Have spent the last few weeks chasing up the other tyre manufacturers. Who all do use animal grade. Spoke to Mark Gibson today, to double check(as they are the only one-and to see if he hadn't made a mistake) He confirmed he had double checked with his Head Office in Germany and this was defnatley the case.
Going to have a chat with Vegan Society as I said. Going to ask them to write back to the other Tyre manufacturers informing them of what Michelin do and ask if they will look at the non animal grade for their Stearic Acid. Explaining the benefit of potential customers
from the ever increasing Vegan community etc.
good work fella. i assume the enquiry/response was about automotive tyres - i wonder if the 'ingredients' extend to the pushbike tyres they make (i use michelin pro-3's)...
"No se deja de pedalear cuando se envejece. Se envejece cuando se deja de pedalear"
The correspondance to all the tyres manufacturers was done on their individual websites on the enquries/customer requests section. This generates a email response. The exact wording to all was as follows.
I'm doing some research into your tyres ingrediants. Can you tell me whether the Stearic Acid used in the Production process is food grade/vegetable derived or is it non food/ animal derived.
All replies were then followed up with- Are there any other animal derived ingrediants used in your tyres or the Production process.
To question 1- only Michelin answered 'no'- as in posted email.
To question 2- all answered no. (Apart from continental, who got snotty and refused to answer any more questions)