steel wheels for winter tyres

Winter is the time for Darwinian selection on bikes. Those who make it though can read the road and know what to do in the event of losing an end (back swear like hell and try and recover - front, offer a quick prayer to deity of choice and cover your goolies)

I made it through but it was an interesting time.

Also sprach "Clive George" :-

Hurrah!

And you hope for similarly skilled/prepared others on the road, if they aren't both of your break paths are going to be prolonged due to not having changed to winter tyres.

As I said before, I feel I could drive pretty safely with a couple of pints, not doing anything stupid and maybe even keeping in 2nd. Yet I don't do that because we all know that a) it's illegal and b) I would be overconfident as the influence of alcohol on your reaction time is well proven. To be a little drastig, no snow tyres in cold weather effectly turns you into a half drunk driver. You will usually survive it without accident as Churchill has survived smoking and heavy drinking, but you just never know whether you are as lucky. Is it worth the risk, and if so for what benefit? Sure it may be a hassle to change the tyres, but other than that - where on earth is the problem? I have not heard a convincing argument for not changing. Money cannot be the issue as economical snow tyres are no dearer than regular tyres, both last longer due to the right temperature-rubber relation.

Continental insurers take you for a ride if you are involved in an accident driving without snow tyres. They claim that you intentionally do not use appropriate equipment for the weather, and that is totally regardless of snow.

Of course public transport in this country is no real alternative due to frozen switches, points and what not - whilst in the summer the delays come from tracks that aren't made for hot weather because it never gets hot in the first place. The cynic (or call it homesick ;-) in me thinks that this points towards a national characteristic in Britain to prefer the mediocre solution and never prepare for the extreme. But that takes us firmly away from the tyres and I shall resist the temptation to go on yet another rant.

F.

They can if they are doing 70 mph out in the breeze

Also sprach "Taz" :-

No they can't - not if they're dry.

: > Thermometers can't measure windchill. If they could, they'd be braking : > the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

: They can if they are doing 70 mph out in the breeze

You need to find out what "windchill" means. If you can find a way of getting a thermometer to register less than the ambient air temperature, even at "70 mph out in the breeze" there's a Nobel prize waiting for you ...

Ian