Kenda Tires

Kenda Tires (Kenda Rubber Industrial Company) is a manufacturer of pneumatic tires in Taiwan since 1962. They have manufacturing facilities and R&D centres across Taiwan, mainland China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the United States, and Europe (including Germany).

They make tyres for: Bicycles, motorcycles, passenger cars, light truck and trailer radial tires.... ATV, golf carts, lawn and garden, agricultural, industrial vehicles, AND wheelchairs

We like them best for their off road and MX tyres, these guys win a lot of MX racing over in America, and are well known in the UK for mountain bike tyres, in fact our very own Luke has some on his MTB.

Kenda have been expanding their off road and road ranges nicely.

Lets pick our three favourites .......

• KM1 Sport Touring, simply fantasic value and our road tester Al tried some and now won't pay more for anything else.
• Big Block K784 ... big chunky off road tyres, very decent tyre, very decent price!
• Kruz, Challenger and Cataclysm ... ok ok i'm cheating, I've sneaked 3 tyres in where it should only be 1, but together they cover a lot of cruiser tyres and again, the price is fantastic.

Mitas

The Mitas brand traces its roots back to the 1930s in Czechoslovakia, originally making tyres in Prague.

Mitas became part of the Trelleborg group, which had links to Pirelli Agricultural tyres, and are now owned by the mighty Yokohama Rubber Company, Japan.

Agricultural: Tractor, harvester, trailer & flotation tyres
Construction & Industrial Tyres: Earthmoving, mining, loaders, graders, and dump trucks.
Multipurpose Industrial Tyres: Backhoes, telehandlers, and universal industrial vehicles.
Material Handling: Forklift (pneumatic and solid cushion tyres designed for industrial warehouses and yards.
Aircraft Tyres
Bicycle & Go-Kart Tyres
Other misc small specialty rubber tyres.

Our top three picks of Mitas (again, I'm going to cheat slightly)

• Enduro Trail XT+ have become MASSIVELY popular to the point that they have sold out everywhere in the key sizes. These come in standard version and the DAKAR version with a more robust carcass for when you need to rip across the desert flat out.
• E05 Classic Trail are a very welcome addition to the range, enabling classic bikes to have a trail style tyre but still with some road manners.
• The Mitas H0 range ... now this might look like six tyres, but what Mitas did was to make a bunch of tyres, all in the same range but then gave them slightly different model names, so ... if you want a classic tyre you need to consider:
  H01 - H02 - H03 - H04 - H05 - H06

Anlas

Anlas is a Turkish company, set up in the 1960s, and have been making tyres for Motorcycle since 1974, in a large modern manufacturing facility in Duzce, ideally situated between Istanbul and Ankara, close to the crossing of Trans European Motorway and the National Highway.

While not quite as large and industrious as Mitas, they do make tyres for:

• Motorcycles and Scooters
• Go Carts, All-Terrain Vehicles, and Golf Carts
• Plus other special purpose vehicles.

My top three Anlas picks....

• Winter Grip 2 is quite a unique tyre on the market, it's design allows it to warm up quickly and to stay warm, so even when the temperatrue drops, the tyre maintains good grip. It has good water clearing ability and is Mud + Snow rated.
• Even though it's made for the cold and wet, the tyre still workes when it's dry... unlike the Kenda K701 Winter tyre which is soley for cold weather, and should not be used even in 'slightly chilly' temperatures. So, it works cold, it works hot, and it's incredibly funky looking. Win win!
• Capra R is an 80/20 ADV tyre ... and this is a category that I like, many adventure bikes never leave the tarmac, some do but enough to justify that super cool aggressive off road tyre... but you want your bike to LOOK off roady right? This is where the 80/20 tyres are so cool, they look the part, they'll do a bit of trail work, but mainly they are nice on the road.. the Capra R deserves to be on any list of 80/80 ADV tyres, and not just because of the super price, it's a super tyre in it's own right.
• Capra X is a 50/50 proper off roading tyre which does the job, but also looks good, and is not terrible on the road. Some off roaders like the MX style knobbly look, some prefer the big block look of the Kenda Big Block and Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR, but these Anlas Capra R have a mid sized block that is the third bowl of porridge, it's juuuust right.

KingTyre

KingTyre are a newer player in the tyre market, forming in 2014 as part of Tianjin Kingtyre Group Co., Ltd. and were the first Chinese company to make radial tyres.

Some of you have just seen the word Chinese and will now be hard to convince, this means you might be a tyre racist!

