Replacement Tyres

[Derek Chambers]

Hi All, I have a 1961 4 door saloon which I bought in April of this year.
I've been looking at getting a new tyre for the spare wheel and it was suggested that I look at a company called Longstone Tyres. I have, and the prices are extortionate for a 155R 14 to match the ones on the car.
I've located a company called Blockley Tyre Company who offer the tyre at a much more reasonable price. If I decided to go for a complete set of 5- 145R14 (the correct size for the car) they will deliver for £30.00.
I wonder if there is anyone who has used this company and what your views are regarding the tyres.

[svenedin]

I don't have them myself but everybody I have spoken to who does (maybe half a dozen owners) is very pleased with them. I intend to fit Blockleys when my current tyres wear out.

Stephen

[KeithL]

Welcome to the Forum.

If you search on 'Blockley' you will find lots of comments on Blockley Tyres, all positive as far as I remember.

[ManyMinors]

Blockley Tyres are great. They are a very small and fascinating business - very passionate about their product. I'd be very surprised if you have any problems with them. I'm delighted with how my car drives since having their tyres fitted. They were a competitive price.

[Derek Chambers]

Many thanks for your comments, when you consider their cost per tyre is Just over half the cost of the same size from longstone tyres,

[Biggles1957]

I've just had a full set of five on my traveller and they are without doubt the best tyres I've ever had on a moggie! Really excellent! GET THEM!!

[liammonty]

I put a set on our saloon last year and they are great

[Bawdy2]

I have just put a set on of that size from Blockleys and they appear to be working fine on my 1967 Traveller.

[simmitc]

I have no experience of purchasing from either company, but I have lost count of how many tyres I have had on Minors over the years, and they are not all equal.

Some cheap Japanese tyres gripped the road OK, but squealed loudly on every corner at any speed above 10mph. Bridgestone and Firestone have provided fantastic performance, good grip, quiet and look "right", but they always seem to effectively delaminate after a couple of years, regardless of mileage. Michelin cornered like the car was on rails and lasted and lasted and lasted, well over 40,000 miles on one set.

The point is that cost is not everything. Different tyres also affect fuel economy. Check the label for ratings such as grip, economy and noise; and then choose the ones that best suit your needs. Like a lot of things on cars, tyres are safety critical and should be chosen with care, not just on cost.

[geoberni]

I fitted a full set of Blockley just over a years ago. The car is not an 'everyday use' , but I've done perhaps 800-1000 miles on them.

The tyres that were fitted previously were ancient, pre 2000 as they only had a single digit date code (I brought him in 2017). They weren't cracked or showing other signs of wear but the rubber was clearly a bit on the hard side.

There was a marked improvement in the handling and ride with the new Blockleys.

We have a couple of garages in the village I live in; I asked at both about fitting them for me. One was more interested in trying to sell me tyres that they wanted to sell, but begrudgingly quoted me £15 each to fit them.
My favoured garage, whom I've used since his dad ran the business, quoted me £55 for all 5 tyres, inc the disposal fee, if I just took the wheels in and left them with him for a morning. That's what I did.

So shop around on fitting prices.

[svenedin]

Incidentally, does everybody run their tyres with inner tubes? I have Toyo tyres on at the moment and I have always used inner tubes. I have standard wheels. The Toyo tyres are acceptable for the use my car gets but not great.

Stephen

[geoberni]

Incidentally, does everybody run their tyres with inner tubes? I have Toyo tyres on at the moment and I have always used inner tubes. I have standard wheels. The Toyo tyres are acceptable for the use my car gets but not great.

Stephen

Nope, there were no tubes in the tyres that were fitted and as an engineer, I see no reason to vary from that.

There's a whole load of BS about tubes that raised it's head a few years back.
viewtopic.php?t=72647

It's based around the argument that a Tubeless Wheel has the safety rim to stop an almost flat tyre coming off the rim. That's fair enough and true as far as it goes. But the safety rim came out much later than tubeless tyres and they are only an additional safety measure to allow for people who never check their tyres, much like the Tyre Warning Lights on modern cars. If you drive a tubeless tyre until it gets so little air in it that it comes free from the rim, it stops the tyre completely leaving the wheel. That's all...

But ignoring all that for a moment, look at the basic premise of Tube v Tubeless.
The tube is like a balloon, stick a nail in it and it explosively depressurises.
The tubeless with a nail stays inflated.

So if a well fitting tubeless tyre has a tube in it, and it picks up a nail, the tube inside will explosively decompress.

But you might say, the tubeless tyre is well fitting.The air will still stay inside...
It might be well fitting around the rim, but by fitting a tube to it you have removed the seal around the valve stem.
Thus you have negated the safety feature of a tubeless tyre deflating slowly.
It won't go 'bang' and deflate explosively, but it will deflate in about 1-2 seconds when the tube valve become lose in the valve hole.

