bitPimps.lixlink.com

http://www.ncphobbies.com/164slotcar.html

Here you can buy some quality sponge tires. yestetday I got:

-AUR-8913 - Aurora - Super G Plus Rear Wheel & Ground Sponge Tires - Price: $3.98
-TYC6554 - Tyco - Sponge Rear Tires & Grey Hub Wheels-pair - Price: $2.98
-WIZZARD - LAW Black Rear Tires-LAW440B - Price: $7.00

Both Tyco and Aurora are both very good (by "very good" I mean 10 times better that all tires you have at home),
maybe Tyco is a little better, but Wizzards are OUTSTANDING !!!!
Tyco and Aurora can be removed from rims and can be used with German alloys or pullbacks - they fit perfectly,
you just have to cut off the "middle ring" on pullbacks) but Wizzards seems to be unremovable ...

They have also a huge selection of standard silicone tres variable colors, ball bearings (1.2mm!!!),
bodies and other slot-car stuff which can be used with a little imagination

If I put this ia one sentence: Once you try them , you will NEVER go back to normal tires or whatever you are using now.

I`m sure that other brands are good also, just make sure that you order SPONGE tires, and size beetween 0.440 and 0.480

Thanks for the heads up.

Unwilling to sacrifice my pullbacks, I've been on a desperate search for the perfect tires for my alloys. So this is good news.

CD,

What's the OD on the alloys?

Judging by the look of them they are quite a bit larger than .275".
If you were looking for silicone tires I'd steer clear of the silicone slip one tires from Wizzard...they are soft but tear easily. Super Tires makes a great slip one silcione tire in a variety of OD's that can strecth ALOT without tearing. They also come in a number of colours if you wanted something besides black.

http://www.supertires.com

Forgot to mention they are only $0.75US/pair

As I said before Tyco and Aurora can be used with German alloys. They have smaller rims then alloys but they can be stretched and they fit perfectly.

here's something canabits posted on ausmicro in the sam thread, i think it's a brilliant idea!

You can easily coat the Tyco and AFX sponge tires you have with silicone and improve their performance dramatically.

All you need is a little bit of silicone (flowable windscreen silicone if it's available works well if not, cut some clear general purpose silicone with mineral spirits) , a dremel (dill also works) and something to use as an axle to set the wheel/tire onto so you can chuck it into the above mentioned dremel.

Once you've got all that...

-Place the wheel/tire onto the axle and chuck it into the dremel/drill.

-Take some silicone and spread it onto the tire (be sure to cover the entire surface and sidewall)

- Take the dremel and holding it into a plastic bag, turn it on briefly. The bag catches any extra silicone as it leaves the tire.

-Set the whole thing aside to dry.

Repeat at least one more time (3 seems to work best) and let dry. Once it's fully dried, add the wheel/tire to your car and your racing

HO slot car stuff is great for bits

and another usefull link

http://www.lucky-bobs-slot-cars.com/

Check this out, a pair of bearing for 4 bucks. I could make use of these.

Bearings

I think that are just bearing holders without bearings ....as far I can see from picture....

Those are not 'ball' bearings but actually bushings. Alot of the older bushings are made from steel and plated (hard and wear axles out). I'm not sure what the old Super Magnatraction/G+ ones are made of but there are a number available for new cars that are made of sintered bronze (oilite) and silicone bronze that offer much better wear. One that comes to mind are the ones made for the Patriot chassis. A pair of sintered bronze bushings for use with a 1.5mm shaft/axle goes for $2/pair

After testing couple of different sponge tyres from site above I can reccomend 2 types.

AJS2000 $2.98 2 AJs - Ground Rounds Sponge Black Donuts
TYC6554 $2.98 2 Tyco - Sponge Rear Tires & Grey Hub Wheels

I preffer AJS a little better because they came without rims (no pulling-off needed)

WIZZARDs are still the best grip, actually the grip is so good that picks up every piece of dust and the car became undrivable few seconds after... So I can`t reccomend them except if you have very very clean floor.

Try scuffing some of the shine (ie. silicone) off the Wizzard tyres. It's common practice for slot car racers to 'run sand' these tires over 400 grit sandpaper (and a drop of oil) to knock some of the shine off them. As stated, the tires are almost too sticky as they are sold, picking up every little bit of dirt and dust. Scuffing the tires contact patch by run sanding (or other means) makes for a tire that is more consistant and predictable in performance.

That said, they will still need to be cleaned. To do so, simply run them over the sticky side of a piece of tape (scotch, masking, duct, etc) as needed.

Funny, I didn`t think of that, thanx.