And yes, 'Made in China' can mean low quality, but not always! KingTyre have put in some real investment, commitment and most importantly... QUALITY CONTROL! KingTyre are making some good tyres, and a big range of good tyres, it's almost unfair to just pick three:

• K00 Slicks are our number 1 pick because they are very good, very cheap, and have a race program to back up their claims. They run an Endurance race team to showcase and prove the product. Have a read about the K00 Slick tyres here ... and I barely need to mention this but... REALLY REALLY CHEAP IN A GOOD WAY!
• K66 Adventure is another 80/20 ADV tyre which fits the same bill... nice on the road, super value, will do light trails and will make your ADV bike look as adventurous as it should do .. even if you're just popping to Marks & Spencer to pick up some herbs to enhance tonight's dinner.
• K99 Custom are favourite as they do wide tyres. Not wide like Avon offer in the 240 wide tyre, no! Not even wide like Metzeler's 260 wide tyre. Puny! We're talking 300mm wide, 330mm, 360 and ....... 400mm wide! Even if super wide custom wheels aren't your flavour, you gotta admire the madness of a tyre that is as wide as it is tall.

Maxxis & CST

Maxxis & CST are both brands from the Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Company, based in Taiwan and have been making rubber products since 1967.

This whole article is it to persuade you that budget brands are not bad... and I have had previous bad opinions of both of these brands.

I once fitted a Maxxis to a ZX7R ... I was a bit skint that week.. and that tyre gave me multiple instances of losing grip at low to moderate speeds. So I didn't have a good word to say about them for a long time. Working with tyres now, I can personally vouch that the quality of Maxxis has massively improved. You can feel a tyre and get a sense about the rubber, and Maxxis now pass the feel test, though I admit I've not ridden on them.

I also had bad things to say about CST ... CST? Cheap S**t Tyres mate! And they have made some not great tyres in the past, but again... they have invested, tested, improved and make some tyres that I can sell with confidence.

As this is 2 brands under 1 umbrella, I'll give my 2 top picks for each

• CST CM-A1 Ride Ambro are a road biased ADV tyre which become extra good value when you hear about how many miles they can cover, and my pal Stu loves them, read about that here...
• C6501/C6502 Magsport are on the list for being a cheap and honest commuter tyre. Are you young and don't have much cash? Perhaps your bike is just a method to get around and you don't need sports or ADV or expensive tyres... the Magsport will get you to work and back day after day and don't cost the earth... this is true budget tyre. Not much flash but not much cash. Winner.
• Maxxis Maxxcross IT-E are the road legal E-Marked motocross tyres to rival the (excellent) Michelin Tracker and the Metzeler MC360. They sell well partly due to their low price, but again.... they are decent tyres! Nothing makes this list purely for being cheap.
• Maxxis DTR1 FlatTrack are a pretty niche tyre, but I've put it in here because... it's a compounded flat track tyre... they've made compounds! It's not just a show tyre or a 'that'll do tyre'. That's a lot of effort for a low volume niche tyre!

EuroGrip

EuroGrip are an Indian company, part of TVS Srichakra who were founded in 1982. Originally called TVS Tyres, they rebranded to EuroGrip in 2018.

They are part of the TVS Group who make... just everything. I'm not going to list it, it's just everything. They do own the Norton brand of motorcycles, I'm mentioning that because obviously it's relevant. TVS Group has been going since 1911, in fact ... have a look at their Wiklpedia article.

They make tyres for 2 wheelers, 3 wheelers and off road vehicles, they've worked in partnership with Michelin and like the brands I've already mentioned, they are making some good tyres. Cheap, but good. Not cheap good. They're good, and also cheap.

Our top three tyres from EuroGrip are:

• TrailHound Wild have to be first on the list, as our fitter Matt has them on his Tiger and raves about them. He even stated ... TrailHound Wild? I'm Trailhound LIVID that I didnt buy some of these sooner! They are a 70/30 ADV tyre, so a little more capable off road than the 80/20 area which I adore so much, but then... he does go off road. He loves the off road ability, the road handling and mainly they make his bike look so macho!
• Roadhound, is another tyre which our Matt has tested, and wrote about although he was given this pair to test, so maybe he's been bribed, but they did help him choose the Trailhounds, and he paid money for those! The Roadhound is another one of those good honest tyres, cheap, cheery, dependable. They're the person in your company who always shows up to work, who knows how to fix that jammed printer, the person you go to because they know how to get stuff done.

Ceat Limited

Ceat Limited were originally an Italian Company called Cavi Elettrici e Affini Torino, set up in 1924 in the city of Turin but by 1958 they were incorporated into Ceat Tyres of Mumbai, India. The history of the Italian company and the Indian company gets a little mixed up, with such names as TATA Group, the RPG Group and even Pirelli being entwined in the mysteries of corporate dealings.