Here's a short simple video on youtube for anyone not following this...
https://youtu.be/3BkNpa913RQ

So that's why the whole argument about fitting tubes to tubeless tyres is fatally flawed. And yet it is seriously advocated by many tyre professionals, who clearly know nothing about the actual laws of physics. (Probably about as must as many people know about electrics.... )

[svenedin]

Incidentally, does everybody run their tyres with inner tubes? I have Toyo tyres on at the moment and I have always used inner tubes. I have standard wheels. The Toyo tyres are acceptable for the use my car gets but not great.

Stephen

Nope, there were no tubes in the tyres that were fitted and as an engineer, I see no reason to vary from that.

There's a whole load of BS about tubes that raised it's head a few years back.
viewtopic.php?t=72647

It's based around the argument that a Tubeless Wheel has the safety rim to stop an almost flat tyre coming off the rim. That's fair enough and true as far as it goes. But the safety rim came out much later than tubeless tyres and they are only an additional safety measure to allow for people who never check their tyres, much like the Tyre Warning Lights on modern cars. If you drive a tubeless tyre until it gets so little air in it that it comes free from the rim, it stops the tyre completely leaving the wheel. That's all...

But ignoring all that for a moment, look at the basic premise of Tube v Tubeless.
The tube is like a balloon, stick a nail in it and it explosively depressurises.
The tubeless with a nail stays inflated.

So if a well fitting tubeless tyre has a tube in it, and it picks up a nail, the tube inside will explosively decompress.

But you might say, the tubeless tyre is well fitting.The air will still stay inside...
It might be well fitting around the rim, but by fitting a tube to it you have removed the seal around the valve stem.
Thus you have negated the safety feature of a tubeless tyre deflating slowly.
It won't go 'bang' and deflate explosively, but it will deflate in about 1-2 seconds when the tube valve become lose in the valve hole.

Here's a short simple video on youtube for anyone not following this...
https://youtu.be/3BkNpa913RQ

So that's why the whole argument about fitting tubes to tubeless tyres is fatally flawed. And yet it is seriously advocated by many tyre professionals, who clearly know nothing about the actual laws of physics. (Probably about as must as many people know about electrics.... )

Interesting. ESM fitted my tyres with inner tubes. I didn't ask for that. It was done by default.

Stephen

[geoberni]

Interesting. ESM fitted my tyres with inner tubes. I didn't ask for that. It was done by default.

Stephen

Not a surprise. Like I said, there's a lot in the Tyre business who falsely believe the Safety Rim is the deciding feature.
I've seen the 'must fit tubes' argument used so often without justification, and if challenged they just revert to 'because', a bit like 'Flat Earth' advocates...

I hadn't really thought about it to any degree until that letter in Minor Matters 4 years ago; I didn't even know about the 'Safety Rim' but once I looked into the subject and the timeline of relative inventions, it became obvious.
A Tubeless Tyre with a tube in it just becomes a tubed tyre, negating all the safety advantages of the tubeless design preventing Blow Outs which were prevalent before tubeless tyres became standard.
In fact, it's potentially worse, because tubeless tyres are often not as smooth on the inside as tubes tyres.
So it's possible for the tyre itself to be the reason for tube failure, caused by the abrasion of Tyre & Tube whilst driving around.
But that would need practical testing in a controlled environment to prove...
There's a lot of variables, inflation pressures, brand of tyre, harshness of driving and so forth.

[myoldjalopy]

I have no experience of purchasing from either company, but I have lost count of how many tyres I have had on Minors over the years, and they are not all equal.

Some cheap Japanese tyres gripped the road OK, but squealed loudly on every corner at any speed above 10mph. Bridgestone and Firestone have provided fantastic performance, good grip, quiet and look "right", but they always seem to effectively delaminate after a couple of years, regardless of mileage. Michelin cornered like the car was on rails and lasted and lasted and lasted, well over 40,000 miles on one set.

The point is that cost is not everything. Different tyres also affect fuel economy. Check the label for ratings such as grip, economy and noise; and then choose the ones that best suit your needs. Like a lot of things on cars, tyres are safety critical and should be chosen with care, not just on cost.

As an alternative experience, I have had Bridgestones on my car for at least 15 years now and they are still all fine.....

[ManyMinors]

The Bridgestones on my Minor were very good and I was pleased with them. They lasted the best part of 10 years which I reckon is very good but then became quite cracked and needed to be replaced. I do keep my car outside though which it is said does not help.
I have never used inner tubes on my Minors in recent years and can see no reason to. Have never had any problems with this.

[myoldjalopy]

OK, so 10 years - but you said "a couple of years" in your earlier post!

[ManyMinors]

OK, so 10 years - but you said "a couple of years" in your earlier post!

That wasn't me

[myoldjalopy]

Oh yes, apologies - you're right! Mea culpa!