Hannover, Germany, Summer 2003. Continental has added two new MTB tread patterns to its range of tires for off-road uses: Gravity, a tire specially developed for tough freeride tours, and Diesel, which is recommended for popular ag-gressive riding and bike parks. Both tires are available as an 84tpi basic version, as a folding tire with ultra-fine 170tpi casing quality, as well as with Duraskin sidewall protection and in a UST tubeless setup.

Gravity - specialist for forest trails and downhill riding on stones

The Gravity tire is designed especially for demanding freeride tours on forest ground and speedy downhill riding on stones. Its sharp tread lugs are designed not to give way under load, thus ensuring good ground adhesion right up to the extreme. What's more, due to its neutral handling characteristics, Gravity is an impressive performer on hard surfaces, thus making pitching-down and side-sliding on tarmac problems of the past. Continental is offering the Gravity tire in 84 tpi (tpi = threads per inch) con-struction. In the ultra-fine 170 tpi version, this tire is ideal for use on rough surfaces also requiring a low rolling resistance for speedy, low-energy biking. The GravityProTection model features additional Duraskin sidewall protection.

Here you can download the press release as a rtf-file (11 KB).

Diesel - the MTB tire for bike parks and popular aggressive biking

Continental designed the Diesel tire family especially for adven-ture biking where large volume and particularly good damping characteristics are needed. These tires are well able to withstand the high stresses acting on them during drops, jumps and trail riding.

To give extra-high grip on loose ground as well, the Diesel MTB tire tread pattern has been equipped with sharp, torsion-free lugs (Gravity Arc Design). The tires of the Diesel product family are therefore particularly suitable for favorite local routes or for bike parks.

Diesel MTB tires can likewise be had in the basic version, with an ultra-fine 170 tpi casing, and with Duraskin sidewall protection.

Tire Sizes

Continental AG is a leading supplier of tires, brake systems, chassis components and industrial elastomers. Consolidated sales in 2002 amounted to 11.4 billion euros with a global work force of about 64,500 employees.