Jupiter Tyres

Not blissfully unaware at all, just didn't mention it.

The other end of the axle had the unused spare on it. The best of the two front tyres had gone into the boot as a spare. I'd done the swap the night before ready to go to Halfords and replace the other front tyre the following weekend.

Thus

I don't have a perfectly good, brand new spare rotting in the boot during the life of the car

I make best use of all tyres (saves a few bob)

I have a good spare with at least 3mm of tread on it once the initial spare tyre has been used

Thereafter, as each pair of tyres wears down I pick the one with the most tread out of the worn pair on the car, pop it into the boot, and replace the other two. So the "spare" gets rotated out of use as well.

(This is one reason among many that I don't like the silly undersized - and useless - spares fitted to some cars)

Almost forgot - within a couple of weeks of replacing the tyres, I swop them front - back so the rears then don't stay on for too long and its always the fronts that get replaced (punctures aside!). At 20 - 25k miles pa, that means I don't have tyres sitting on the car deteriorating over a period of time, which is what can happen with the rears - they aren't on for more than a couple of years at best (or maybe 3 for the first tyres off the rear of the car).

It improved a LOT :)

Whoooosh.

If you didn't have any issues with understeer etc., in what way was the handling 'improved'?

You are perfectly entitled to your opinion and I mine. "Handles like Bambi on ice"?! Did you return the Alfa 155 for a full refund and report that to the Trading Standards Institute?

No.

I changed the rubber for something more appropriate.

I've always said cheap rubber is great, until the first time you need to stop quickly. Then you wish you'd not been so pikey and paid for something half decent.

Steering just felt a lot sharper, and I mean a lot. Maybe I was getting very mild understeer and just didn't really notice it much. TBH only understeer I've experienced/noticed before was on worn out Pirelli's while caning it around bends (on a FWD car) ;-)

Just because you buy an expensive tyre does not mean that a cheaper tyre will not out perform it, independent tyre test's often have cheaper tyres out performing more expensive and better known tyres.

One of the cheapest road use tyres is Kumho, do you follow any motorsports?

No, but I read about them occasionally. I have come across this Kumho, a name that has been branded about in my car's owner club forum a few times.

I don't choose my tyres on price actually. They are the last consideration. For safety, the tyres for me have to be of the highest achievable standards. For that I look at their performance, their limits of capabilities under stress, the type of situations I normally do not experience. If they pass with flying colours in extremes, then I reckon I can trust they will pull me (and whoever is with me in the car) through safely when such conditions do occur unexpectedly, unplanned for, in an accident. Not surprisingly, the ones that have been so favoured and selected tend to be priced more: the manufacturers are not stupid.

I had Michelin Energies on my Zafira from new. When I got a terminal puncture on one front wheel, I asked for the replacement to be a Michelin to match the original - partly to get decent mileage, and partly so the handling would be consistent, particularly in the wet. They (VX dealer) fitted a Michelin Pilot Permacy without warning me. Had a quick search of the 'net and it seemed to be a reasonable swap, although they could have asked me first.

Two years later I needed another new tyre. This time I insisted on a Michelin Energy, and that's what they fitted. But when I looked at the tread, it was totally different from the originals Energies fitted from new. So despite my best efforts, I ended up with two different tread patterns on the same axle..........even with the same brand of tyre.

Biggles

Understeer/ oversteer is a function of grip, handling is far more "feel".

At least that's how I've always understood it :)

I had a feeling this might have been the case actually, shortly after posting...

Yup - it pained me the to replace a perfectly good rear tyre last year due to age/cracking, when it still had a good 50-60% of its tread left - I replaced the spare as well (which was legal but much lower in terms of tread), doing exactly as you do.

That's not my experience at all. 35 years ago I was a competition rally driver. Since I gave that away, I normally drive very safely and conservatively. And at normal traffic speeds, I often notice subtle differences in tyre feel when trying new brands. This can be something as trivial as responsiveness and twitchiness when lane-changing. More than once, I've felt an initial mistrust for the feel of a new tyre, only to gain full confidence in it after pushing it towards its limits somewhere safe.

John

Did you know that the actual tread pattern has no real bearing on how the tyre behaves? Tyre manufacturers view the tread pattern as a signature, no more. It is the mix in the tyre compound that does the work. I read this in a column written by a man who is one of the top guns at Avon tyres. Surprised me.

I'm afraid this statement is completely at odds with my own experiences over

43 years of motoring. Are you able to provide references to these "independent tyre test's" (sic) please?

From my own experience I would much rather drive with a recognised make of tyre that only had 2mm of tread left than with a budget brand. I am sure in my own mind that I would be safer.

I once had a pair of Courier tyres (made by Pirelli) fitted to an Escort. The grip was so poor that I threw them away after a month.

Chris

The message from gazzafield contains these words:

Apparently it affects the sound the tyre makes quite a bit - but not a lot beyond that.

That I would imagine would having something to do with the depth and width of the tread grooves?

Surely it'll affect the volume and method of water displacement though? Of course, there may be slight changes to the pattern which will have little effect, but if you're saying that the tread pattern have no effect at all in the wet, I'd be surprised.

d

As I say, it surprised me. But he literally said that all the gubbins about tread patterns are simply for the advertisers to say our tyres better than yours 'cause it looks nicer.