PIRELLI PRESENTS THE SCORPION XC RH: THE FASTEST MTB RACING TYRE IN ITS CROSS-COUNTRY RANGE
100% Made in Italy, manufactured at Pirelli’s Milan-Bollate plant with FSC™ certified natural rubber*
Chosen by the athletes of Pirelli’s partner teams, including Samuele Porro, who rode it to a silver medal at the Marathon World Championships in Valais
The SCORPION XC RH completes Pirelli's XC range
Milan (Italy), 7 October 2025 – Pirelli launches the SCORPION XC RH, a 100% Made in Italy mountain bike tyre, manufactured at its Milan-Bollate plant with FSC™ certified natural rubber*.
The SCORPION XC RH completes Pirelli’s Cross Country premium range, joining the ranks of the RC and M models, which have been recently launched on the market.
Designed for today’s modern and spectacular Cross-Country competitions, where top speed is just as vital as bike control, the new RH (Racing Hardpack) is built for races where rolling efficiency is the top priority. Optimized for predominantly compact terrain, it offers reliable grip and handling when cornering on mixed surfaces.
With Pirelli’s now famous “Prototype” label, the RH has already been used by the company’s partner teams. The Alpecin-Deceuninck, Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC, BMC Factory Racing and Klimatiza Orbea teams have tested it in various important races, ranging from the Les Gets World Cup to the World Championships in Valais and Crans-Montana. In Valais, Samuele Porro (Klimatiza Orbea) decided – surprisingly, given the little time he had to test them – to run SCORPION XC RH tyres front and rear in the XMC race at the 2025 Marathon World Championships, eventually finishing as Vice World Champion.
RACE COMPOUND AND SPECIAL TREAD DESIGN
The secret behind the new SCORPION XC RH lies in its tread design and, above all, in a tailor-made formulation of the RACE XC compound. This combination of an innovative compound and a racing-oriented tread pattern, low in the centre with pronounced side knobs, allows the tyre to deliver record-level rolling efficiency, offering both exceptional speed and precise control.
The RH’s tread features a wide, compact central band with closely spaced, low-profile knobs, delivering outstanding rolling efficiency while still absorbing vibrations and maintaining excellent grip on the terrain. The aggressive shoulder knobs, directly inherited from the SCORPION XC RC model, provide exceptional cornering traction, a common weak point in ultra-fast tyres. The differentiated tread profile across the centre, transition, and shoulder zones maximizes straight-line efficiency while giving riders full confidence during fast, technical turns.
The SCORPION XC RH features the new RACE XC compound, with a formulation specifically optimized for the RH model to meet the project’s core objectives: maximum speed and precise stability. It was carefully calibrated by Pirelli technicians who work on compounds, from Motorsport to Cycling, combining ultra-fast rolling performance with good chemical grip – crucial on compact terrains and mixed-race conditions - to deliver superior results, even when pushing to the limit. The RACE XC compound represents Pirelli’s ultimate expression of off-road speed for Cross-Country racing and is today the highest-performing compound in the company’s MTB range.
Internal lab testing has shown that the new SCORPION XC RH is the fastest model of Pirelli’s entire Made in Italy XC range, and that it is more than 40% faster than the old RC model.
LITE AND NEW PROWALL CASINGS
Like the SCORPION XC RC and M models, the new RH tyres are available with two high-performance casing options: the classic LITE and the redesigned ProWALL. The ProWALL features a new fabric layout - still 120 TPI Nylon - with reinforced sidewalls for maximum protection and stability.
The new SCORPION XC RH tyres are already available at leading cycling shops and online, in the 29x2.4 size, with graphics in the standard and Team Edition versions.
*The percentage of natural rubber out of the total weight of the tyre is equal to about 17% for the LITE version and 20% for the ProWALL version. Natural rubber is the product’s most important component – FSC™ licence N003618. The FSC™ logo guarantees that the natural rubber used by Pirelli comes from responsibly managed forests, protecting the environment, biodiversity, workers’ rights and local communities.