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Feb. 14, 2014, 6:34 a.m.
2/17/2014
By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com
Over the past 10-15 years the world has changed a lot. Everything from the way cars look and drive to the way people dress, walk, and talk. When we look at the R/C racing world, it too has changed a lot. Over the past 10 years we lost the monster truck and gas truck classes, but gained truggy and short course. Popular paint schemes went from drips and bubbles to flames and spikes. Motors went from brushed to brushless. Batteries went from NiMH to LiPo. Bodies went from a standard design to cab forward. Wheels went from big to bigger. Electronics went from expensive to REALLY expensive, and the list goes on and on and on.
One thing that has changed more than any of those things list above (in my opinion) is offroad tires. When I first started R/C racing there was 3 basic tread patterns to choose from, in two different rubber compounds...hard and not so hard. Today, some tire manufacturer's offer anywhere from 15-20 competition tread patterns, in anywhere from 4-6 different compounds. What does this mean? This means that at one time, no matter where you were racing or what you were racing on, you had an average of 6 different options of tread/compound combinations. Today, for some tire manufacturers there is an average of 75-120 different tread/compound combinations for that single brand.
For most people that is WAYYY to many. The average racer does not have the money, the time, or the desire to test hundreds of combinations worth of tires just to go racing on the weekend.
Choosing the right tire, and right compound is one of the most difficult choices for racers of all skills levels to make. No one wants to waste money on tires that don't work. If you were only allowed to purchase two different tires for your offroad racing (one for indoors and one for outdoors)...what brand, tread pattern, and compound would you choose and why?
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