Looking at the modern tyre company, we see that radial tyre production was started in 2006.

They too make a range of tyres for vehicles such as:

• Heavy commercial vehicles
• Light commercial vehicle
• Off-highway vehicles
• Passenger cars & SUVs
• Tractors
• Motorcycles, scooters, and cycles.

They even made tyres specifically for a car in an Indian SciFi film called Kalki 2898AD

The car is called Bujji, which is awesome because this article is about Budgies.

OK time to pick the 3 Ceat tyres ... and I guess I can't include Bujji's tyres as we don't sell them.

• Gripp XL - I do like a funky tread pattern, even if it is somewhat 'inspired' by the Pirelli MT60RS.. and I do mean inspired, not directly copied.
• Zoom Cruz - Another cheap cheery reliable tyre. Not super fancy but they'll get you there!
• Zoom Rad X1 - These tyres are for people who I kinda feel for... youngsters who are starting off in motorcycling, but don't have huge money to buy the supercool tyres like Diablo Rosso Sport, or the S22 or S23 etc, Lets keep the youngsters rolling!

XGrip

XGrip are quite a new player, set up in 2016 in Austria, they started off making mousses for off road events, then some parts, then some tyres.

I'll be honest, I don't know much about the specialist differences between the tyres, so I'm just going name our favourites, and I'm not stopping at three!

• Hulkyboy
• Jack The Gripper
• Wave Breaker
• Dirt Digger
• Machete
• Track Warrior
• The Escalator
• Sand Warrior

Marvel Star

Marvel Star are very fresh to the UK market, imported exclusively by one of the big motorcycle tyre wholesalers, who like to take a chance on a new brand if they feel there is a place in the market for the tyres on offer.

Currently they only offer mousses and off road tyres, but who knows where that could lead to?

Marvel Star are a part of Quindao Telstar Tyre Company, China. (Nothing to do with Telstar Records if you're old enough to remember the adverts!)

They've been making tyres since 1970 and did take steps to operate more globally in 2017, they show their core products as being:

• Passenger car (PCR)
• Truck and bus (TBR)
• Motorcycle
• ATV/UTV and specialty tyres

My top three picks... I don't know much about the tyres as yet, but the names are self explanatory and the product photos are not as bad as some of their others!

• MS021 Enduro
• MS136 Sand
• MTS108 Boggy

Rebel Tyres

Rebel Tyres are no longer available, but worth mentioning why.

The same wholesaler who took a chance on Marvel Star, also sold Rebel Tyres for a while.... but no more.

Not because they were bad, they were good!

Not because they were pricey, they were decent value!

Not because stock supply was bad, it was bountiful!

But... they were too niche. They were road legal competition tyres and were very good at what they did, but there just isn't a big enough market in the UK and there are other tyres that are already established and trusted.

A Quick Mention for Other Brands

A quck mention to brands you may not of heard of, but don't fall under the 'budget' label.

Shinko

Shinko - A personal favorite of mine due to a massive sense of achievement getting together all the data needed to actually sell them!

Part of Yokohama Rubber Japan, they make reasonably priced tyres, but not quite budgies.

Heidenau

Heidenau - A german company, a little unheard of, and not cheap, but because people haven't heard of them, they often think they must make budget tyres, until they see the price then they realize that Heidenau are specialist tyres.. read about them here whilst applauding my clever joke on the photo of Ruth Madoc.

Other Assurances That Might Help You Trust the Brand Names

While some of the names on the list seem like they're new... I have evidenced that their parent companies have been around for decades ... they're not some new name that has popped up, will take your cash and vanish tomorrow.

Some of the names, you've never ever heard of.... but they are part of a company that perhaps you have heard of, such as Yokohama, while others have worked in conjunction with Michelin and Pirelli ... and if those big players trust the budget company, then perhaps we can too!

Then there is a slightly hidden aspect of it... the fact that a UK based company imports and warehouses the budget tyre ... means that a well respected UK company, big players in the UK tyre market... they trust the product. And because they stand by their product you don't necessarily have to trust the budget tyre producer, you just need to trust the UK Importers. These same firms also deal with Bridgetone, Metzeler, Dunlop etc, they know their stuff.

Finally... you likely don't know who these importers are, but you know us. And you trust us right?

While you will find a little bit of bad feedback about us on the internet, you'll also find a 1000x more good feedbacks.

We're transparent, we put our names out there. I'm Ian.. you can phone me up and talk to me about tyres.