swimmingly

esanmiguel, how's the noise with those tires? I've been looking for some cheap economy tires (my car won't be seeing anything more than city streets and freeways for the next couple years, why would I need performance tires?) but ideally, I'd like a tire that is quite. Let me know as to how they compare with your Dunlops.

Matt H

labor IS the driving factor.

FALSE

material cost differences between brands is almost negligilbe

FALSE

And treadwear numbers are meaningless. It is an arbitray number assigned by the manufactuer as a comparisson against other tires that THEY manufacture. It has no correlation to the treadwear number of another maker

100% true.
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User 462021

This is fun.

Kevin Baker

To say that matieral cost is neglible HAS to be incorrect. To say that it is true would mean that you could buy the raw materials to make say 4 tires at the same rate that Bridgestone can to make 4 thousand tires. Think about that can you buy eggs as cheaply as Kroger/Albertsons?

As far as the traction/treadwear ratings go. Those are based on DOT testing. Where the DOT has a "control" tire and other tires are tested and compared to the "control" A being the highest, C being the lowest. So a tire with an "A" traction will have a "best" overall, wet/dry traction. Note that in order to be considered for Mud Snow the tire will have a "M/S" designation after the size numbers.

A note on speed rating. As I understand it (and I'll be better educated soon) The speed rating has to do with the carcass of the tires ability to dissapate heat.

*Michael.*

For the most part only the cheapo bikes are made in China... Their upper end bikes are made in the USA.

esanmiguel

Swimmingly, the tires does not make any much more noise than the Dunlops. And the Dunlops are pretty quiet.

The tires I got is the Exocet R27. They are H rated (maybe thats why its cheap), they have a nice pattern (see pic below).

Sami951

I would guess any proper tire has enough grip to get you along on the street. I know I can take corners scary fast in dad's passat which has some boring "good enough for most" (=not high performance) Nokians for summer tires... but I haven't tracked that car, and most probably never will. For the 951 I would want something with more stick than the current GY Eagle F1's can give

Regarding labour costs, I'm not sure if this is a proper way of thinking ... but anyway, how long does it take to make one tire (dunno, but would guess just few minutes)? And how much of that is completely done by some machine (dunno, but would guess like 90%)? It sure feels like the price per one tire isn't that great no matter if labour is 5$ or 15$ an hour.

UDPride

Let the car and the driving do the talking. If they drive well and grip well on your car and under your guidance, thats all that really matters. Who cares about tire ratings if the ones on your rig give you nothing but smiles.

Matt H

As far as the traction/treadwear ratings go. Those are based on DOT testing. Where the DOT has a "control" tire and other tires are tested and compared to the "control" A being the highest, C being the lowest. So a tire with an "A" traction will have a "best" overall, wet/dry traction. Note that in order to be considered for Mud Snow the tire will have a "M/S" designation after the size numbers.

False

Every manufacturer grades their own product. It is not graded AGAINST anything. It is a subjective "score". The gradings can only be used to compare tires of the same brand and construction type. I.e. cannot compare a S-03 to a Dueler AT Revo using the numbers.

Esan - if you are comfortable with them then great, they were cheap because they are what we call a private label and because they are H rated.
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Matt H

As far as the costs to obtain the materials being about the same that CAN be true if we are talking about raw material costs.

That being said, there is a hell of a lot of difference in cost between the amount of money that BFS and Michelin and others spend on items like Carbon Black, Silicas, etc. Reason being is that they use more of the chemicals per tire (as the chemicals are what "basically" distinguish tires). There is also a difference in cost from a tire with a rim protector to one without one. If it were the labor costs then ALL tires would be made in Mexico/China/India and the like. As that is not even close to true it should be obvious that labor costs are not that much different (yes it does cost more to make tires in the US thanks to USWA).

BLAH BLAH BLAH, I am sure no one cares but if needed I will go further.
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Kevin Baker

See, I told you I would be learning more soon.

Rich Sandor

Kevin: I read in "Christopherus" that treadwear ratings are given to tyres by thier own manufacturers. The method they use is to take the tyre in thier product line that has the median tread wear, and then apply a value to the tyres that wear faster or slower based on that median tyre. A treadwear rating for Dunlop will have no correlation to a treadwear rating of Michelin.

Esan: If you think those $60 tyres hold the road well, how well do you think a set of $150 tyres will hold? Remember: Porsche + Frugal do not mix.

User 462021

Matt,

Your knowledge is amazing! I can't wait till I know half as much as you do. I love this field!


People, you would be surpised of the amount of technology in some tires. It really is fascinating.



Tim (strives to be like Matt)

David Ray

"No one will convince me the Kumhos arent JUNK. I dont care about the race tires, the 712 and MX are garbage. Pray that the rain never touches the ground. That being said I do have experience with the Kumhos and I have a brand new spare for my BMW that is a Kumho. Wanna know why? You got it, cuz they are cheap!" Matt H

In Socal pay $117 for the Kumho Victoracers (225/50 vr-15). You won't regret it and they DO last!