Science creates knowledge - and some of it is astonishing. The largest tyre manufacturer in the world is not Goodyear or Michelin, but Lego. The assembly lines of the Swedish building block manufacturer churn out 675 million tyres for toy cars every year. With such quantities Continental cannot come up with. But the company has another superlative to offer. It is the only producer of bicycle tyres in Germany. The factory in Korbach, Hesse, has been in operation since 1907. In order to withstand the brutal cost pressure in the original equipment manufacturer market, a factory was opened in Asia a few years ago. However, around 50 employees in Korbach continue to manufacture the high-quality product lines - almost 50 per cent of the Conti range - by hand.
Anyone passing through the barrier at the company entrance is first of all amazed by the extensive labyrinth of hall complexes that has grown over the course of more than 100 years from the legendary "Conti chimney" to the green hills that surround the small town of Korbach. More than 3000 people work here, most of them in car tyre production. The bicycle department, which is located in the older, front part of the company, is tiny compared to the rest of the site. BIKE reporter Henri Lesewitz was allowed an exclusive look inside the "hallowed halls", as Conti employees call the bicycle tyre area with a mixture of pride and respect. Product Manager Sebastian Moos was discreetly guiding our reporter past the mythical rubber compound kitchen "Building 18" ("Secret!") when he spontaneously suggested: "Hey, want to build a tyre?" What do you mean? A real mountain bike tyre? Build it yourself? Here in the hallowed halls of Korbach? Of course!
Competition: We raffled off the hand-built set of Conti tyres by Henri Lesewitz (until 28.03.2017)!
You can read the complete Continental report - the second part of our Made in Germany series - in BIKE 4/2017 - on newsstands from 7 March. You can also read the complete issue in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or in the DK shop order:
How an MTB tyre is made at Continental
