best rubber?

[petey pete]

I know tan II is the best ,but I have a cardboard container of 3/16 SIG rubber that's a chocolate color and was wondering what it is and if it is any good. I had a piece of this from a model kit and stripped it down for a smaller plane,it seemed O K but lost it's strength rather quickly. Anybody know the difference between these two colors of rubber?....P.S.- thanks for the post Terry, I share the network with my wifes' computer so the E-mail goes to her computer and makes it kinda difficult to use. BTW,the Ray Harlan rubber stripper is awesome!, anybody else use one?

[Terry Lyttle]

or quality rubber...

Sig, just like every other supplier, has been at the mercy of the manufacturers forever. Pirelli doesn't really give a cdamn about the miniscule amount of rubber sold into the model industry, compared to, say, tires. My understanding of rubber strip is that the main customer of this product is the wine industry: they use a hank of strip to tie and train vines, and we get what they want as far as quality and power is concerned. When Pirelli changed its formulation in the 60s, I remember guys hoarding the stuff in their fridges so that That Mix was available to them for as long as possible.

In my case, I buy by size from Peck &c and hope for the best; usually my models don't fly long enough for rubber quality to be a concern!:D :D

[LeRoyC]

If it's Sig and it's brown it is probably pretty old and probably not too good. Did you use a lube when you tried it out ? There isn't any high quality rubber that the guys in the Chicago area have found (stay away from Tru Torque except for the casual sport use). I'm still running some FAI supply tan sport which is pretty good but last season I popped for some Tan II from 2002 (if I remember correctly) and it is far better than anything I had used previously - I've only been doing this for 2-1/2 seasons but having a blast with it. Where are you located, Pete ?

LeRoy
Chicago, IL

[flight999]

Lack of constant quality rubber is a catch 22 situation.
You get good rubber, the movement grows, the market grows.
Bad rubber, members drift to less taxing interests, the market shrinks.

[tljohnson]

I was able to buy a pound of 1/16 Tan II on Ebay about a year ago. It shows up about every few months. I have not opened the container since I heard it keeps nicely in the fridge. At the last indoor contest I went to, the Mass Launch Delta Darts were all supplied with club supplied rubber. One of the club members had squirrelled away some older pirrellie. Problem was the torque curve was completely different than tan II. Had a lot of ceiling bangers at that meet.

[moon]

If your not competing, Tan Super Sport is fine. I don't wind to max and don't notice a real difference.

[Applehoney]

>I was able to buy a pound of 1/16 Tan II on Ebay about a year ago.

There's a pound of 3/32 on Ebay right now .. 2 days to go and nearing $60.00 !!

[tljohnson]

I did not have to pay that much! I don't think I will be bidding on this item.

[tljohnson]

Ebay item number 5938874451 currently at about $55.00.

I paid about $35.00 for one pound of 1/16 marked June 00, 2001. I don't know if that is vintage or not.

[Applehoney]

I went to $45 for a pound of 1/8" from the last batch of TAn2 - supposedly the best ... earlier this year.. .but that's my limit!! I figure that if I run out of stocks of good rubber then I can spend more time on the gas models, which were sadly neglected this year. LOL

[petey pete]

I bought a 1/4 pound of 1/16 tan 2 this summer in a bargain bin at a new hobby shop specializing in r/c cars for $5.00,(he bought out an old lhs stock). I forgot about it until i read this post so I havn't tried it yet.He also said he had an amount of N.O.S. jap tissue but coudn't remember what he did with it. I left him my tele.#,but havn't heard from him.

[tljohnson]

Ebay item number 5938874451 currently at about $55.00.

I paid about $35.00 for one pound of 1/16 marked June 00, 2001. I don't know if that is vintage or not.
Now at about $65.00 withe 8 hrs to go.

[Applehoney]

Sold at $63.34. out of my league .....

[tljohnson]

A tad bit more than I care to pay also.