Schumacher tyres = expensive [my personal moan!]

[Fiddybux]

Hi all racers,

I'm sure this is something that everyone can agree with...why are tyres, for example, Schumacher pins/spikes/whatever so damn expensive?

It's nuts. Okay you do the research into a good compound that works, then you make a mould, and from that you can produce millions of tyres.

It must cost them about £1 per pair of tyres (probably a lot less), and yet we pay £7.49 + everytime we need some new grip.

If you ask me, Schumacher have something here that is probably more profitable than the tabacco industry....except it doesn't kill you (only the soul inside of you!)

Please feel free to add to my moan here.

Grrr.

[Southwell]

As is everything expensive in the UK....lifes a bitch, yadayada. :P

[bigred5765]

at £20000-30000 for a mould would charge 6-7 quid for them also
but i still think there dear

[losixxx]

a mould cost upwards of £20,000 plus you have to have it refurbished every so many pairs, the suppliers make there cut so do the shops so £8 is expensive but losi and prolines are near £10 a pair, yes you do get inserts but still more expensive than schy's

[jimmy]

Who says they dint get the mould made in china on the cheap ?

Seriously though, I agree with rich

[Richard Lowe]

I think the mould has paid for itself it's fair to say!

They charge whatever they can get away with, and I bet it costs them a lot less than a quid to make a pair these days...

[losixxx]

£60-£90,000 worth of moulds at say £3 profit per pair is still a hell of a lot of tyres to sell before they even start making money so in that respect i don't. how many tyres per year in spikes do you think they actually sell? even averaging it out to £70000 for the mould they will need to have sold 23,000 pairs of tyres before any profit is shown

[jimmy]

A hell of a lot would be my guess! I think it's pretty obvious Tyres are profitable for them. The ones that aren't get ditched.

[DCM]

I find it hard to beleive that a mould costs that much to make. And yes, the mould would need refurbishing/replacing occaisionaly, but I realy find it hard to justify the high cost, but it is like everything, we need it, they set their price, and until someone undercuts them with an equivalent tyre, they ain't going to budge.

More so, they don't do any developement work these days in tyres, I remember Bibx and stuff.

[Lindsay]

Over the years I have been involved RC Racing, I have looked into the prospect with my Company who specilise in Rubber products manufacturing alternative Tyres.The main problem is tooling cost & refurbishment of tooling and also there is certain problems with coping designs of existing tyres.Who would take a chance on using un-proven tyres at a meeting ?? I am sure Adam may add a thread to this.
Li ndsay