I was robbed!

[Rick]

I usually buy high-performance tires for both cars since we commute over a mountain road notorious for fatal accidents in all kinds of weather and they usually cost about $650-750 for the set not including alignment. For our driving tires are important and cheap safety equipment. So, no I don't think that's a lot to pay for tires. The difference between good tires and cheap tires is large and involves great pain.

It's a fiesta, exactly how high performance does (uh that should read...do) they need to be?

[dales]

Re-treads or used? it's your life but I wouldn't risk it.

Used are fine, never had any problems.

Of course I keep the old heap at <90mph.

[Joe Guy]

I didn't even know you could buy used tires.

That's probably because I'm affluent.

[Econoline]

If you really were affluent you'd have enough extra free time to discover that you can buy used tires.

Dale: you can buy used tires...but can you buy used tyres?

[Rick]

Only tyres that have not succumb to pyres...

[Joe Guy]

If you really were affluent you'd have enough extra free time to discover that you can buy used tires.

We affluent types don't waste our tyme looking around for things lyke used tyre shops.

I can usually be found at hyghly expensive restaurants nursing a glass of Clos du Mesnil with other people's wives.

[Rick]

You are such a nice boy...

[Lord Jim]

I can usually be found at hyghly expensive restaurants nursing a glass of Clos du Mesnil with other people's wives.

Who of course pick up the check....

[rubato]

Video demonstration of good vs cheap tires:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2c9Ry0J ... detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2c9Ry0J ... detailpage

On the cheaper tires the car hits the barrier at 30mph, more than fast enough to cause serious injury, where the premium tires had brought the car to a complete stop.

Getting cheaper tires is a false economy, in my opinion. But certainly when I was 20 and stone broke I drove more miles than I would like to admit on near-bald and cracked tires (bought us a set of Michelin Radials when I could put together the $200 cost).


This one makes the additional point that being an alert driver is more important:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiQnbLWi ... detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiQnbLWi ... detailpage


This one emphasizes that the difference in performance is much greater on wet roads than on dry ones. The upper reaches of hwy 17 get from 40 to 70 in of rain a year so it does matter*:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_j-2W2u ... detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_j-2W2u ... detailpage


So if you buy cheap tires, please drive slowly, stay in the slow lane, or just stay home when it rains.

PS for our first wedding anniversary I bought my wife a set of good tires. She still talks about it, and smiles.

yrs,
rubato

*San Jose gets about 15in and Santa Cruz gets 32in to illustrate the importance of 'microclimates'.

[rubato]

I usually buy high-performance tires for both cars since we commute over a mountain road notorious for fatal accidents in all kinds of weather and they usually cost about $650-750 for the set not including alignment. For our driving tires are important and cheap safety equipment. So, no I don't think that's a lot to pay for tires. The difference between good tires and cheap tires is large and involves great pain.

It's a fiesta, exactly how high performance does (uh that should read...do) they need to be?

If you drive very little, go slowly when you do, and don't drive in the rain I could see justifying cheap tires. I rented a Fiesta on my last trip to So. Cal. and this one had very bad visibility and spooky handling (the car didn't keep on-center very well). I'd want better tires on that.

We insure the cars for $1,000 deductible and then put the difference into better tires. It helps to align the financial interests the right way too; higher deductible = greater incentive not to hit something.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

PS for our first wedding anniversary I bought my wife a set of good tires. She still talks about it, and smiles.

Rube I really wish you wouldn't serve up such fat pitches....

There are so many different ways I could go with that....

Nah, tell ya what rube, I'm going to give you a present and take a pass...

That one's just too easy.....

Consider it my good deed for the day....

[Joe Guy]

PS for our first wedding anniversary I bought my wife a set of good tires. She still talks about it, and smiles.

I'm sure that's an anniversary that your wife will never forget.

Don't tell me, I'll bet that on your second anniversary you gave her a vacuum cleaner....

[Gob]

I can usually be found at hyghly expensive restaurants nursing a glass of Clos du Mesnil with other people's wives.

Oh come off it Joe, we all know that the excessively affluent prefer to be found in cheap cafes protesting breastfeeding rules.


I had one of these fiestas for a loan car once, it went like stink.

[The Hen]

Went like stink?

Do you mean it hung around for hours and refused to budge, even with the windows open?

[Gob]

[rubato]

PS for our first wedding anniversary I bought my wife a set of good tires. She still talks about it, and smiles.

I'm sure that's an anniversary that your wife will never forget.

Don't tell me, I'll bet that on your second anniversary you gave her a vacuum cleaner....

Tar Pits baby! We went to the La Brea Tar Pits!

I had studied anatomy years before but she was just starting it in Medical school so that the differences in anatomy of different species was a subject immediately compelling to her.



Look at the structure of a giant ground sloth skeleton and ask; how does it work? How does this frame support a body of that size? Look at the diameter of the femur and the space between the tibia and fibula. Why does that work?

It was a great day out and since we were pretty broke (with med school tuition being what it is) quite the value.

She will remember far longer and more vividly the tires and tar pits than she will the diamond earrings which came later.

I like smart women. We get along pretty well.

yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

PS for our first wedding anniversary I bought my wife a set of good tires. She still talks about it, and smiles.

Rube I really wish you wouldn't serve up such fat pitches....

There are so many different ways I could go with that....

Nah, tell ya what rube, I'm going to give you a present and take a pass...

That one's just too easy.....

Consider it my good deed for the day....

I married a woman with two BAs the second was with highest honors. And who finished medical school and a residency.

You married ??? hows that real estate license coming?

You were saying something?


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

Look at the structure of this animal. Why did it work so well that it was ubiquitous across the US 11,000 years ago. Why was it gone before Europeans arrived:


http://www.itsnature.org/RIP/images/Smilodon.jpg


Compare the structure to a modern leopard:



Look at the pelvis, how narrow it is. How light the bones appear to be.

yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

Anyone considering cheap tires (or cheap tyres) should remember: Your brakes don't stop the car, your tires do. Your accelerator pedal doesn't accelerate the car, your tires do. And your steering wheel doesn't steer the car, your tires do.

[dales]

PS for our first wedding anniversary I bought my wife a set of good tires. She still talks about it, and smiles.

Rube I really wish you wouldn't serve up such fat pitches....

There are so many different ways I could go with that....

Nah, tell ya what rube, I'm going to give you a present and take a pass...

That one's just too easy.....

Consider it my good deed for the day....

Jim, you old softie, you.