OT Snow

The Vredesteins I lobbed on the Saab were £50 each. That's about the same
price as half-decent "normal" tyres for it.

 

Sounds too cheesy to be true.

 

Most folk over here go for much lower-spec winter tyres than their
summer ones, which also brings the cost down. They're sold in
supermarkets and discount stores, sometimes as low as 30 quid each.

Not sure what rating the ones on the R36 are, but they're VW-fitted
and came with no warnings so are probably W-rated[3]. Bloody should be
at the price they charged me[1].

But on the Peugeot and the Volvo I just got shot of we had smaller
steel wheels for winter, so as well as lower-rated tyres, they're also
a higher profile, so much more in the normal size range and therefore
cheaper too.

[1] CHF645 per wheel. OK, so that was for the wheels and tyres, and
due to sizing[2]I could only go with alloys, but it was still
unexpectedly high. I did check with other vendors, of course, but they
weren't significantly cheaper.
[2] Has to be 17" ones to clear the huge fron brake calipers. Summer
wheels are 18".
[3] Top speed of 168mph - car's limited to 155.

 

Is it the 1940s already?
Ffs, some arsehole in head office makes a decision and puts out a decree
like that with no thought at all as to how it affects people.

Maybe she/he /it had dodgy joints.

 

It's cool. I have 6 inches.

--
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116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Not as much as Fay Wray.
And I don't think Bette Davis's eyes popped out until she met Errol Flynn.

 

Deep stuff's actually better in some ways, although it does tend to
slow you down more.

In fact, bar the initial outlay, there's a slight cost benefit to be
had, as winter tyres are much more efficient in cold weather, even
when it's not _that_ cold. So there's a slight increase in fuel
economy, and some of them advertise significantly longer lifespans
google for michelin alpin, for instance), although I'm not certain of
that.

But for me the fact that they offer better grip at anthing below
around 10C than normal tyres is reason enough, even if there's no snow
all season.

 

Bloody right.

 

From a conversation with a friend who used to work on the telephones
pre-BT days, they had to make their way to the nearest exchange in such
conditions. Mind you an exchange then was a big building, not a cabinet
in a street as it is now. It seems to work for the GPO as there was
always an even distribution of exchanges and employees to ensure the
system had a minimum staff coverage.

By the way, the earlier story was of a health professional. I guess that
the authority was thinking that the public would like some service.
Perhaps I was remiss in not adding that in the earlier post.

 

How do they work when the temperature gets up to 20C?
It mostly doesn't exceed 10C from November to February in England
but there are enough days when it does and I wouldn't want my tyres
to disappear in one motorway trip.

 

I leave mine on until at least the end of April most years, and
clearly there are times when temps are up into the 20s. They certainly
continue to work very well when it's warmer, and although I guess they
must wear faster I've never really noticed it. But I don't tend to
throw cars around too much on them, which might give a different
result.

 

Finally arrived here around an hour ago. Half an inch and building.
Time to get to a supermarket and stock up before the village gets
cut off. One out of 3 roads already impassable, the steep twisty one.

 

Success!

 

Although of course if you pay a man to change the wheels, or as a few
folk round here do, just the tyres, twice a year, then of course
there's an ongoing outlay incurred.

And don't count on the fuel economy thing - now I re-read it, it's
like I'm saying there's a noticeable difference, which is not
necessarily the case, but in _theory_ there should be some. In
practice, my winter driving habits are so different from summer that
much bigger differences are seen due to things like having the top-box
on the roof all winter, driving up and down lots of alpine twisties,
and such like.

 

I've just walked a mile in the snow, and I *am* disabled.

 

http://www.pre.org/album/2009-Snow/slides/IMG_1212.php

 

Just looked out the window. In the half hour since we left it,
somebody's already given it boobs.

 

Dunno about that, I was trying to remember a story I had heard some time
ago. He probably did, mind you he may have been pissed at the time.

 

I saw Boris on the news earlier, with an absolute classic. "It's the
right kind of snow, but in the wrong kind of quantities."

 

I saw Boris on the news earlier, with an absolute classic. "It's the
right kind of snow, but in the wrong kind of quantities."