Where have all the tyres gone?

[Norvin racing]

New Dunlop Racing Sidecar 350x16 tyre wanted, no suppliers seem to have any in stock and they are not sure when they will have another delivery.
Has anyone a spare or any idea where I can get one, I'm not sure if there is an alternative one I could use.
Cheers
Ged

[mr.mrs.floppy]

Hersham racing,Ken Inwood, normally buys direct from dunlop,the current batch.If dunlop have not made any ,we used to use avon Am22/23 or metzeler{ can't remember the name} could be rennsport.It seemed to offend some in classic circles though they comply with the rules, treaded tyre with moulded rather that cut treads,but being race compounds the grip was outstanding,especially in the wet.The 16'' tyres were for the crop of Ducati's of late 80's with 16'' wheels,the front is low profile with the rear higher profile ,which speeds up the steering a little.
regards ian

[Norvin racing]

Thanks Ian, Ken at Hersham Racing has sold all of his stock! he told me people have been buying 3/4 tyres at a time. I have since been in contact with Dunlop and said they have stopped production of the 16 inch RS2. I am now looking in to an alternative tyre something like the Avon or going over to 10" wheeled outfit.
Ged

[Eddy Wright]

Dunlop have transferred production to France. I presume because there is a bigger demand for their tyres over there. They have not started production as yet. The shortage in the UK has been caused by panic buying, with reports of up to 8 pairs at a time being purchased over the closed season.

[tonybsa2008]

Do not see the point in panic buying.Your not going to use 8 sets of treaded tyres in a year,and when the tyre gets to 4 years old you need to throw it away,as it starts breaking down intenally,Only an idiot would use a tyre over 4 year old.

[666]

Tony,Last year we used 8 tyres, if we had gone abroad to the meetings we would have liked to that may have been another 4 tyres. Some peeps are heavy on tyres others are light.We have only enough for the first two meetings and a few that we got back out of the bin which may do a race or two if the driver goes gently. I wonder who did the panic buying?? nobody I know has done this, we all seem to be phoning each other trying to find some.

[tonybsa2008]

Wow! John,I am suprised by the tyre consumption,its heavier than the TZ!!! Mind we only do about 6 meetings a year.
So do you need to change all of the tyres at some point in the year?or just rears?

[Eddy Wright]

Hi Tony, The 16" outfits running Moorespeed Shortstoke 750s do two sets of tyres every three meetings and a chair tyre maybe every four. The corner speed and drift is more extreme than the fat bikes.

[666]

Tony, Its as Ed says, 2015 at lydden we destroyed a complete set.

[tonybsa2008]

Well you learn something new every day.

[Phil Davies]

A bit of info
The VMCC three wheeler driver Chris Chant was the reason the 16" tyres were made in the modern era - he worked at Dunlop at some time so knew the ear of the right person to talk to, despite the demand then, that was the only reason they were ever remade, he convinced 'the suits' that it was viable to remake them, and the fact that Dunlop had luckily not disposed of the original moulds - he got someone to look to see if they were still there (and they were to eveyone's amazement), that made the costings realistic.
Now that the production facility is in France there are two issues;
1) were the moulds for 'an obsolete tyre' taken from Birmingham to France and not scrapped,
2) finding today's version of 'the suit' to sanction a production run - assuming the moulds exist, if they don't, forget it.

The only way forward is for EVERYONE (here and abroad) that thinks they MIGHT need a 16" tyre sometime in the next 12 months needs to put money in an ESCROW account (so your money is safe and to show the factory that the costs are covered) and then get someone who knows the people/suit layers at Dunlop, like Ken, to approach the factory to propose a production run (that covers the amount held in ESCROW) the run may be a single or twice per season event in order to get your tyres.

That is the only way it will work - to concentrate 'a seasons needs' into a production run, because the comp tyre dept will be flat out servicing the MotoGP and modern day racing needs - because the production volumes are higher.

Just cross your fingers that the moulds made it from Birmingham to France!

[Norvin racing]

It could be a long wait then if the French have bought the moulds off Dunlop, for the time being what is the alternative? There are one or two 16" tyres on the market but not many with a good speed rating, Bridgestone 110/90x16 might be an option.......any thoughts? My other options are to retire the outfit for a while, go over to 10" wheels or join her indoors and take up knitting.

[Phil Davies]

Ged, it is worse that you think.
Dunlop has been owned by Good Year for a while - so Good Year own the moulds.

Year before last Good Year decided to move the entire Dunlop competition tyre production facility from the UK (Birmingham) to France, closing down the facility in Brum.
I think that the only production for Dunlop now in the UK is aircraft tyres, but that may well have gone to France as well at the same time.

I would suggest 'we' need to become Ken's best friend, as his contacts at the factory need to be actioned upon ASAP - the longer the wait elapses before a request for production of 16" tyres, the more chance there is of someone deciding that the moulds 'just cluttering up the place' are not needed and them being scrapped.

[ferrous_head]

Australian racers would be very interested in buy some. I would buy 12 myself if I could find them.

I have tried several other front tyres. Nothing else works as good. Was wondering if anybody made 3.5" slicks I could groove.

[steve reilly]

Hi All,
Andy Thomas one of the new sidecar crews to the CRMC (ex modern sidecar racer) has been working hard to come up with a solution, more info to follow but it will involve crews having to commit to quantities of tyres to ensure a commercially viable batch can be produced.