RE: PH Blog: rain stops play

[Ollywood]

At first I thought I was reading about joe public driving in snow which I would agreed about. Although driving with summer tyres in snow is challenging and most Europeans that have healthy snowfalls would look at you as a madman to drive around in snow with summer tyres not to mention illegal or at least default on insurance.

But to drive faster in rain?! Really? Being a London commuter and I use two wheels with pedals I do get to a better view of the wet Tarmac than a car drivers. And I must say that every time I have had the misfortune of falling it has always been on wet Tarmac! It's treacherous stuff in the wet and its all to do with the amount of filth that gets washed onto it.

[Zumbruk]

That Rangie isn't muddy. There isn't even any mud on the roof.

[I'm Spartacus]

I think the point Harris is trying to make is that other road users make the roads less safe during theses conditions by overcompensating due to the fact that they don't understand the limits of their cars.

In my last post I told how my car was written-off on Wednesday by someone who clearly didn't understand how her car performs in the wet. If she had just driven in the way she would have in normal conditions she would have probably just pulled up safely, but because she panicked and took avasive action she slid across my lane and took me out. This is obviously just me guessing about what happened, she was probably on her phone or driving too fast, or both, but the point is that modern tyres, suspension etc. mean that as long as you drive responsibly and with a bit of thought and consideration you should be fine.

[zebedee]

I'm Spartacus said:

the point is that modern tyres, [] mean that as long as you drive responsibly and with a bit of thought and consideration you should be fine.

Unless they are cheap modern tyres, which most people do drive around on, and really aren't very good.

[I'm Spartacus]

zebedee said:

Unless they are cheap modern tyres, which most people do drive around on, and really aren't very good.

Agreed. I've never understood why people buy them. I had a set of four Falkens on my Focus which cost £75 a corner. The best tyres I've ever had fitted to a car I've owned. Fantastic in the dry or wet and a reasonable life span for a softer tyre. £75 a corner was a bargain in my opinion. On the other hand my sister had new tyres fitted to her Punto not long ago which cost £50 each for budgets. I'd rather spend the extra 50% for a quality product personally than pay a nearly as large amount for crappy plastic tyres.

[ajb101]

I'm Spartacus said:

Agreed. I've never understood why people buy them. I had a set of four Falkens on my Focus which cost £75 a corner. The best tyres I've ever had fitted to a car I've owned. Fantastic in the dry or wet and a reasonable life span for a softer tyre. £75 a corner was a bargain in my opinion. On the other hand my sister had new tyres fitted to her Punto not long ago which cost £50 each for budgets. I'd rather spend the extra 50% for a quality product personally than pay a nearly as large amount for crappy plastic tyres.

I bought an MR2 a while back, it only cost me £800, I then spent the same again on a set of ROTA rims with Falken 451 or 452 rubber, I forget the wheel widths but the tyres were 245/35R17 up front and at the rear they were 295/35R17 (or very close to that in terms of the side wall specifications the widths are correct.)

This set up was marvellous, without any suspension tweaks the handling was brilliant and when it did step out, it did it in such a predictable manner it was a blissful experience. Because it was a REv1 SW20 MR2, it had no power steering... so low speed was 'interesting'

I like Falken, good price, good tyre.

Anyhow, just thought I'd share

Edited by ajb101 on Tuesday 8th January 10:32

Edited by ajb101 on Tuesday 8th January 10:33