Conti develops new bike tire technology for higher grip

Hanover, Germany – Continental AG has developed a new technology to produce motorcycle tires without the use of a release agent, thereby improving the products’ grip.

TractionSkin technology, employed at the tire maker’s Korbach production plant to produce Conti Attack tires, uses a “special coating” on the tire mould that allows the tire to be demoulded without a release agent.

This compares against the conventional vulcanisation process, in which the rubber bladder is coated with a release agent during the curing process to ensure that it does not stick to the tire.

In addition to a “microrough surface”, tires manufactured with the new technology provide “outstanding grip” from the very first kilometre, said Conti in an 18 Sept statement. 

“This means that ‘Attack’ pilots don’t need to take any extra laps to remove production residues,” the German manufacturer added.

The break-in time remains unaffected by this “instant grip effect”, which, depending on the road conditions and the rider’s riding style, can be around 160 kilometres. 

However, Conti warned that strong acceleration, hard braking, and extreme leaning should be avoided when the tires are new.  

“In the initial phase, the tire needs moderate, uniform loading to reach optimal performance following vulcanisation at the plant and to adapt to the operating conditions of extremely high-performance motorcycles,” explained Volker Plett from technical customer service for motorcycle tires at Continental.