News: Pirelli Tires Start Bicycle Tire Production In Italy
Sat 12th Mar, 2022 @ 3:30 pm
Pirelli Tires Start Bicycle Tire Production In Italy
The Pirelli plant in Bollate, Italy, has started producing Pirelli cycling tyres, thus becoming the only factory to make industrial scale, “Made in Italy” bike tyres. The historic facility is just a few kilometres from Milan and was opened by Pirelli in 1962. It has been undergoing a modernisation and overhaul process for some time to accommodate the production of Pirelli Cycling’s top-of-the-range lines.
The plant will be dedicated to the production of high-tech tyres, including all the models of the P Zero Race family, in its updated version featuring the “Made in Italy” brand, already available for purchase since March. The Bollate factory will be manufacturing both tyres for amateurs and tyres for the athletes of some of the cycling teams of the highest UCI category, including Trek-Segafredo, UAE Team Emirates, AG2R Citroën, and MTB teams such as Wilier Triestina-Pirelli and Canyon CLLCTV-Pirelli, all already Pirelli partners who play an active role in developing the Pirelli tyres. Moreover, the plant’s proximity to the Pirelli Headquarters and to the R&D department will be an accelerator of the development of Pirelli’s future cycling products.
Being the leading developer of Ultra High Performance car tyres on the market has enabled Pirelli to apply its consolidated expertise in the innovative process world to bike tyres. The Bollate factory is truly unique in this sector and innovation is present at all levels: not only in process automation, which guarantees extremely high-quality reliability and geometrical precision to the product – which is an even more important factor when it comes to a bike tyre, given its small size and light weight – but also, for example, when it comes to semi-finished products, here Pirelli tested a unique extrusion system, which also helps reach absolute geometrical and weight precision; and finally its compounds, developed with a continuous mixing system. Each process has been devised in accordance with the specific features of Pirelli Cycling tyres, with the highest safety standards and with high automation; thanks to the CE certified machinery combined with the consolidated expertise of the Pirelli employees, this will guarantee the necessary quality to turn the final products into benchmarks.
Pirelli is also carrying on its renovation of the spaces dedicated to its employees, to offer them a pleasant environment for them to work in. There will be a complete restyling of the buildings and of the exteriors, with a more contemporary style. The result will be a modern and efficient industrial complex that is well-integrated into the surrounding urban setting, thus enabling it to produce tyres based on the highest quality standards and the Pirelli performances the market is already well familiar with. Pirelli has started manufacturing the first tyres, while the complete renovation of the industrial plant is expected to be completed by early 2023.
“We are very satisfied with the new look and function of the Bollate factory, thus bringing back to Italy part of the production of cycling tyres, even more so this year as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the company. To us, bicycles have a great historical and symbolic value: bike tyres were the very first tyres Pirelli ever produced and today we are bringing back this part of our business to just a few kilometres from our headquarters. Moreover, the Bollate project enables us to add value to the local territory, with measures aimed at turning Bollate into a modern and sustainable plant, and its surrounding environment along with it”, stated Andrea Casaluci, General Manager Operations at Pirelli.
