ALLOWABLE TIRE SIZES

[Jim Waltz]

I was hoping that my inquiries about what type and size of tires are OK for vintage events would garner the information I was looking for.

What I didn't hope for was that it would end up riling up my good friend Ron Cubel. My apologies, Ron, if I have elevated your blood pressure.

As a "bystander", it does appear to me that there is some "unfinished business" with respect to the repro tire thing.

I will say, though, in agreement with Ron, that my karts that originally came with 4" wheels and tires will always run with 4" wheels and tires. They just don't look right otherwise, and I'm just enough of a purist. Clutches are another matter, however.

I guess that means I'm a potential customer for repro 4" tires.

Is that a good thing?

[ted johnson]

Nils, you do a great job with your tires, and I hope that you, Rob and Bob can get together to test your early vintage style tires to qualify them for TBO. An extra source could be nothing but good for the sport. On the second front, Ron and Jim are patently right about a GOOD 4" hard square-edge front. A lot of 58 through 62 karts had 4" fronts. No early Bug would be correct without 4" fronts! I actually ran 4" narrows all around on my "60 - '62 A Super karts. Thanks for listening! Ted

[Dick Teal]

Jim,

I understand your want to run 4" wheels on the karts that came with them and I would like to do the same. Unfortunately the only way we can do this is with tires that are wider than what we ran back then and they don't handle as good; this is a gross understatement. We need 4" narrow tires like the 5" Chen Chin tires.

The only alternative that I have for my Fox karts is to put 5" Margay or some other style of 5" front wheels on them. Unfortunately when this is done the kart just doesn't look right. The style may look great but it isn't correct.

The other option I'm looking at is to re-produce 5" front Fox wheels. We produced them for mini-bikes and a few sets were on karts until the Margay & Rupp 5" wheels became available. This is a pretty serious project just to make the kart look right (style of wheel) but it's similar to you only wanting to run 4" wheels to make them look right. I was hoping that Nils would make the 4" narrow tires but it sounds like it isn't going to happen.

I will be talking to a Wisconsin aluminum casting company on Tuesday that says that they can produce low cost parts that look as good as die cast parts. The estimated cost for a set of 5" front wheels will be roughly $200 plus machining of the casting.

It seems to me that 4" narrow tires would be less expensive but I don't have any idea what the tooling cost would be and how many would have to be ordered to get similar costs as the 5" tires we currently have. If the casting project turns out we should be able to re-produce other style wheels if a pattern is available.

The list of what tires are approved would be helpful and has been discussed in the past probably too many times. I know that I would have built some great karts differently if I knew what was allowed when I was doing it. If you go to TBO just run square edged tires like Rob suggested and you will be fine. Most or all of the Carlisle and Chen Chin tires will be OK. When you go to a VKA event you should read the rules for each event you plan on attending but I have seen just about anything allowed. I run Dunlop SL1's and 3's and they are allowed by the rules.

Hope you are having as much fun with Vintage karts like I am.

Dick Teal

[Dick Teal]

Jim,

I forgot to mention that Nil's Vintage Speed tires are on my Concept and work great. You might want to consider them for the VKA events.

Dick Teal

[larry brown]

Dick- I sent you an email regarding some 5 inch Fox wheels that I made up a few years ago, not sure how often you check your email.

Thanks,
Larry Brown

[Jim Waltz]

Dick,

Thanks for the insight.

I'm just now realizing that the tires that came with my Dan-Lotz-built '64 SAE repro kart are DURO (Vintage Speed) on the back and Cheng Shin up front - as I ran at Adams in January. I also didn't realize that Vintage Speed and DURO are synonymous (at least that's what I see at arrowracing.com). As I recall Vintage Terry runs Duro's front and rear (or Dunlop's on back) on his twin-101-SAE at VKA events.

The fog is slowly lifting as you guys educate me...................

[Dick Teal]

Larry Brown

Larry, I couldn't respond to your e-mail for some reason. I tried to reply and then I sent it as a new e-mail. Both times I got a note from Charter saying that it was unable to deliver.

I would like to see how you did the Fox 5" front wheels. I'm talking about the Lemans style wheels.

Thanks for the note,

Dick Teal

[Rob Voska]

I have been saving every 4" narrow tire I could find that had good sidewalls. I was thinking about recaps? Does anyone know if it's possible? I have some Mr X & Quality recap old recap tires.

[Don Tomich]

Could Cheng Shin be approached to produce a narrow 4" front?

[Chris Marchand]

The Mr X recaps were out of Jim Walters Kart shop in Lorain, Ohio. Jim, and his dad Wes worked with Long Mile Rubber and Bob Doup ( sales rep for Long Mile) to make those tires. They were very fast in the day and helped Jim to many championships. That is a rare find Rob !