Infinity tyres

[chrisjvm]

www.tyrereviews.co.uk

[sierraman]

Consensus seems remould winter tyres are a reasonable buy so long as you aren't driving round like you've been granted eternal life.

[forddeliveryboy]

^^ Years ago I had a pair of winter remoulds, needing kilos of balance weights to make them work. These you wouldn't have wanted to take above 75mph (I stuck below 55), they were horrid on tarmac. Steering, braking and grip all crap. Those in the image above are light-years away in every respect. If the sidewall says 118mph is the top speed, I'd be very surprised that the German market would allow them to have the odd fail at that speed. They run quieter and behave better than new Chinese tyres. The price doesn't really reflect the quality.

[sierraman]

Kingpin seems the name to go for, could get 2x 205 55 16 for £60, I would be curious to see how well remoulds have moved on.

[Station]

I have ditch finders on the front if the CRX and it has transformed a superb handling car into an ice skate esp in the wet! I took my mk3 astra diesel estate to nurburgring instead for that reason (as I didn't have time to get new tyres)

[explosive-cabbage]

Colway Twattys are the *best.

 

IMG_9594.JPG

 

I think remold Colway Snow tyres are the bees knees.

 

They grip fairly well in bad weather as the compound seems to be fairly soft, and are resistant to abuse.

 

The Colway I had on the other side of the Samara had a slow puncture that I had to blow up every week for about 4/5 months. I gave it some pain, as I work 5 day week, 10 miles away from my compressor, so it would deflate to almost flat in that time and on occasion I would have to drive home on the sidewall. This went on and on, getting worse and worse until I was literally driving on the rim. Of course one night it gave up on me and completely shredded, so I had to change it. I recon I had covered over 100 miles with it running on the sidewall or running flat in those few months, the bloody thing was virtually indestructable.

(The profile of Lada Samara and Niva rims are designed to be able to run flat, the tyre does not come off the rim or unbead when flat - but this makes it virtually impossible to change a tyre without a machine)

 

KruJoe got me some brand new 14inch Colway re-tread snow tyres for my 18th birthday, and they were BY FAR the best tyres I have ever had. They stuck like shit in the snow on the 205 TD.

 

I bought another pair of 13 inch M+S Colway remolds from eBay and they were pretty grippy too, and they have lasted years, still in use on our trailer, though almost bald.

 

Unfortunaltly Colway has gone out of business You can still get second hand tyres on eBay though

[gtd2000]

I've had mixed experiences with tyres....

 

Both Firestone (Firehawk S660) & Michelin (MXV) have been the absolutely worst grip scenario in the wet, I've ever experienced.

 

"Sunfil" Chinese ditch-finders that came on a brand new set of 17" alloys for my old Hyundai Coupe were excellent in the wet - I honestly thought I'd be going straight on when I came to a bend in the rain but they were as good as anything I've used before.

 

I would say that price shouldn't be the major reason to avoid a 25 quid tyre, this idea that more expensive is assurance of better performance or quality is not accurate. It makes it more likely of course but there's lots of things in life that are cheaper and perfectly acceptable or equal to much more expensive items. A lot of the cost in a more expensive item can be down to paying back all the marketing and advertising, rather than the actual cost of the product.

 

If the tyres are horrendous - at any price - then they should be avoided.

[gtd2000]

Remoulds, in my experience were simply false economy.

 

Half of the mileage, for perhaps 2/3 of the price - where's the logic in that?

[twosmoke300]

Second-hand remoulds off eBay. You really are king of the shiters Mr cabbage .

[Lankytim]

I fitted a Kinpin remould to the Inlaws Fusion, seems Ok but a week later I saw a chrysler neon in a scrapyard with identical tyres that looked new, but had perished and cracked to fook, presumably through exposure to sunlight.

[andy18s]

Kingpin seems the name to go for, could get 2x 205 55 16 for £60, I would be curious to see how well remoulds have moved on.

Go for 205 50 16. Much more choice around in that size.

I'm running the T5 on them,having just fitted another pair on the front.....

And Kingpin are just up the road from me if you want anything picked up

[lisbon_road]

Not entirely connected - one place I work the owner has bought a new Merc, about the size of the starship enterprise.

 

The tyres are 245/40 21.  Thats right, 21" tyres. 

 

I looked 'em up, £800 RRP.  That is £3200 a set, so if they last two years, that is about £32 a week, which I reckon some of us spend on food.

 

I suppose no-one pays the RRP but wow.

[Stanky]

Jesus, thats probably more than the total amount I've paid for all the tyres I've ever bought! I reckon the sum total is probably in the region of £700 for 16 tyres in 12 years of driving. for that I could get 80% of one tyre for the Merc.

