the current fuel thread debate/winter warmer has got me thinking about how it seems that most folk dont believe the benefits of expensive fuel however the opposite seems to be true with tyres as most folk seem to believe that more money for a premium brand tyre is worthwhile.
Both fuels and tyres are based on simillar eveidence which is mostly how the car or bike "feels".
I will admit that i have even "thought" that one bike tyre felt different to the other which i have equated to feeling better or worse however on the flip side because it is all a "feeling" then someone else could think that they prefer the opposite to me......it is all very personal.
Back to cars - i have usualy always gone with top brand car tyres at premium prices, but a while back i had a run of getting punctures via nails and screws etc so i decided foc it i cant afford to keep replacing with premium tyres if they only last a few thousand miles before they are destroyed.....& i was pleasantly surprised with the performance of cheap tyres that i had previously shunned.
My car has just had 2 front tyres again. It was previously running the manufacturer supplied Continental Sports Contact 2 tyre which is a premium tyre. The contis had done 11500 miles and were just about at the wear bars so had circa 2mm and the car is only a little 1.2 TSI Petrol. The EU recommended tyre tread depth is 3mm. The car was slipping all over the place. Even at the recommended 3mm it was noticeably lacking at times.
I replaced my Contis with some cheap "Runway" tyres which were £55 each including vat and fitting and balancing and this worked out at about half the price of the Contis...half price is a substantial saving...they are 17 inch low profile tyres also.
Straight away i could feel the difference and the car feels much much better even though i still havent scrubbed them in. There is honestly no ill effect & the car hasnt exploded, they look good, feel good & my wallet looks good.
The tyre place gave me a sheet with the legal statistics for the EU performace grading of the tyres which is handy to view because it proves that the tyre is or isnt a quality tyre in certain areas. If i had known about this chart beforehand i would have asked them to show me various tyres at different prices to compare.......please note which i find interesting - nowhere is there any mention or requirement for dry road performance......what exactly does this tell us i wonder?
Below is a link from the net (from seat) which explains it all.
http://www.seat.co.uk/content/uk/brand/en/services-and-accessories/maintenance/tyres/tyre-safety-and-legislation.htmlI've included the chart for my cheap tyres and it shows that they arent all that good on mpg......however this could mostly be inherrent for the size of wheel and rolling resistance etc so i will update once i have run a full tank of fuel as i always note my mileage.
The chart also shows that the tyre is second from best for wet weather performance which is great and i imagine only the wet weather super specific thres will score best.
So all in all not actually that bad really are they.
It gets me thinking about simillar scenarios with bike tyres and i wish we could have more blind tests as i think there is still allot of snobbery and suggestion whether intended or not and i dont think we should just trust those with vested interests. The way that i see that bike tyres are different is that the way they corner compared to cars is that over time they are deformed or squared off. This is another performance indicator that cars dont have per say.
Here is another thing to think about with car or bike and bearing in mind that my tyre had noticeably reduced performance at 3mm tread. New tread was 8mm. So that gave me an effective range of useful tread of only 5mm. If you go for a tyre that is double the price & your mate buys the cheap one then by the time the tyres are down to half of their tread (assuming equal wear) your mate then replaces his for another set of cheap ones. For the same price he could afford to buy the cheaper tyre twice within the same period. So there you are during the second half and you are running on say just under half tread whilst your mate is running on almost full tread. Which is the safest? Who will stop quicker in the wet? If it is bike tyres then whos tyre is gonna be the most squared off during that second half?
It is just food for thought that is all. What im saying is that just because you've got the fanciest, most expensive tyres does not mean that you are the safest or best performing. Much the same could be said for someone running gucci tyres but who never checks his pressures but that is more the human factor. The human factor can i think come into it with the fancy tyre for certain people. If you've forked out all that money then you're gonna get your moneys worth so are possibly more likely to run that tyre closer to its legal limits, especially if you are on a low budget so i say to folk on a budget that it is best to go cheap and buy twice.
I'm glad i've found these charts now and i want to research more now about individual tyres & prices & i hope that they exist for bikes.