Summer tyres for winter?

force_ten

mjoneseyjones wrote: »

I am not saying winter tyres aren't good at what they do, and that no-one needs them - they're just entirely pointless for the vast majority of the population of a moderate climate country like ours.

http://youtu.be/et5It8OB8l8

a quick look at that video suggest that a car fitted with winter tyres stops seven car lengths quicker than the same car fitted with summer tyres on a wet road not a snowflake in sight

seven car lengths is around 30 metres so fitting your car with winter tyres helps you stop 30 meters shorter in the wet, how pointless is that

Iceweasel

I tend to agree with you on most of your more points - more than I would disagree with anyway.

There will always be tyres that don't fit the general trend - I haven't seen a knobbly with the snowflake mark - but I believe such a thing exists - but they must be a rarity - at the moment at least.

When I was young, foolish , and hard up I once drove to the South of France on knobblies - the noise was terrible and when I got home I think there was 3mm of tread gone.

Now that I have gone three years with 2 sets of wheels I don't think I could go back to having just the one set of 'compromise' tyres.

I want the best grip I can get in both Summer and Winter.

I no longer go off-road and I don't have a 4x4 anymore either.

Just the one rear-wheel drive that does everything very well as long as I have the appropriate tyres for the season.

mjoneseyjones

force_ten wrote: »

http://youtu.be/et5It8OB8l8

a quick look at that video suggest that a car fitted with winter tyres stops seven car lengths quicker than the same car fitted with summer tyres on a wet road not a snowflake in sight

seven car lengths is around 30 metres so fitting your car with winter tyres helps you stop 30 meters shorter in the wet, how pointless is that

Pretty pointless when their performance will be nothing like that when it's not wet or when it's above 7 degrees.

Our weather is too moderate to make winter tyres a necessity for anything other than a minority of road users. You'd be better off advising people to splash out on high performance all weather tyres, or uprated brakes.

JustinR1979

I've always found uprating my brakes to help massively when I have little grip

hellbells

Cut your speed and most tyres will do,use £100 a corner in west Scotland and have no probs.

mjoneseyjones

JustinR1979 wrote: »

I've always found uprating my brakes to help massively when I have little grip

I'm assuming you didn't get this, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps I wasn't clear enough - uprated brakes and high performance tyres are two other examples of things the average motorist doesn't need.

Aside from a minority of people in a minority of locations, winter tyres are utterly unnecessary.

JustinR1979

mjoneseyjones wrote: »

I'm assuming you didn't get this, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps I wasn't clear enough - uprated brakes and high performance tyres are two other examples of things the average motorist doesn't need.

You made it read in reference to the weather.
I think grip and braking are 2 things you want an abundance of to be honest.

DoctorFoster

mjoneseyjones wrote: »

I'm assuming you didn't get this, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps I wasn't clear enough - uprated brakes and high performance tyres are two other examples of things the average motorist doesn't need.

Aside from a minority of people in a minority of locations, winter tyres are utterly unnecessary.

Justin drives a transit GT. He's better than average.

force_ten

mjoneseyjones wrote: »

Pretty pointless when their performance will be nothing like that when it's not wet or when it's above 7 degrees.

Our weather is too moderate to make winter tyres a necessity for anything other than a minority of road users. You'd be better off advising people to splash out on high performance all weather tyres, or uprated brakes.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2014/winter

december january and february 2013/2014 average uk temperatures well below 7 deg C, and the rainfall in the south of england last winter was something like 200-250 % of the uk average, last years winter was the wettest on record

In cold and wet conditions winter tyres provide better traction increased grip and shorter stopping distance, they are a much safer option than summer tyres in wet and cold conditions

mjoneseyjones

JustinR1979 wrote: »

You made it read in reference to the weather.
I think grip and braking are 2 things you want an abundance of to be honest.

I've read it back and it's pretty clear, although perhaps I should have said 'might as well' instead of 'better off' - our weather is too moderate to require anything like winter tyres, high performance tyres, uprated brakes or any of the other nonsense suggested by the eager to appear knowledgeable crowd on here.