MILAN (BRAIN) — Pirelli has released the Scorpion XC RC racing tire that will be part of its mountain bike line.
Returning to cycling in 2017, Pirelli debuted its mountain bike tires in February 2019. At the same time, the company signed a technical partnership agreement with the Trek Pirelli team.
Developed with the team's input, the new tire is created to meet the needs of its riders, including Vlad Dascalu and Samuele Porro. Dascalu is a European champion, world champion and World Cup winner XCO U23. Porro is an Italian national champion, silver medalist at the European Championships and bronze medalist at the World Championships in the XCM category.
Porro asked Pirelli engineers for a tire oriented toward Olympic cross-country races but also with excellent performance in the XCM events. In October 2019, Porro and his teammates received the first prototypes and were tested during training camp in Calpe, Spain. Porro also tested them in a training session on the track of the Cape Epic in South Africa.
The tires are tubeless ready with a 120 TPI nylon-casing construction. Available in Lite and ProWall versions for increased puncture protection, they combine Pirelli's proprietary technologies found in the Scorpion MTB range, starting with the SmartGRIP compound. Derived from Pirelli's experience in motorsport, SmartGRIP Compound is a mono-compound.
The tread design incorporates characteristics derived from the Scorpion XC H (Hard) and the Scorpion XC M (Mixed) and re-engineered for more direct and precise handling. The blocks in the center of the tread resemble the Scorpion XC H profile but are lower and closer to improve the smoothness on straight sections. And the half-fold and lateral blocks have the shape and sharp angle of the Scorpion XC M profile.
These revisions were made to maximize grip at different lean angles. The profile with more aggressive sides and a smoother center makes the Scorpion XC RC an option for modern technical Olympic cross-country tracks.
The Scorpion XC RC is available in the 29x2.2 version, also in the Team color variant with yellow logos. It expands Pirelli's Scorpion MTB range.
- XC, with profiles: RC (Racing), Rear, Mixed, Soft, Hard.
- Trail, available with M, S, R and H profiles.
- Enduro, available with M, S, R profiles.
Globally, among the LITE, ProWall, Classic (with Para sides) and Team (with yellow logos), Pirelli's MTB lines features 37 versions with sizes starting from 29x2.2 to 27.5x2.6.
For more information, go to velo.pirelli.com.
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Pirelli unveiled the Scorpion XC RC racing tire.
