What tires do you have left ?

[Fred]

Just looking at the reasonable priced tire for 2021 .. John Kwong tested the Maxxis tire during the 3 hour Enduro and it held up really well and performed better than the Vega Green (his opinion) he later tried them on his shifter. 7.1 rears with a bigger contact profile.
He believes you would only require 1 or 2 sets maximum a season and at €99 / set (roughly $228 shipped and landed )
I believe this is the way the class should go for 2021 but need to know what greens everyone has left to use up (I dont think anyone has new sets) so we can decide either way please contact JK for his appraisal and let's see if this is a good way to go.
Feedback !!

[phil]

I think the VLR should, at the very least, be on the same tire as some other classes, and also at a similar grip level to the Vega Greens. They are fun to drive, and easy on the body, but if you start adding grip, that could change. I currently have one new set of Greens, but they can be put to use somewhere else if there's a change.

Phil

[CamW]

I would interested running 7.1 rears. What would be the issue going back to Mojos? (same as Rotax) Cam

[elmt1]

I still have a new set of Vega Green tires and a new set of 6" wheels that I never got to use. I bought the 6" wheels because it was so hard to get the Vega tires to seat on my 7.1" wheels. I bought them and had them shipped to the US from Canada when I thought I was going to be able to cross the border this year.

I would prefer to use a more standard size tire size and ran Bridgestone YLR tires this year at the Montana track, which I believe are somewhat of a VLR standard. That track in Montana does seem to chew up tires and I was only getting about 2 hours on a set, but other people were getting similar results with other tire brands (they don't have a standard and the only rule was you had to run the same set for the day). For me, it would be fine to switch, and hopefully I could sell the Vega Green tires and 6" wheels that I have without too much of a loss or just use the tires up at test and tune.

[kolsen]

I'm pretty much done for tires - so I have to buy new for next year anyway. I'm easy either way (Vegas/Maxxis)

If we do go for Maxxis, we should as a group do a bulk buy and see if we can get a better price on say 20 sets, and save on shipping...

Keith

[dvelpel]

I have a couple thought on this.... but for the original question, I have nothing usable for next year. I have 3 sets of MaxOne Vega Greens that are all done (1 set from briggs, 1 set from VLR, and 1 from 2019 Briggs season which I used on the last vlr race this year)., going to find the best of them to basically validate everything is working during the first T&T next year.

• I like the comment from Phil that it would be nice to use the same tires as another class, adds to the value proposition, and the grip seems like a nice balance... keeps the edgy rotax class at bay.... need to stay 5-7 sec behind them

• I would like to align with ROK/Vortex regulation is some fashion. With Bridgestone stopping karting tire production this may be a good time to pivot. If its not aligning to ROKUSA, then what is are others in Canada running? (Goodwood running MaxOne Vega Blue 6.5 in there VLR series?) this may be an opportunity to host ROK based events with other clubs...

• I don't think aligning to MOJO's makes sense due to that its somewhat a competitor (rotax<>vortex) but not apposed to it. I have no experience with MOJO's so cant speak to the reliability/consumption of them.

• Whatever tire we do land on, I would like to ensure that its readily available, this year was exceptional, but you cannot buy MaxOne Vega Greens anywhere that I've seen... You can by Vega Greens but they are not the same profile as the MaxOnes.

• As Cam mentioned, open to 7.1 rear and assuming this would be the result of us switching to anything, as its mostly the standard rear size

These are just my thoughts. Not all points can be satisfied as based on the first point it would assume that we will continue using MaxOne Vega Greens or move to Mojo's which conflict with the remaining points in some fashion... I would consider Maxxis or actual Vega Greens or whatever ROK lands on. I would be interested in participating in a group buy.

Ultimately, lets keep it fun, safe, and cost effective.

d

[John Kwong]

I purchased the Maxxis Sport tireshttps://www.mondokart.com/en/tires-tool ... acing.html for the enduro event this year for two reasons.
1. They were a good price. $235 CAN (taxes and brokerage landed at my front door 4 days after I ordered them)
2. I wanted to do a tire experiment

If you buy 12 sets they will give an additional 5% off. I am absolutely sure anyone could do the season on 2 sets of tires. It is rare in karting that we get a chance to use a consumable product that performs well and lasts a long time.

Here are the pics I took today of the tires after 190 laps of use on my DC-One/Briggs entry (5 laps of practice, 171 in the enduro and 15 laps on my shifter).
Each raceday we do a maximum of about 40 laps. These Maxxis tires still have a ton of life in them and did not fall off at all.

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I understand the argument for wanting to use a tire that another class uses to be able to economize between Briggs and VLR. I did this myself when the Briggs were last on the Mojo tire. I can see the Vega Green possibly going away and the Briggs will be on the Mojo to coordinate with EDRKA. The only advantage I see to the VLR class following Briggs onto the Mojo is local availability. I think using the MOJO D2 with the 7.1 rear will be a lot more grip for the VLR than they had this year.

When I tried these Maxxis tires on my shifter they were slower to warm up than Vega Whites which was to be expected but the grip level did come in and I was able to do very competitive laps with a best of 53.03 on a T&T night level of grip. I did 3 sessions of 5 laps each. After doing the testing on my shifter the Thursday after the enduro, I realized that we ran way too much pressure at 12 front and 13 rear. I torture tested them and went down to 7 lbs in the front and 9 lbs in the rears to see if I could get them to overheat which they did not. They just kept getting better.

I don't have any vested interest in promoting the Maxxis Tires, I just wanted to share my experience as information for others to consider since we are looking at what tire to use for next year.

John K

[kolsen]

Since one of the key objectives is cost effectiveness, I'm throwing a vote for Maxxis!

[Jen and Don]

I'm wondering if it might be a good choice for Carter to get a few sets of the Maxxis for his shifter next year as he will probably only do practice for the first part of the season? Is that worth looking into also John? Or will the shifter be too hard on that tire? We are super green in the shifter class so need all the advice we can get. More people we get to go in on bulk buying the better the savings all around. Don Gibson

[John Kwong]

Hi Don,

I think the Maxxis Sport would be fine for what you have planned. Putting these tires on my shifter was purely out of curiosity to see how they would perform and if they would degrade or start shredding from the extra abuse that a shifter puts on a tire. Considering these tires already had 170+ laps on them, they performed better than Vega White tires that had 80 laps on them. So, I was driving on these at what would normally be considered past their prime time while achieving competitive lap times and the kart still felt pretty balanced handling wise.

Maxxis also makes two other compounds that would be comparable to the Vega White and Vega Green(not the Max Green), which I am interested in trying next year.

John K