[sagarpadaki]

There has been a good amount of improvement in the availability and quality of 2 wheeler tyres over the past decade.

When i wanted to upgrade the tyres on my humble pulsar a decade ago to softer grippier tyres from the hard stock MRF, there was little choice. Most of the good tyres were imported Michelins, Vee Rubber, IRC etc through grey market channel and sold at huge markup by the tyre dealers. MRF had just made the first soft compound tyre in the form for Zapper FY and S for the R15 a couple of years earlier but they were in a production crunch and hardly available aftermarket.

Over the decade, manufacturers started rolling out tyres for enthusiasts. The impetus is the influx of high performance bikes from Bajaj, KTM, Kawasaki , Suzuki,RE etc . In 2020, we have a huge choice of good grippy tyres to choose from a plethora of manufacturers across the size spectrum at a very reasonable cost. MRF have come up with the Masseter lineup for their premium 2 wheeler tyres, Apollo has some really good ones. Ceat has a good collection of grippy tyres too. The imported Michelin pilot streets are very good but the same cannot be said about the locally manufactured tyres. It is a happy time to be a corner craving, hard riding biking enthusiast.

[King_pin09]

Voted Yes.

Although the definition of term 'Quality' varies across brands, in a broader sense however, they tend to improve with time. One of my earier cars came factory fitted with MRF ZVTV. These were noisy, made screeching sounds on braking and picked up punctures like magnet. Replaced them shortly with Yokohamas and the difference was night and day. The Yokos were grippy, absolute silent, had great ride quality and most importantly picked zero punctures on the same roads.

My present car came factory fitted with Apollo Alnac 4G and is near identical to the Yokos in all respects.

[IshaanIan]

I think people definitely need to understand that when talking about tyres you cannot simply talk about the brand. You need to be more specific and compare models within each brand. Here is where Indian manufacturers are improving. MRF now has their Perfinza series of tyres of which I have heard many good things and while Apollo does not have any premium tyre option for cars currently, their Alnac 4G does perform the role of an eco tyre (low rolling resistance) quite well when compared to Yoko's Earth1s or Michelin's XM2s. Apollo does however have a good option in the 2 wheeler segment with their Alpha H1 series so does Ceat with their Rad Zoom X1 series of tyres. Thus I can say that Indian manufacturers definitely are offering more premium tyre options in segments that they were absent from a few years ago.

[tazmaan]

I voted Yes and especially with my experience with MRF over the years.

But at the same time progress is slow. One of the main reason for progress being slow is the frugal nature of people here and car manufacturers that support that.

For example in PV segment highest seller is Maruti Suzuki, I cannot find a single main stream car from Maruti which has specifications to demand performance tyres. As a matter of fact most of the main stream companies do not have even moderately powerful engines. Also the soft compound performance tyre on a say Honda Jazz CVT or Swift 1.2 would not give much of an upgrade but the tyres will definitely be more vulnerable on our patchy roads. But in terms of durability most of the Indian tyres are very good. My Jazz and V-cross both came with MRF and both had only one puncture in their life time. Jazz is till running on OEM tyres and Vcross tyres lasted 40000 kms with all the abuse.

But the trend is changing now say from a 1.2 NA to 1.0 powerful turbo on common cars and hence the tyre manufacturers will follow suit.

Lets come to performance cars BMW, Mercedes, Skoda etc, if I own one I will not bother looking at the cost of the tyres the best of the best will be bought and installed.

[hardy_007]

So, a month before the lockdown was initiated, two of my friends and I planned to add the 'Golden Triangle' to our list of road-trip milestones. We were to drive from Delhi, proceed to Jaipur via Agra, and then return home (Delhi). It was one of the other two guys whose Maruti Baleno was picked for the purpose. He, however, had to get the tyres replaced (again) as his Baleno's MRFs were worn out.

A week before we were to set off for the 'Golden Triangle' tour, we visited a couple of tyre dealers in Greater Kailash to get the perfect shoes for the Baleno. We had our eye on the B250 and the Alnac 4G tyres. We figured if we are not able to find a better option, we will buy either one of these tyres.

We wanted something that had superior performance characteristics, especially on the highways. Hence, one of the dealers we visited showed us Ceat Securadrive. Considering both the tyre's quality, as assured by the dealer, and the value for money, we got the Securadrive tyres (185/65 R15) installed.

While we set off for our 'Golden Triangle' expedition, I drove this Securadrive shoed Baleno. A little background: I have driven this car earlier numerous times on various occasions and trips. But there were a few changes that I noticed in the car, of course, in terms of drivability.
The most noticeable change was the higher degree of driving control that I experienced at numerous instances during the drive. Pleasantly, the steering response to cornering, overtaking, and lane changes felt more precise and effortless. I felt very confident behind the steering wheel as there was no lack of grip at higher speeds, above 100 kmph.

One of my own cars, Ford EcoSport, has the XM2s installed on the wheels. I had this perception that there cannot be anything as silent as the XM2s, but the noise-free drive of Ceat Securadrive has changed my view altogether.

The tyres did a great job on the braking front too. When I had to apply the brakes on the highways and congested city roads, they were very impressive and complemented the vehicle's braking system. On our way to Rajasthan, we had to pass through a few rough patches, on which these tyres did an excellent job of absorbing a good amount of harshness and noise.

I believe that these Indian origin tyres have been very impressive performance-wise. I say this because I have had great experiences with the Pirellis and the Michelins in the recent past. These Ceat Securadrive tyres didn't disappoint me at all throughout the tour. So, I 'd say that Indian brands are surely stepping up on the quality and performance bit!
By the way, our 'Golden Triangle' tour was awesome! 😊

P.S: Have read that Securadrive is now coming as stock fitment in Hyundai Venue? Any experiences on the Securadrive fitted Venue?

[Rajeev1]

Apollo Alnac was the OEM Tyre which came with my Skoda Rapid and this set has run approximately 55000 kms till date quite flawlessly. In my view this as good as any international brand as far as reliability and longevity is concerned.

[Buffetfan]

Originally Posted by hardy_007

. These Ceat Securadrive tyres didn't disappoint me at all throughout the tour. So, I 'd say that Indian brands are surely stepping up on the quality and performance bit!
By the way, our 'Golden Triangle' tour was awesome! ��

P.S: Have read that Securadrive is now coming as stock fitment in Hyundai Venue? Any experiences on the Securadrive fitted Venue?

Just installed 215/60R16 securadrives in my Accord. Got a very good deal on Amazon. They replace Hankook Optimo on my car. So far so good..car seems more silent and ride quality is marginally better. Let these "settle down" over the next week and will know more.

[adisan]

Let the records speak for the tyres.


My first car came with Appollo tyres. When I sold the car after nearly 5 years, the odo reading was close to 45000 km and the tyres were still good.

My second car came with JK Vectra tyres. After running for 61000 km and 5.5 years I replaced them, only because it was over 6 years since their manufacturing date and I do regular highway drives. I chose JK Vectra again.

In both cars there was an equal mix of city and highway driving.


No cracks, tears or bulges in any of the above sets of tyres. It was trouble-free. There have been very heavy rains as well as extremely bad roads during some of the drives, the tyres have never let me down.


It is a similar good experience with TVS tyres which came with my bike, but only city driving.

[mobilecentric]

Originally Posted by hardy_007

P.S: Have read that Securadrive is now coming as stock fitment in Hyundai Venue? Any experiences on the Securadrive fitted Venue?

According to the launch pictures , these tyres i.e. Ceat SecuraDrive 205/55/R16 are stock on Skoda Slavia too.

How has been your experience with these tyres since August now?