When it comes to tyres, we can't take a joke. After all, the black rubber rollers are the only connection to the ground when mountain biking. A good MTB tyre has probably saved many of us from an unwanted collision with the nearest tree. So it's understandable that bikers often remain conservative when choosing tyres: Continental, Schwalbe and Maxxis dominate the market, while alternatives such as Vittoria, Kenda, Bontrager, Michelin or Mavic are rarely found in the wild.
Now another tyre giant is going on the offensive. From now on Pirelli in the mountain bike business on. The promise: To use the know-how from more than 100 years of successful development history to produce tyres that should perform equally well in wet and dry conditions. Pirelli, which today belongs to the Chinese state-owned company ChemChina, has been selling bicycle tyres since 1872. Later, car and motorbike tyres were added, with which Pirelli has won numerous world championship titles. In all kinds of disciplines, from Formula 1 to motocross. Now they want to take off on mountain bikes too.
Pirelli Scorpion - know-how from motocross
We start with a total of four tyre models, all of which belong to the same product range and, like the high-end motocross tyres, bear the name "Scorpion" wear. Pirelli has placed particular emphasis on equally good performance in wet and dry conditions. The four tyres are each optimised for different purposes and have coloured emblems for easy identification. Red stands for the hard-pack Scorpion, the yellow tyre is said to work equally well on hard and soft surfaces, the blue Scorpion is optimised for soft surfaces and finally the green Scorpion, designed as a rear-only tyre, is said to combine easy running with good cornering and braking grip.
To ensure that the new tyres live up to the reputation of their motocross counterparts, Pirelli has invested heavily in their development. The concepts for the new tyres and their centrepiece, the so-called Smart Grip compound, were designed at the development centre in Milan Bicocca, the largest development centre and headquarters of the multi-million-euro group. Whether the investment pays off and how the new MTB tyres from Pirelli compare to the competition will soon be revealed in the BIKE test. The sales prices of the Scorpion MTB tyres from Pirelli are priced at 49.90 or 52.90 euros depending on the model.
Click here to go to the Website of Pirelli.
Adrian Kaether
Editor
