UK, a few Conti sponsored riders of course being the Atherton’s and Geordie favourite, Scott Mears.

The newest developments are in All Mountain Tryes, which is where the growth seems to be right now, with the Mountain King, Rubber Queen and brand new X King range, the Mountain King has just been updated and looks like a great fast rolling tyre, especially keep it in mind if you’re riding one of those new format Enduro events next year!

Next up is the Rubber Queen, you’ve got to love the Conti naming policies, this is the best selling AM tyre, with it’s 2.2. or 2.4 size, it’s soft compound is still fast rolling, making it contest for one of the best trail centre tyres out there, we’ll see if that’s true as we have a pair to test over the coming weeks.

The X King is the brand new superlight XC tyre, this tyre is sooo light it didn’t feel like a tyre you could run off road but Rob assures me that I’d be surprised what I could ride with it on. He reckons we could be seeing it in a reinforced form soon and maybe on a 4X bike not too far away. Rolls fast and weighs nothing…it doesn’t take a genius to work it out!

You’ll no doubt see the surprise’s Conti has lined up at Eurobike for us all….but in the meantime check out www.conti-tyres.co.uk for all the gen on the full range of Conti’s Bike tyres.

Thanks to Shelley, Rob and Brodie for showing me around…see you on the trails soon.