BlackChili compound is exclusively manufactured at the Continental factory in Korbach, Germany, combining the very latest polymers with specially developed carbon black particles and filler materials. And both cars and bikes benefit from this technology. Fitted to a bicycle, tires with BlackChili give riders supreme confidence whether they’re tumbling downhill on a mountain bike or time-trialing on a road bike. Fitted to a car, drivers can expect maximum grip during acceleration, cornering, and braking on wet or dry roads.

The improvement is dramatic. But don’t just take our word for it. The professional cycling elite has long relied on this exceptional tire compound. Geraint Thomas and Team Sky have won the world’s biggest bike race, the Tour de France, using Competition Pro LTD tires made from BlackChili. And for this year’s edition of Vuelta a España, seven out of the 22 teams taking part in the three-week race around Spain are using BlackChili compound in their hand-made tires.

IT’S ALL ABOUT HOW YOU MIX IT
 
 
So how did this legendary compound come into being? At the Continental R&D labs in Korbach, our heroic team of engineers grapple with one of the fundamental problems of tire construction. Essentially, the running properties of a rubber compound of a tire are determined by three co-dependent factors:

• Grip
• Rolling Resistance
• Mileage
   

The challenge is that when you make improvements in one area, there’s a performance penalty in at least one other area. A compound which offers maximum levels of grip, for example, will wear out faster and roll slower. Conversely, a compound optimized for higher speeds or greater durability has a reduced ability to grip.

The BlackChili compound is different because it takes advantage of the latest innovations in polymer and other raw material research. For the first step, we refine proven natural rubber with special synthetic rubbers into a high-performance tread mixture. Next, the mixture is combined with special nanometric carbon soot particles. Finally, the surface and shape properties are optimized for the best use case of the tire.

The result is that BlackChili compound provides a truly unprecedented level of performance. Compared to Activated Silica Compound – our previous best performer – BlackChili tires have 30% higher grip, 26% less rolling resistance, and 5% increase in mileage. The speed and grip advantages are readily apparent, applied to either a bike or a car tire.

Furthermore, the science behind BlackChili is in constant development; we can adjust the formulation of the compound to match individual requirements of new Continental tires rolling out of the factory in Korbach. In other words, it’s possible to tailor the tire to the specific needs of the vehicle. The compound technology is so sensitive and complex, however, that BlackChili cannot be manufactured anywhere else in the world.

Source: Continental