Any recommendations for a long lasting, hard tire, with low wear characteristics?
Dunlop, Bridgestone, Vega, Hoosier?
What standard wheel / tire size should I be looking for both front and rear?
Thanks
What class/weight/engine?
KPV 100 cc engine - no class, no weight just building a kart to run laps
Compound wise, “Hard” offerings are:
Bridgestone YDS
Vega XH2
Hoosier R80 (coming soon)
MG HZi (AKA MG Red)
LeCont LO Red
If there’s a particular brand that’s popular near you, see if you can get the compound you wish to use.
The MG Red is the spec tire for KA in most orgs and it’s a solid tire with good longevity and grip. But if you’re going for durability, the B’stone YDS would be hard to beat. Those things last forever.
On a side note and not to hijack the thread, but why in the hell do tire manufacturers have so many codes for a tire. Wouldn’t it just make more sense and easier for everyone to have a standardized scale on the durometer of 1-10. 1 being softest. I know each tire manufacturer has a hardness scale to reference but just assigning them a number would be easier.
The brisgestones mentioned last a very long time. The lecont reds are much softer. (Unless there’s multiple versions of their reds).
Bridgestone YDS style compounds are the answer to costs in karting but no one wants to do it.
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There’s CIK designations for Hard, Medium and Soft. While not a number, it is something to group the tires together.
The ones I listed above were on the CIK hard list. One exception being the Bridgestone which I think is considered a “Duro” compound.
I think the Bridgestone CIK hard is YDS
I haven’t looked but bridgestone used to indicate if they were soft medium or hard by A,B,C after Y and a letter then went up every few years. So back in the noughties it was YGC, YGB, and YGA.
Mitas SRC were what we ran in F100 pre-95. It’s a funny thing really. If you get the right context you absolutely have to be on these kinds of tyres, otherwise you have no class. 100UK (historic TKM, yes I did just say historic TKM) run YDS in the UK too.
It’s a cultural thing and one that, with the right direction, can take root. But alas the motivation to make such changes is lacking.
Does Club 100 still run the YDS, that was basically historic tkm anyway.
The cheng shin tire was a good one too, basically the maxxis green from yesteryear.
In my opinion your entry level classes (LO206 here, TKM in the UK) should be running these 6month life tires.
I think they still run them.
I think the term is pluralistic ignorance that best describes the current situation with regard to soft tyres.