Bicycle Retailer reports, “Continental has added a new line of Chinese-made tires to its offerings. The company will now have three bike tire product lines: the Premium line, which is all made in Germany; the new Performance Line, made in China; and the Sport line, also made in China. The new line is intended to compete on price with other China-made tires in the aftermarket and to supply Asia-based OE customers.
Continental opened its new wholly-owned factory in Hefei, China, last year, and showed the Sport line at Interbike last fall. The new Performance line currently includes three mountain bike models, the Mountain King, X-King and Race King. Continental said the new line uses “PureGrip” rubber technology, which is derived from its Black Chili rubber compound. Tires with Black Chili will remain made exclusively in Germany.
The Performance line also includes new “NyTechBreaker” flat protection technology. The mountain bike tires in the Performance line are tubeless-ready. “With the Performance products Continental adds a new quality line to their portfolio and offers a new benchmark for all Asian-produced bicycle-tires. The result is a very robust and sticky tire, quality-wise to range between the Premium-products from the Korbach factory and the basic versions,” the company said.”