 

though, to be fair, I suspect the new Merc probably cost more than I'll ever spend on cars in my entire life, so its all in proportion....

[Richard]

I've noticed a few newish meathead motors recently with very badly worn tyres, presumably because they are several hundred pounds a corner.

[dave21478]

I very highly recommend Uniroyal Rainsports - price wise they are pretty competitive and their handling and grip are bloody excellent.

 

On the pickup I have Insa Turbo Ranger remoulds, which are a chunky offroad tread pattern. They seem good, but were impossible to balance on the machine, so I added airsoft pellets inside the tyre for balancing which seems to work fine. Hard to give an evaluation on their wet grip though as the pickup is really tail happy in the wet no matter what tyres it has.

[Bobthebeard]

Had four Nexen N-blue Eco tyres fitted to the Prelude recently. Just under £200 all in. No dramas so far.

[Parky]

Uniroyals tyres are excellent, another vote from me. Nexen too do well in testing, they are Finnish I believe and know a thing or two about dodgy road conditions.

 

I am always surprised at how cheap Kumho tyres are. They are original equipment on Hyundai and Kia cars and are made in South Korea which nowadays is saying they are as good as Japanese brands

[Stanky]

The Solus KH17s fitted to my Nissan were very well priced when I bought them, I've just today rotated them as the front were a bit more worn than the back and noticed it said 'made in china' on the side. Presumably under licence? I thought they were made in Korea up until about 4 hours ago!

 

Still, they are pretty good - The dynamics* of the Nissan fall somewhat short of what the tyres could handle I suspect.

[lisbon_road]

Korean stuff is pretty good but I have been disappointed in the Hankooks on my Viva as they seem to have distorted.  Only bought them a few years ago, done just a few miles.  Car is on blocks now so perhaps they will move back into shape (dream on, right?).  The old Michelins it had didn't distort even though it sat on them for years without hardly ever moving.  They just turned to dust eventually.

[twosmoke300]

Honda tyres used to be about 800 quid each of you ordered them through Honda UK parts . Because every spare part must be supplied for a period of 10 years they have to list them. However they don't want to stock / deliver them so put a massive price on them so no one ever buys them.

[Honey Badger]

I've got 4 Bridgestone A001 all weather tyres on my coupe at the moment £80 per corner from a local fitter,they have been really good in all types of weather so far, they are quiet and they seem to stick to the road well if I'm being a little enthusiastic with the loud pedal.

 

Best thing is they are 205/55R16s so they have a nice fat sidewall to soak up the bumps from northamptonshires highly textured public highways.

[sierraman]

Had the Nankangs fitted, they seem fine though obviously must let them bed in before I can judge by so far so good!

[forddeliveryboy]

Some Chinese tyres are labelled M+S when in fact they're much more like all-weather tyres. Nankang used to (may still) do a decent tyre which lasted fine in UK summer but gripped well when cold and icy. Pirelli's cheap brand Marangoni used to be useless in the wet and cold since they were intended for warmer climes - Michelin's BFGoodrich are well suited to cold, damp Britain.

[Junkman]

All all-weather tyres are labelled M+S.

[Jim Bell]

I've just accidentally purchased something moderately powerful which boast 4 BRAND NEW INFINITY TYRES.

The seller said boldly with no trace at all of any irony or understanding.

[HH-R]

Throw them in the river Tyne ASAP when you get it

[Jim Bell]

I've bankrupted myself buying it so I'm gonna have to live with them.

[Vince70]

I've just taken one of my old cars in for its MOT and it went straight through again and it's running on infinity rubber.

The bloody things just won't wear out and have now been on the car for over 5 years now.

 

I think the tyres are made of some kind off indestructible non wearing rubber, when pulling away in the wet the things do make the car tramp, but I'm too tight to change them, but in the dry the things are ok.

[Parky]

In the dry there is nothing wrong with a harder rubber compound, it's purely in the wet when it matters - like locking all four wheels during an emergency stop as you head towards the child/nun with kittens/Petrol tanker is probably too late to think about whether a better tyre might have prevented the current predicament.

 

Ultimately if the tyres have limits, stay within them and you should be ok - its that idiot who pulls out in front of you unexpectedly who will test the limitations of what you have.

[Sigmund Fraud]

it's purely in the wet when it matters - like locking all four wheels during an emergency stop as you head towards the child/nun with kittens/Petrol tanker is probably too late to think about whether a better tyre might have prevented the current predicament.

 

Being the Devil's advocate again, but...

 

The children, nuns, kittens and the tanker off Duel would have been far, far safer, had you been driving an XQ57 AMG with 20" discs and 12 pot calipers all round, plus ABS+EBD+ESC+OMG.