Anyone use Retro tyres?

[Davey]

Sept 30, 2024 22:29:24 GMT ChasR said:

Sept 30, 2024 10:22:25 GMT Davey said:

[The company beginning with L are the particular concern... They claim to use modern materials but the patterns and casings don't suit the modern rubber and cause all kinds of issues. Also being manufactured by companies that specialise in remoulds also raises some flags with me, I don't have issues with remoulds but the technology required is markedly different.

The Nankang may be available direct through some weird channels but I can see all of their current UK open stock and they aren't part of it.

I currently run Kumho PS71's on the 1 series, find them hard to beat quality wise let alone price and trust me when I say, i have been exposed to and used pretty much every OE option on the market... I am a tedious bore when it comes to tyres.

This may indeed become a little boring, but it's always good to hear some perspective.

It would be interesting to hear what issues it would cause. I know the chap in question has said only the Michelins and Pirellis have a good carcass compared to the cheaper tyres, which flies in the face of what is said above. It wouldn't surprise me however if it was the case that things aren't as they seem.

I tried mid-range stuff on a load of cars in the past, when I did big miles (my dad and I used to do 10k a month, so alot of things became familiar), and bar a couple of tyres, I couldn't get on with them and sometimes even partially sold cars due to them, and even my sister, a non tyre-snob non-car person could tell the difference between Landsails and Goodyear F1 A3s, and berated my dad and I for sticking with the Landsails to 'wear' them out ; to her, it seemed mad to save a 'little' when you can make a car drive alot nicer with decent rubber, but I can hear the other side of the argument, at times.


That's not to say none have satisfied me (Kumho V70As were fantastic, and the Nexen NBlue, if the poor wear can be lived with on the latter).

But even the Premium stuff can come undone. the PS4Ss did on the M3, but that may partially have been down to me .

Strange you mention PS4's. the Kumho's on the 1 series replaced PS$'s, although they lasted well they had some very unusual tramlining as they wore and made the car feel very very twitchy!

Landsail are or used to be the biggest selling budget brand in the world and the factory has contracts with Boeing even so you can't compare with the likes of Goodyear in reality.

I wont go into to much detail with the issues, but a very quick google will reveal all kinds of fun problems, Casings deforming, tread delaminating, excessive wear and unpredictable handling to name a few. They are however an old tyre design and some of this is of course down to that but 21st century rubber on 20th century design casings don't seem to play together awfully well.

[adam73bgt]

Oct 1, 2024 9:00:07 GMT Davey said:

Sept 30, 2024 13:28:40 GMT adam73bgt said:

I'm curious now as Michelin and Pirelli both seem to show classic tyres on their official websites so are you saying its not them making them?

Are they farming out the manufacturing work to someone else?

Or are there other companies making unofficial reproductions of old designs alongside the official efforts from the original brands?

I am under the understanding that the majority are made by the below and similar entities. Pirelli and Michelin factories are working at pretty much capacity all the time for their new ranges so the niche, low volume stuff goes elsewhere. You will note the Pirelli also listed.

Yeah that's fair enough, I had assumed there wouldn't be much room on their full volume production lines to do the occasional run of classic tyres, so outsourcing the production makes sense.

When I've looked up classic tyres before I've always thought the Michelin's/Pirelli's and the like were making them on some low volume line or squeezing them in amongst modern tyre production somehow and those other companies were just distributing them.

I haven't really got anything that I'd put vintage style tyres on (except for Dunlop tyres on my bike) but it's interesting to know anyway

[hoopsontoast]

Following with interest as I'll be after a set of 175/70/R13s for my Dolomite and new options are getting slim outside lucky-dip brands and the Michelin/Pirelli/Avon/Dunlop classic style reproductions.

[akku]

So I went to Ultimate Stance today and I got talking with the guys at Nangkang who had a stand there.

"Ah, thats a story... This fella in Germany wanted us to make some tyres to his requirements, based on a set of moulds he would pay for, and that they would be his brand. The first batch went out with Retro Tyres by Nangkang on them and he got upset, required us to remove the Nankang name from the sidewall and packaging, which we did. We are still making them, but we don't sell them outselves"