What with the temperatures for the next 10 days looking at 14 degrees +, i was just wondering if anyone had changed back to summer tires yet? I guess tire wear is quite high at the moment due to the temps being higher than the norm for this time of year.

We wait until at least late April, as doing so before then means that we can't drive in Italy.

Tom

I wouldn't worry about excessive tyre wear just yet. Unless you're driving like you're in a race the difference, at those sort of ambient temperatures, won't be huge, especially as it's likely to still be getting cold overnight. And even in the lowlands there's often snow as late as April, so I'd hold fire if I were you.

Up here at 1350m it's still winter, with a significant (~30cm) snowfall just yesterday and heavy frosts at night, so it will be at least a month before anyone thinks of switching to summer rubber.

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Got 2 cars. One for summer and one for winter. So just need to choose which one to drive depending on the weather.

How lame. Tom has at least 4 cars. One for each season. Plus a dozen bikes.

No time! Going on holiday on Saturday. Will have to wait until we get back.

I have all season tires and chains in the trunk just in case.

Nope, winter tires whole year through.

Does anyone have thorough information about what one will lose by keeping winter tyres all year long?

Pretty sure the grip level is like using summers in winter, albeit it not on snow or ice, normal cold day. Plenty of articles on this if you google it. There was a good you tube video that review this and using summer sin winter. not many focus on winters in summer.

Also, added tire wear due to the compound being so soft. But grip will be lost as they aren't a tire that is optimized for the summer. Surprised anyone uses them in the summer.

Winter tires in summer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrz14n4vVkQ

How do you get your all seasons to all fit in the trunk?

Ok so 10 ft extra on 125 ft breaking distance. Not bad i would say.

Especially since that I buy new (winter)tires every 3 years, instead of both summer and winter tires every 6 years. How do 2 year old winter tires compare to 5 year old summer tires ? And how safe are 5 year old winter tires in the winter ?

Also, why do motorcycles have soft compound tires in summer when they apparently are bad ?

Bike tires need above all else better traction and therefore have a lower tire life compared to normal vehicles.

They're very light... the chains are to hold them down.

Bit of a strange post there. It is all about optimizing your grip levels. I hope I do not have to make an emergency stop with the likes of you behind me. Much like the case of summer tires in winter, I'm wondering if your insurance would be invalidated if you crash due to you not equipping your car for the conditions?

That's an interesting point of view. I would like to hear more opinions on that. Is the difference really so neglectible?

There are so many variables. Wet road, dry road, corners, inattention, inaction.

One true fact is many people see the risk, apply the brakes, but nowhere near hard enough. Also, brake, but do not steer around the danger, which is perfectly possible with abs.
A lot of people crash into the car infront rather than take evasive action other than braking.

So tyres are a factor, but not the main factor.
I’m going to run winter or all season once my summers expire next time.

If the car in front of you is only 124feet away, then, yes the 10 feet less of breaking distance is pretty important ....


You can be cheap on a lot of things, but being cheap on tires is silly, they are not expensive, they are the only things in contact with the road and they make the difference between walking away from an accident or going in a wooden box or pushing a wheelchair.


If you want to take the risk of running winter tires in the summer, then fine go ahead, but there are consequences to your actions, some which can be quite serious.

Motorcycles tilt when turning, they have a much smaller contact patch, and that patch has to follow the radius up to the sidewall in a way which an automotive tire never needs to do.

"Ah", you say, "But the surface loading is correspondingly lower, compared to a car". Correct, but the car has 4 patches, the bike two and... a small patch of gravel or sand will rapidly compromise the bike's handling, whereas a car will not immediately lose control if one tire is deprived of traction.