Re: tires, OT but 164 drivers may have the answer

[Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>]

On Wed, 27 Nov 2002 00:03:27 -0500 Wayne Abbott <wabbott@domain.elided> wrote:
> Falken Ziex ZE-512     205/55VR15   Her sister's recommendation, $79.50
> ea.
> delivered from Vulcan Tire

i'm not generally a fan of all-season type tires. however, i have some
comments on the Falken Ziex line. my 164 has a set mounted on alloys for
summer tires; they came with the car. i don't normally buy Falkens, i
had a set once before some years back and wasn't impressed, and so only
ended up with these as a side effect.

the tires i have are Falken Ziex ZE-502, i don't know the exact
relationship to the ZE-512. they are sized 205/60/R15 with a 91H load/speed
rating.

on dry pavement, i find the traction weak for an H rated tire, but they are
at least fairly predictable. they have performed pretty decently in wet.
the big suprise was the snow performance.

i've been fumbling trying to get usable snows on all four corners of the
car, and during the last snow storm, i found myself stuck with two somewhat
generic all seasons in the back (one Michelin MXV4 and one Firestone), and
two of the Falkens on the front.

the car was suprisingly manageable in the 2+" of snow on our 100' gravel
driveway. a little sloppy, not real precise, but i got it where i wanted
it. i just had to be careful when near my wife's recently acquired diesel
benz.

how these tires will behave on ice is unknown to me. i didn't take the car
out in this configuration during our recent ice storm.

on monday i'll acheive a state of real snow tires on all 4 corners. i'm
looking forward to it.

richard
--
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
              Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
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