Buying new tires

[Jon Dahl]

Hey, Lonerider, Nokian has a website, try there. Also, Tire Factory chain is or should be in your area. My first rec was due to your call for reasonably priced and all season.

[Guest Pre School Rider]

Math has nothing to do with it,it's expendable income that's the issue.I don't make enough to buy tires in the spring,'cause I work at STRATTON. DOH.Starvation is normal in wintertime VT. Chains,yup,try getting from Chester to Londonderry in 24" of fresh,and have Rt 11 closed due to truckers from NJ who didn't drive in snow for their CDL's.Ever been passed by snowmobiles while on a State Highway? I've been,twice,so far. And keep this mind,Rt 121 is a state highway,but just happens to still be Dirt. I'm not even going to discuss Smuggler's Notch,nor even getting from Brownsville over to Tyson.Some places you just have get to,but it ain't always easy.

[Guest Biff]

Good thread, fhanks for reminding me I needed to get my Blizzaks put on my car.

[Neil Gendzwill]

What's the difference between the Hakkapeliitta 2 and the Hakkapeliitta Q? Why would you choose one over the other?

[lonerider]

Sorry I'm being pretty picky with the numbers, if you don't want to bother about that... don't read on as that's all I'm talking about in the rest of this post.

Originally posted by Pre School Rider

Math has nothing to do with it,it's expendable income that's the issue.I don't make enough to buy tires in the spring,'cause I work at STRATTON. DOH.Starvation is normal in wintertime VT.

You don't have to buy it in the spring... it works even if you buy in the summer. Unless you get like a check on September 30th for $400, I'm assuming you are slowly saving up for the Nokians over the warm months. Meaning that maybe in June you have $200 spare cash to get regular tires... drive those until November. Switch back to the Nokians in November which should have 5 months left on them since you didn't drive them from June-November... meaning you now can use those until April. Which by then you can switch back to summer tires... drive those until November and buy new Nokians for $400. There you just spent $600 for one year and a month instead of $800 and the saving will increase in the future. This is also assuming that you are driving equal mileage in winter/summer months, most likely you are driving less in the winter (since chain controls keep you down to 30 mph). Is there some fact that I'm missing?

From this reasoning spring/summer tires save you money in the long run (assuming you need to get good snow tires), but takes up garage space and are a hassle to switch on and off.

Chains,yup,try getting from Chester to Londonderry in 24" of fresh,and have Rt 11 closed due to truckers from NJ who didn't drive in snow for their CDL's.Ever been passed by snowmobiles while on a State Highway? I've been,twice,so far. And keep this mind,Rt 121 is a state highway,but just happens to still be Dirt. I'm not even going to discuss Smuggler's Notch,nor even getting from Brownsville over to Tyson.Some places you just have get to,but it ain't always easy.

Wow, yea I've never done that. I mean that can only happen like 5 days a season... (assuming annual snowfall of 180 inches) so my chances are slim, especially since we take Rt.30 (maybe Rt.7). But if you are a local and live there for a few years and NEED to get to work that day, I could see it being important.

Yea, I'm sure Smuggler's Notch is worse... but since you said you worked at Stratton I assumed you go there everyday and that you lived relatively close to it.

[lonerider]

Originally posted by Jon Dahl

Hey, Lonerider, Nokian has a website, try there. Also, Tire Factory chain is or should be in your area. My first rec was due to your call for reasonably priced and all season.

Yea I found it at www.nokiantires.com

No, I think I'm still going to go with something like the Kelly Charger HR or the Ultra HP4s (i.e. more affordable version) for now. However, I figure I might as well research as much as I can should I decide to upgrade in a few years. Nokians seems like the "wow" purchase that is super cool, but something most people don't need (although many still buy).

I really don't need it, I mean I still put on like 6000 miles driving to Tahoe, but rarely is it that bad and since I have a FWD car which will need chains anyway to get pass CHP. Maybe, when I get that Subaru in a few years... (one can dream).

[John Gilmour]

I can understand PSR's reasoning behind buying Nokians.

The beginning of the snow season in New england through about February we have a lot of mornings with icy roads.

The newer rubber on the Snows ussually has more ice grip. AS the sipes wear down and hte silica rubber wears- the tires then have less ice grip.

I personally like going into a snow season witha fresh set every year. Besides the NRW's had very good dry performance.

On one other note. With computer modeling Snow Tires SHOULD be getting better at a faster rate than before (I"m bummed that I will be using at least 5 year old Michelin Alpins this year).

Wearing out your snowtires in a single season assures you that you will be on the newest technology every season.

Unfortunately...this year PSR- the new technology IMHO (Nokian WR's) are not very good. If you have your Nokian NRW's now is the time to try and get another season out of them- and perhaps save them for next season as you can sometimes get several seasons with NRW's if not driven in the summer.

Also since PSR must get to teh mountain every day- it is likely that the great majority of the miles he puts on a car are winter miles as opposed to summer miles. Leaving the tires on his car in the summer- probably doesn't put much wear on them.

