5 50 | March 2024
MINUTES WITH...
Challenge Tires is a familiar name in the cyclocross world but the brand has a range of products for many disciplines. BikeBiz learns more from UK and Ireland brand manager Andy McAteer
Can you give us a little background on Challenge?
Challenge is a relatively young company formed in 2000. We produce in our own factory high-end handmade performance tyres from the very best sourced natural rubbers, combined with the highest quality silk, cotton, polyester and latex. Family owned since the beginning, Challenge have been a leading designer and innovator in handmade bicycle tyres and are proud to have many World Champions, particularly in cyclocross, ride on our tyres around the world. The company roots are in Italy with the factory as close to the source of the rubber as possible in Thailand which is also where the expertise in producing handmade bicycle tyres is. We only produce bicycle tyres, ensuring that our focus on development and production is concentrated in this one area.
What area of the market do you target? We are very much focussed on the riders who are looking for the best in performance and ride quality, and our tyres cover
all disciplines including road, track, gravel and cyclocross. We offer our tyres in all fitments, including Handmade Clincher (H-CL), Handmade Tubeless Ready (H-TLR), Handmade Tubular (H-TU) as well as Handmade Tubeless Tubular (H-TLTU).
This ensures that no matter what the riders preference is, we have a tyre that is suitable for their requirements.
What makes the products unique? The handmade construction of the tyres is our unique selling point. It is very much an artisan process and labour of love from our team in the factory where real care goes into producing each tyre by hand.
The result is a tyre that, when compared to the more common vulcanized construction, has a much higher TPI (Threads Per Inch) rating which delivers not only an incredibly comfortable ride due to the suppleness, but also improved cornering dynamics, grip, and puncture protection, as well as offering a reduced rolling resistance.
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