How Hutchinson Performance Tyres Are Made

At Hutchinson’s factory in France, performance tyres are still made in a way that feels unexpectedly hands-on.

Despite the scale of modern cycling, each tyre still begins as a collection of carefully prepared materials, rubber compounds, woven fabrics, reinforcement layers and bead structures, many of which are produced on site in Montargis. These materials are then brought together through a series of tightly controlled processes that define how a tyre will ride, grip, and perform.

The result is a system built around a simple idea: performance is not created in the final product, but in every stage before it ever reaches a rider.

The Secret Recipe: Mixing & Extrusion

Just opposite the tyre production facility sits Hutchinson’s mixing building — a space where rubber compounds are developed, not just for cycling, but also for aerospace seals, industrial components and precision engineering applications.

This in-house capability is what allows Hutchinson to refine its formulations continuously. Natural rubber, synthetic polymers, silica and carbon black are blended in carefully controlled ratios depending on the intended performance characteristics of the tyre.

This is where rolling resistance, grip and durability begin to be defined — long before a tread pattern is designed.

Extrusion

Once mixed, the rubber is transformed through a process known as extrusion.

Here, the material is heated (to a secret temperature), compressed and forced through a machine to form continuous ribbons of rubber. Think of it like a gigantic pasta machine. What begins as a dense, sticky compound becomes thin, consistent strips, ready to be applied to the tyre structure.

These strips will later become the tread and sidewall layers.

The Skeleton: 127 TPI & Woven Bead

The "carcass" is the unsung hero of ride quality. While budget tyres use heavy wire beads, Hutchinson weaves their own foldable beads on site from high-tenacity thread.

If the rubber defines performance, the carcass defines feel.

Beneath every tyre sits a structured fabric layer for flexibility and response. Using a unique 127-thread-per-inch fabric (crafted from 50% recycled materials), they create a casing that is remarkably light yet supple. Depending on the tyre model, multiple layers of this fabric may be used, increasing the TPI and tuning ride quality and durability.

Thick rubber compound ready for extrusion for tread, weaving machine creating bread, rolls of nylon casing with high TPI

Calendering: Making the Carcass

Depending on the tyre model the nylon casing is layered with more fabric and/or reinforced mesh. For example, the Hutchinson Caracal is formed with three layers of their 127 TPI nylon casing, whereas the Caracal Race tyre has one layer of nylon casing and is wrapped with their SwiftEasy Casing layer to maintain its lightweight properties.

The layers are passed through heated rollers in a process known as calendering. Hutchinson’s machine, which is nearly a century old, sits in its own room and runs twice a day. The material is slowly fed into through large rollers and monitored by technicians.

A thin layer of rubber is pressed into the textile, coating and bonding with the fibres to create a material that can hold air, withstand tension, and now looks more like a tyre carcass.

The History of Hutchinson: 130 year old tyre brand

Hand Cut and Assembly

This is where technology meets the human hand. The fabric, now impregnated with tacky rubber, is cut on a roughly 45-degree bias — depending on the carcass — before being bonded into long reels.

The orientation of the fabric is critical to its structural integrity. Laid at an angle beneath the tread, it delivers greater strength and improved ride quality.

We then watched a master craftswoman in a pressed blue Hutchinson coat operate a machine developed specifically by the company. This proprietary equipment is the only way Hutchinson can bond its lightweight carcasses to the tyre’s other components.

The 127 TPI casing is wrapped around the bead and bonded directly to a central puncture-protection strip and then tread, rather than overlapping the layers as in a conventional construction. This method improves rolling resistance by 10%.

A final casing layer runs bead-to-bead to ensure airtightness. Each tyre is assembled individually, with the woven bead, carcass and extruded rubber carefully layered by hand.

Hutchinson would not reveal the exact bonding process, only that conventional tyre machinery could not handle the lightweight carcass structure used in the new Blackbird Race, Caracal Race and Touareg Race tyres. After a final hand inspection, each tyre passes through a precision laser scan, capable of detecting microscopic imperfections. Only then is it ready for its final transformation.

The Magic of Vulcanisation

Once assembled, the tyre is a floppy loop, known as a ‘Green Tyre’.

It enters a CNC-machined metal mould — Hutchinson keeps a literal library of these, from 1990s MTB icons to the latest Caracal Race. For 90 seconds, high-pressure steam and sulfur 'cross-link' the molecules. The rubber hardens, the tread pattern is stamped into the surface, and the layers are fused into a durable, elastic material and shaped tyre is made.

A Note on Moulds

Over time, rubber residue builds up inside the moulds, and they must be carefully cleaned by hand to maintain precision. The cleaning can only be done by hand because there tyre treads are small and defined. It is a reminder that even highly industrialised production still depends on maintenance, skill and continuity.

A black tyre carcass being cut and bonded at an angle.

Hutchinson's distinct brown carcass on their proprietary machine, which wraps 127 TPI casing around the woven bead and puncture strip instead of overlapping these layers.

Hutchinson rubber tread ready for application to carcass.

A library of tread moulds.

Cleaning the moulds by hand.

Forming the lightweight carcass, tread and bead on a specially-developed machine.

Tyres with Hutchinson Gridskin mesh layered into carcass, hanging before vulcanisation.

Vulcanisation machine shapes the tyre at high heat for a few minutes.

A tyre laid on the machine ready for process.

4,000km of Torture

Before any Hutchinson tyre reaches your bike, it survives a seven-stage torture test.

In a building opposite the factory, tyres hammer continuously against rotating steel drums fitted with 2mm and 4mm impacts, designed to simulate broken roads and gravel tracks. Nearby, pressure rigs push tyres far beyond their intended limits to measure deformation, burst pressure and air retention.

Elsewhere, sidewalls are dragged repeatedly across abrasive surfaces, exposed to UV chambers and heat aging rooms, or left rolling for the equivalent of 4000km to monitor wear and consistency over time. Many of the machines run continuously for days.

The goal is not only to build a fast tyre, but one that remains consistent, controlled and reliable, long after it leaves the factory.

Modern Performance Range

Hutchinson’s latest generation of tyres represents a move away from the one-tyre-fits-all focus.

Hutchinson has done the impossible: they’ve created a 'race' range that is faster and lighter than the competition, while remaining competitively priced.

By keeping design, testing and production in close proximity, Hutchinson is able to refine performance continuously, moving quickly from prototype to production without losing control of quality.

And after seeing the process first-hand, it becomes clear that these tyres are not simply manufactured. They are built, tested, adjusted and refined — one at a time — in the same place they have been for generations.

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