TAICHUNG, Taiwan (BRAIN) — You can configure the car of your dreams online, changing interior and exterior color, engine spec and other options and see how your wishes affect the bottom line.
At Bike Week, Vee Tire launched its OEM Tire Configurer, allowing OEMs the chance to build a tire to their spec and see how its final cost is determined by the choices they make.
"If there is a blue in the rim graphics an OEM wants to highlight we can change the hot patch to match, or choose one of 12 sidewall colors to match the paint and graphics of their bike," said Mario Zimmermann, Vee Tire's European sales and marketing manager. "And we can add the brand or model name to the hot patch to co-brand the tire," he added.
Interested OEMs can contact the company and receive their Tire Configurer file. As they pick a tread pattern, casing and bead style, sidewall color, Systhesis premium casing or hot patch graphics, the OEM tire cost is adjusted for runs as low as 20 to hundreds and thousands of tires.
"We have the flexibility to allow our OEM customers to create their own tires, and developing the Tire Configurer allows them to instantly see what different options cost. We are trying to be more customer-friendly," said Bike Sukanjanapong, Vee Tire's brand director. "OEMs spend a lot of time developing a look for their bikes, from fork and rim graphics to frame graphics. Until now it was not possible to include the tire into this look. But now they can match a tire to the fork graphics and pick the exact tread and sidewall they want and instantly see how this impacts the price," Sukanjanapong said.
The company's customers are getting their first taste of the tire customization options available to them at the show and getting help using the program.
