BIKERUMOR.com 2009 SEA OTTER CLASSIC COVERAGE: Continental was showing three new aggressive freeride / downhill mountain bike tires that use their Black Chili compound.  The Kaiser (1000g) and Rain (950g) are both 26×2.50 and are intended for extreme freeride with huge, widely spaced knobs and reinforced edge knobs.  An angled view of their knob profile is below (left).
The Rubber Queen is their slightly less aggro knobby that comes in a 2.2 and 2.4 width (850g and 1050g, respectively) and in both folding and wire bead.
 
Another new tire is the Race King (above, left).  It’s an XC racing tire and is available in a wide variety of models, including wire and folding bead, regular and UST tubeless, and in a special SuperSonic iteration that’s intended for race day only, weighing in at 430g (26×2.0) to 480g (26×2.2).  UST versions weigh in at 650g and 700g for the same sizes.
They have a new version of their Continental Grand Prix road bicycle tire, too, with technology borrowed from their car and motorcycle tires.  Hit “more” to see that and learn what their Black Chili compound is all about…
The new Grand Prix has several new features over their existing Grand Prix line.  First, its 24mm wide to offer improved contact and comfort.  Next, it’s using the Black Chili compound rubber for better grip and longer wear life.  Lastly, it incorporates Continental’s new Poly-X casing.  Poly-X is a two-layer, densely woven polyester puncture protection belt that’s put into the tire’s casing.  Poly-X was derived from similar casings in Conti’s car and motorcycle tires.  Even with the width and puncture protection, the tire only weighs 230g.  At $45.00 mSRP, it’s a relative bargain among performance tires.
BLACK CHILI COMPOUND
Black Chili is Conti’s nano technology put into rubber.  Basically, they mill the carbon black, a component of rubber used in bicycle tires, down to a nano scale.  This filler is then used to make the butyl rubber.  Because of the scale of the particles, the rubber feels softer and grippier than regular, but gets longer wear life.  Conti says, versus normal bike tire rubber compounds, Black Chili tires have:
- 30% better traction
- 26% less rolling resistance
- 5% better wear
