Foam Tire Prices
 

Why are thes prices goin through the roof. I mean if I want a premium tire like Capricorn or tabata or contact or zac. Etc. The price is like 28 to 34 bucks. Privateer price. Insane. Motors too. Do they need to be 700 plus. Ridiculous. Manufacturers are killing the sport. Just my opinion.

Look around before bagging the manufacturers, I'm not seeing the prices your complaining about where I shop...

I think this is mostly due to the weak Dollar.

Tire prices actually went down quite a bit over here last year, at least for sedan foams.

The engine prices are that high, because we are willing to pay.
I get really angry when I compare the prices of on road engines to off road engines.

There's simply no difference in technology between the two that would justify the price differences.

They come off the same CNC machines and are made of the same materials.

The only difference between onroad and offroad engines. The manufactures put alot more RD into onroad engines trying to get every bit of performance out of the engine. We ask alot more performance out of an onroad engine when you consider run time, torque and speed. The manufacturers are just trying to re-coupe there engineering time.

But I agree; the cost of onroad engines is ridiculous. That is one of the main reasons I will not switch to 1/8 onroad. IMO...


Pass you soon...

You dont remember the days when a set of SEDAN tires were $30? These days sedan tires can be had for less than $20. I wasnt racing 1/8th back then, but there was a time when tires were about $50 a set. The tires you talk about are a bit more expensive because there has been advances in materials, the new tires with carbon in the plastic are going to cost more simply because a material(carbon) has to be added.

I actually think its less expensive to race now, than it was 3 years ago.

As most of tires and engines are coming from/made in Europe and Asia. Dont expect prices to go down any time soon.

Pretty soon the dollar will be worth as much the peso!

Just check out 5 year trend of euro and yen versus dollar. Dont need a degree in economics to see that rc racing is going to continue to get more expensive.

http://www.google.com//finance?chdnp...:USDEUR&ntsp=0

Onroad vs Offroad prices has more to do with volume and what market will tolerate.

Good luck selling a 700$ offroad engine but I bet you could sell a 2000$ onroad engine.

+1 I see the same thing. Also don't forget offroad buggy tires are NOT cheap, a set of good tires will run you 50$ easy and are good for 1 to 2 weekends from what I understand.

We demand performance, that costs money to engineer.

I agree with Jamie.

Also, I wouldn't pay much attention to the what some guys post. They really have no idea what they are talking about!!! Tires are cheaper now than 5 years ago.

The dollar is weak and will get weaker if Obama does not change they way he thinks. RC, like everything else will cost more in the future.

:nod::nod:

dont know bout u, but i dont see any r&d todays motors are not any faster then the jp's and carlsens of years ago and i only see run time getting worse, i think todays clutches made these motors faster if they got faster and the banging clutches also kill the run time so they didnt spend on r&d, i agree no diff with the offroad motor, im running a tero nero team edition mod for onroad and its whooping ass all over!!!

pooh u probaly dont spend much on tires judging on your lap times of late, dont think u go fast enuff to were a set out!! lol

Okay.:)

Last season. Grp was 2 to 3 bucks cheaper. As were jaco / exceed. All the new tires with the hybrid carbon rim are great but not cheap. When you run every weekend. Not bashing. And not starting a rally against anyone. Just wanted to see if anyone else noticed.

Hey Jack,

It could be where you are shopping. Tires are cheaper if you shop around for better prices you WILL find cheaper tires. Most GOOD hobby stores have tires and good prices. Hope this helps!

Last season. Grp was 2 to 3 bucks cheaper. As were jaco / exceed. All the new tires with the hybrid carbon rim are great but not cheap. When you run every weekend. Not bashing. And not starting a rally against anyone. Just wanted to see if anyone else noticed.

Pooh. Your absolutely right. Great showing for novarossi / shepherd/ desoto at the worlds. You did those companies well !! One of your home tracks and layed it down !!! Great bump from the 256 to the 128. Keep it up. Phil

Thanks Phil,

Bumping from the 128 to the 64th was fun!!! I'm glad I was able to afford to go to the worlds. I know there were a lot guys who couldn't afford with the cost of tires and engines being so high.

Also, Good showing of you guys at Mugen North East at the worlds as well, I mean pre worlds.:)

You must remember that "cheap" tires going by the initial retail price are not always the cheapest tires in cost. Lower cost tires will have plastic rims that may not stay round through the complete wear of the foam especially during summer months. Their rims can break easily and the foam rubber can chunk easily. Lastly these so called cheap tires generally don't have a long wear wear time.

Of course I am partial to GQ tires because they are and have been the best quality tire on the market for the past 20 years. (Years not months..lol) Our plastic won't go out of round, you will have one hell of a time breaking them and most important our foam rubber will last longer than the cheap tires.

If you get 3 heats or more out of good tires and two heats (or less) out of cheap tires, were the cheap tires a good deal? If the tire chunks and you still have foam left on the tire, was the cheap tire a good deal? If you rim cracks on a glancing hit on the boards first time out on the tires, was the cheap tires a good deal?

