Re: story about tyres on TV tonight

Ron <dodo@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:

>Athol <athol_SPIT_SPAM@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in news:1210772532.17091
>@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> In aus.cars Daryl Walford <dwalford@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> 
>>> I saw the story, some "expert" from Wheels claimed that tyres more
than 
>>> 6 yrs old "dry out" and become dangerous.
>> 
>> Ironic, then, that my grandfather used to age his crossplies in the
>> roof of his garage for years before fitting them to his car...
>> 
>> It was apparently fairly common practice at the time.
>> 

>Yes they did that to make them hard.
>Hard tyres don't wear as fast :-)
>Okay in the days of old cars and slow traffic :-)

I've got a set of almost new metric Michelin TRX tyres on a set of 390 mm
Saab TRX alloys and they're just wonderful on the highway because being
harder-compound rubber they have a lot less rolling resistance. They're
not
really all that good for any type of 'performance' car-club style driving
(both being hard with strong sidewalls, and because the tread pattern is
nothing like what's on a modern soft tyre), but I know that so it's no big
deal. What is a big deal is the cost (about $450 per tyre new) but I
didn't
pay new price for them (otherwise I wouldn't have bought them). Definitely
a
once-off thing since I found the right source at the right time. 8-)

So there are some instances where hard-compound rubber is normal on
special-design tyres. TRX tyres from Michelin (which they still make!) and
some of Michelins other vintage/specialist tyres are examples of that.

But on normal run of the mill J-type tyres with really thin sidewalls
(like
most modern tyres these days), if they get hard they do crack a bit though
more damage is caused to tyres by incorrect inflation, incorrect wheel
alignment and steering/suspension setup and we didn't see any mention of
that in the TV story. The Wheels magazine editor would never admit that on
camera either as he'd be dissing a whole slab of the auto industry!

Craig.

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