Tyre quality

[sierraman]

I think it’s safe to say most are made in China. Generally if they are owned by a big tyre company they’ll be ok, like Barnum are owned by Continental.

[Barry Cade]

Can't remember if I posted it in the bikeshite thread, but I did a little experiment.. I had a 2018 Suzuki Vstrom. I got it at about 7500 miles and it had a pair of near new Metzler (pirelli) Tourances on them. Tyres I'd bought and liked before. I replaced them at about 13500 miles and they were quite hard, had quite a job getting them off the rims, very dry and starting to crack.Chinese made. I replaced them with another pair of new Metzeler Tourances, but these were German made and dated 2009...  Got them off a chap on marketplace, who bought the bike new with them on, and immediately took them off to put more street tyres on. They were stored correctly in the dark in a heated garage.I was told I was mad, I'd die and I was fu**in crazy. 

Those tyres were excellent, gripped, if anything, better than  the 2019 dated tyres, were far more supple when I fitted them and didn't give me a moments worry after I scrubbed them in. 

TLDNR: Old tyres are made with something different. You can Feel the difference. There is a lot of crap spoken about tyres.

 

 

[cort1977]

Tyres are like oil where everyone seems to have an opinion and there's a lot of opinion dressed up as fact.

I would agree that the formulation of tyres changes over the years, it certainly seems like they don't last as well as they used to, but the performance of new tyres continues to improve.  Perhaps the trade off for better new tyre performance is a shorter life and we need to get used to changing them more regularly?

This does not apply to Lada Niva tyres obviously which are made of granite.

[barefoot]

Although I have Continentals on my 944, everything else has been moved over to Barums & Hankooks. I've had no problems with either in ten years. I tried a set of Khumo's on the Porsche, but it destroyed them in about 7,000 miles. I've stuck with the correct N1 marked rubber on that car ever since.

[PhilA]

My last truck had General Ameritracs on from the factory, which lasted 6 months before I sacked them off for something with more grip in the wet- they were hard and starting to chip off on the edges of the tread, looking like a stone-age flint knife. Made in Korea.

Replaced with BF Goodrich ones which were made in the USA and they were night and day compared. Flexible, compliant, grippy. They did 56,000 miles in 10 years, by which time they were hard, useless in the wet and starting to craze and crack.

As stated above, name brands seem to matter where they are made.

I remember rubber inner tubes being stretchy. You could make slingshots out of them. These days they feel solid, like stretchy fudge, and fail at a significantly lower strain force, often without a smooth fracture edge, more one that looks like a cheap chocolate bar when you snap it.

Same goes for CV boots, hoses, wiper blades etc. All pretty terrible, no matter where you buy them from.

 

[sierraman]

Interestingly I’d like to see the number of fatal accidents attended to that were down to budget tyres as opposed to driving excessively fast for the conditions.

[Bren]

11 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

“ I know it will be the sidewall “

Radio silence when you take it off and it’s a nail in the tread ? 
 

 

Knackers. Given the remaining rear is down to 3mm they will both be getting replaced.

[warch]

7 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

Can't remember if I posted it in the bikeshite thread, but I did a little experiment.. I had a 2018 Suzuki Vstrom. I got it at about 7500 miles and it had a pair of near new Metzler (pirelli) Tourances on them. Tyres I'd bought and liked before. I replaced them at about 13500 miles and they were quite hard, had quite a job getting them off the rims, very dry and starting to crack.Chinese made. I replaced them with another pair of new Metzeler Tourances, but these were German made and dated 2009...  Got them off a chap on marketplace, who bought the bike new with them on, and immediately took them off to put more street tyres on. They were stored correctly in the dark in a heated garage.I was told I was mad, I'd die and I was fu**in crazy. 

Those tyres were excellent, gripped, if anything, better than  the 2019 dated tyres, were far more supple when I fitted them and didn't give me a moments worry after I scrubbed them in. 

TLDNR: Old tyres are made with something different. You can Feel the difference. There is a lot of crap spoken about tyres.

 

 

I’ve tried loads of different bike tyres and generally now go for Metzelers as my preferred choice especially racetec and sportec. I’m not sure they suit my bigger engined Triumph as much as my Honda, that was unreal to ride on a set of ex track day racetecs, you could really take the piss with lean angle and grip, the feel was so reassuring.

[catsinthewelder]

Well today I ripped a hole in the side of my Pirelli front tyre getting out the way of an Audi, it was flat within 2 minutes so I stuck the space saver on, nipped home to collect my Chinese winter tyres and got them fitted a little early.  I was going to keep the other Pirelli but my tracking must be out as despite 5mm of tread across 75% the inner edge was knackered.

[maxxo]

always used to be the type to only fit premium tyres

when i bought the C5, the previous owner had fitted a set of new Nexen N blue's i think

was thinking, oh no ditchfinders.......

well

they are absolutely excellent

really predictable, take a lot before they start to go and when they do it's very progressive and easy to control

very quiet too! no dry rot or anything (they are less than a year old however)

tread is around 4mm all round, they've done about 20k, i can live with that

[bunglebus]

Nexen and Kumho I think have involvement with race sponsorship, so presumably make fairly decent stuff.

It's the Linglong/Triangle/Achilles rubbish I don't trust.

[martc]

20 hours ago, sierraman said:

I think it’s safe to say most are made in China. Generally if they are owned by a big tyre company they’ll be ok, like Barnum are owned by Continental.

It's not safe to say most are made in China.

It's safe to say that most cheap, budget ditchfinders are made in China.

The vast majority of 'branded' mid and top range tyres are made in Europe, Japan or Korea. In general, manufacturers and tyre fitters are supplied from the nearest factory as they are expensive to transport (heavy and bulky).

Using your example above - Barums are still made in the original and recently expanded factory at Otrokovice in the Czech Republic.

Continentals tyre factories - note the factory in Puchov, Slovakia is another old iron curtain brand - 'Matador' often found on commercials and tractors.