There are a lot of tires to choose from in the RC Market. Just like everything else in this world, there is always cheaper! But cheaper may not be cheaper! Ask other racers at the track what they are using. Watch and see who is cracking rims or always needing another set of tires and not getting long wear. Find the better tire to use. The better tire may cost a few dollars more initially, however that tire will be cheaper in the end!!!!

Regarding the original poster's comment about engine prices, while there are some engines which are in the 700+ range, or even in the $500+ range and rising each year, there are also some very good engines in the $400 and under range.

tires for 1/8
 

The price is tires is kinda high but you gotta look at the Fun it is to drive one of these cars.The prices for tires have really been high ever since for the person buying from a hobby shop.I really have not seen a change in prices in the last nine years. Tires for sedan are really cheap,but they are not driving a 1/8. I knew getting into 1/8 that the tires cost is a factor considering really one set only last about 25 min of hard racing in a main. The price of motors has always been high,that is why 1/8 on road is the F-1 of r/c. A lot of my friends would like to drive 1/8 but simple cant afford to do it .At the end of a w/e of racing weather it was good or bad i just smile and say thats the price it costs to race the best class of racing for all of r/c.:) I race this class about 8 or 9 times a year. If some companys could come up with an alternative to what we are using now they would make Millions""

I agree that the price of on road engines is ridiculous:flaming: I also agree that the reason for it is that so many are willing to pay for it. Money spent on R&D can't be that much of they're budget. Every time there's a new on road crank, it's funny how the new off road crank looks very similar but without all the fancy cuts. New on road = $600+...........New Off road = $289.00-$349.00. Doesn't seem right, but as long as we keep buying them the prices will stay the same.

Guys, some of you may have been around 1/8 onroad in the early nineties so you would remember how expensive tires and engines were back then (at least in Australia), not to mention the price of the car kit!!!
Now coming back to rc 17 years later i have really been surprised that the majority of items are actually quite a bit cheaper now than back then. Not too many things in this world get less expensive over nearly 20 years!:)

The market for any goods or service will dictates price...it is really that simple.

This was pretty much my point. On the motor side.

Agree. I ran a stock kangaroo last season at my local track and did fine. I'm runnin a xl7 this season locally which is plenty fast as well.

Was only referring to this year compared to last year.

a perfect example is grp. These were like 22-23 a set last season. Now 25-27.

Even online they are misc brands 14-15 fronts. And 17-up for rears.

Never said I couldn't afford or didn't know what I wanted to use. Just commenting on the increase in price. All brands. Grp. Kyosho. Ennetti. Contact. Zac. Etc

On the tires you guys have to look at the Euro. Right now it is pretty high, I think around 1.45. So that really effects the end price of tires for American's. Most of the company's bring in tires have to pay in euro's

I can tell you at RCAmerica we bring in the SRC line of tires, which are made by Ennetti and we cut it close on the profit margin, just so we can keep the cost down to the racer. So needless to say we don't make a whole lot of money on the tires.

I also know the price of foam from Japan has went up in the last 2 years. I think somewhere to the tune of 2 years ago you can get a container for around 50,000 and now that same container cost 80,000 to 85,000. I think this and the euro is why you see the price they way the are.

Thanks Drew

thanks drew makes sense. Nice job at the worlds. With the new car Ralh was looking awesome before the mishap. See you in Chaplin.

Tyres are the least of our worries.................Novarossi is having everyones pants down in 2011.......:eek:

Like I said, plenty of motors under $400, and speaking from experience, as fast and more reliable.
http://www.amainhobbies.com/index.ph...rh&filter_cat=

i thought this was about tires:weird:

lol to much nitro fumes for some:lol:

I don't know about Australia or early nineties but in 1999 I got a brand new Picco Integra with a fantastic Picco motor AND pipe/manifold all for 479.99. Can't get anywhere near that cheap now, even staying with the budget stuff.

Tires were about the same though, maybe even a bit more expensive.

I guess we need to factor in the cOst of raw materials are going up as well. Tires's base material are oil and oil prices are up due to unrest in the oil producing countries. :(

OP also posted about Motors......

The N21-5T we are using on clublevel with a special price from Novarossi Germany and Holland for just 129 euro people are running fast and breaking their own personal lap records. I do keep my fancy pants on :lol:

Yep, they do and it's our own fault.

I have the top of the line Flash Tuned Special from last year in my shop for €429, down from €545 last year.

You think anybody wants that engine?

Nooooo. Every average driver, who can't even use the power of these engines anyways needs the newest, meanest and baddest 2011 engine, and they are willing to shell out another €110 for the PTS.

And those are the people that are always complaining how expensive this hobby is.

As I said before, they can only charge, what we are willing to pay

I don't think all the 2011 engines are expensive, from what I have seen the LL3/11 and the Kanga look cheaper than earlier years pricing?.

There's always less expensive engines, if that's good enough for you.

That's exactly what I said in my earlier post.

Problem is, that very few people think they can win with an LL3 (dates back to 2004) or a Kangaroo which dates back to the worlds in Australia.