PSR, I can say with a great deal of certainty though that your 1 season old NRW's will give you more grip than new WR's- as for Hakka 2's I don't know.

________

Kawasaki Zzr600

[lonerider]

Originally posted by John Gilmour

I can understand PSR's reasoning behind buying Nokians.

The beginning of the snow season in New england through about February we have a lot of mornings with icy roads.

The newer rubber on the Snows ussually has more ice grip. AS the sipes wear down and hte silica rubber wears- the tires then have less ice grip.

I personally like going into a snow season witha fresh set every year. Besides the NRW's had very good dry performance.

On one other note. With computer modeling Snow Tires SHOULD be getting better at a faster rate than before (I"m bummed that I will be using at least 5 year old Michelin Alpins this year).

Wearing out your snowtires in a single season assures you that you will be on the newest technology every season.

Unfortunately...this year PSR- the new technology IMHO (Nokian WR's) are not very good. If you have your Nokian NRW's now is the time to try and get another season out of them- and perhaps save them for next season as you can sometimes get several seasons with NRW's if not driven in the summer.

Also since PSR must get to teh mountain every day- it is likely that the great majority of the miles he puts on a car are winter miles as opposed to summer miles. Leaving the tires on his car in the summer- probably doesn't put much wear on them.

PSR, I can say with a great deal of certainty though that your 1 season old NRW's will give you more grip than new WR's- as for Hakka 2's I don't know.

That makes sense from a traction point of view, it was just that he seemed to imply that wearing out your winter tires was cheaper than splitting usage between expensive winter tires and cheaper summer tires, which I didn't quite understand.

I spent most of my formative snowboarding year driving from Boston up into New England and it's just that I never really paid attention to tires back then (mostly because I was in other people's cars). So I was so surprised about he convictions. I remember the Maine ice storm of 1997 not being terrible of course it wasn't my cars and we might have had good snow tires on... but I figure being a starving student that we didn't (well maybe his parents bought him tires).

I figured PSR must be driving to the mountains everyday... but he never told me how far... my assumptions (which is key to all my reasoning) was that he was within 15 miles of work. Because even if he has snow tires, if Rt.11 closes and he has to take local... if he's more than 30 miles away he's going to be late to the mountain. However, I'm a lazy dude and I don't like living far away from work.

[Guest Pre School Rider]

As they say in Vermont, "Yah cain't Git theya from heir". Going East-to-West,it's often true,even driven on a diagonal line as far as the map shows. Hah,15 minutes from Stratton! Yeah,like I'm MADE of MONEY. Nope,try a 1/2 Hour,driving a SAAB,with a few years of SCCA Rally behind me to boot. It must be that you earn your Rent in the first quarter every month.I don't EARN that much,I simply work Near millionaires,not anywhere near where Anyone would actually PAY for my services.I take care of my 'nearby' apartment by renting out a 4-bedroom house in another town,one that Reagan + Nixon SOLD to the Chinese a few decades ago. Meanwhile,I watch the wealthy cut down heathly trees just get a good veiw of another Condo on the next ridge up at Stratton. Plunder away,by all means. I know I can stiil drive my ol' Saab to Alaska once the trees and veiws are gone. I just don't know what kind of JOB I'll have by then... A Message from the GOP; Don't bother Voting,folks. We'll do it For You!!

[lonerider]

Originally posted by Pre School Rider

As they say in Vermont, "Yah cain't Git theya from heir". Going East-to-West,it's often true,even driven on a diagonal line as far as the map shows. Hah,15 minutes from Stratton! Yeah,like I'm MADE of MONEY. Nope,try a 1/2 Hour,driving a SAAB,with a few years of SCCA Rally behind me to boot. It must be that you earn your Rent in the first quarter every month.I don't EARN that much,I simply work Near millionaires,not anywhere near where Anyone would actually PAY for my services.I take care of my 'nearby' apartment by renting out a 4-bedroom house in another town,one that Reagan + Nixon SOLD to the Chinese a few decades ago. Meanwhile,I watch the wealthy cut down heathly trees just get a good veiw of another Condo on the next ridge up at Stratton. Plunder away,by all means. I know I can stiil drive my ol' Saab to Alaska once the trees and veiws are gone. I just don't know what kind of JOB I'll have by then... A Message from the GOP; Don't bother Voting,folks. We'll do it For You!!

Uh yea, You have an interesting viewpoint on things ;) I didn't realize rent was that expensive (how much a month is it?) as I had some friends living within like 10 minutes of Killington as starving students and I figured Stratton was similar. Another one lived 10 minutes away from Mt.Snow and seemed to be doing okay as a PSIA Level III instructor (said the private lessons paid well).

Hey I used to drive a 1986 Saab 900... was a tank... of course it was incredibly heavy, underpowered, and cost more to maintain than to own... ah the good days ;)

[Guest jeffnstefanie]

try getting from Chester to Londonderry in 24" of fresh

You should move to New Hampshire, then you could take 93 from Chester to Londerry. You have got to admit that your Manchester is allot nicer than ours