Quote:
Originally Posted by caveman_returns
So you'll never slide on a winter tyre eh?
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You'll slide a littkle, but stand quicker as you have more grip than a Summer tire. Period. The little teeth grip into little grooves which can be found on ice and will "hook" into it and give you the desired traction/grip to stop/accelerate. The way you comment show, you've not once driven a car with Winter tyres in Winter conditions (I don't mean +4°C with drizzle, I mean -15°C on snow and ice). If you have, you would be writing turned by 180°. Basically PRO different tire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by caveman_returns
So they're "smooth and soft" with little teeth that offer traction? Hmmm, smooth yet rough?
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Smooth and soft wasn't refering to the tread pattern but to the material. A hard (cold) Summer tire isn't smooth and soft. Do your self a favor and feel a cold Summer tire in Winter... Totally different than when driven in warm temperatures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by caveman_returns
Not just me...According to Conti, they account for just 0.5 per cent of UK sales-Dec 2010.
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In England, yeah, because probably nobody has actually tested them. In the Alps you drive on Winter tires because you need to. They have a law aswell, but the law (forcing them to become mandatory) was only after tests and other things being obvious enough, to convince people, to drive Winter tyres.
Continental recommends - no matter what brand - to drive on Winter tyres when temperatures drop below 7°C. Below that, and the rubber goes hard and has less grip. I've driven in Winter on Summer tyres - didn't have fun at all!
Even before the 2009 introduced Winter tire law, 90% of all people in Germany changed from Summer to Winter tyres... My grandad always says "I never had Winter tyres and will never need them. They cause more deaths than help". The same was also said about airbags (his car has now got 6) and about seat belts. ABS and ESP aswell... I give him one more Winter with snow and he'll be out buying them.
I stood last year in Harwich in their "snow storm" shortly before Christmas. I just got off the ferry from Hoek-Van-Holland and was stuck in a traffic jam, because a lorry couldn't get up those slight inclines. I stood 3 hours untill I had enough and in the end overtook about a 3 mile long queue of people not being able to drive in about 3 inches of snow due to having no appropriate tyres... I was on a dual carriage way (the A12) heading towards Ipswich and was the only car using the outside lane... Traffic on the inside lane was basically parked up. I was cruising IN SNOW at around 40 mph!
It wasn't unsafe... I've driven 120 km/h (~75 mph) in/on snow on an Autobahn with not one issue. Traffic flows (on Winter tyres!) as if it was Summer! At least here... The tyres have their limits and you can't trick physics with tyres but you can at least use the grip possible... If you hit a curve too fast, you won't stay on the road, you wouldn't do so in Summer either... But on Winter tyres you can NEARLY keep your normal warm weather speeds and cornering styles...
I prefer to spend my time MOVING rather than STANDING...
And standing includes waiting behind other people, who - like you - don't see any sense in buying Winter tyres