This video from Vittoria shows the manufacture of their tubular tires.
The tires shown in this video are “tubular” tires and are mostly used for track racing and professional road racing. As shown in the video, the tire casing is sewn around the tube.
The tire most cyclists are familiar with are “clinchers” — these are the usual bike tires where a tire is mounted over a tube on a bike rim. In spite of the extra effort required to repair and mount tubulars, they’re used in pro racing because, historically, tubulars have been lighter and safer than clinchers.
hi Richard,
I had the opportunity to visit a Continental Tires factory here in Germany a while a go and also did some video of their regular tire and tublar tire production. The amount of (manual) work and knowledge required to manufacture something basic like a bicycle tire is really underestimated…
–> http://www.mtb-news.de/news/2009/04/25/2150-video-schwarze-magie-so-werden-mtb-reifen-hergestellt-zu-besuch-bei-continental/
Cheers
Thomas
Thanks for that, Thomas. And you’re right – the manual labor involved is surprising.
schwalbe had a great video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9RzJAWvOMQ
So many cool bike videos! Thanks for that.
Fascinating video. It’s amazing to see the number of steps and the amount of manual labor that goes into making these high end tires – no wonder these can run for upwards of $100 a piece!!