Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 23:08:41 +0100 From: Grunff <grunffnopsam.com> Subject: Re: Tire/Tyre Favorites/Favourites & Why
J. Harris wrote: > With all the negativity surrounding Michelins in some other post, I'm > curious to learn what are y'alls favorite Summer treads and why? > Myself, I've come to adore Dunlop's SP8000s (205/55-R16); if only I'd > thought about tread life though :o) Ok, here are my views on tyres. There are three main factors influencing the 'performance' of a tyre: [a] Overall construction. This has a direct effect on how well a tyre takes abuse without being damaged, but does not make a significant difference to how the tyre 'feels' on the road. Generally speaking, the better makes will have better engineered tyres, but not by a large margin, because they all must meet the same standards at the end of the day. [b] Tread. Contrary to popular belief, tread pattern makes little difference to how tyres behave in the wet. Tyre manufacturerd openly admit that patterns are purely a fashion item. What does make a difference is depth (under 4mm and you start loosing tread usefulness) and percentage coverage. As long as you have adequate tread depth, most tyres will behave in quite a similar way in the wet, when you take [c] into account. [c] Rubber hardness. The one thing that makes a *big* difference to how tyres feel on the road. The harder the tread rubber, the longer the tyre will last and the more energy efficient it will be, *at the expense of grip*. All tyres are a compromise between longevity and grip. You can get extremely soft tyres which don't last very long but feel great, and you can get quite hard tyres which don't grip very well but last for ages. Last year I bought a set of Khumo Ecstas for my 16vT. They are possibly the grippiest tyres I've ever had, both in the wet and dry. But 12k miles later, the fronts are completely knackered. The backs are about half worn. So take your pick - hard tyres which last a while but don't grip very well, or soft tyres which grip well but don't last. Before anyone suggests that the better brands achieve both, they don't - and I'll explain why. Soft rubber grips well because it deforms more, giving a larger contact surface area between rubber and road. I'm not talking about the macroscopic area that you see, I'm talking about the contact on a microscopic level. Because the contact area is that much bigger, the number of molecules lost from the tyre to the road is proportionally bigger. -- Grunff
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