What did you do in your garage today..? | Page 204 | GTAMotorcycle.com

What did you do in your garage today..?

Despite the snowflake, they don't qualify as winter tires for our insurer, as their requirements are more around swapping tires than the performance of the tire. But that ended up costing us a grand total of $3/mo (!) on our bill.

That's ridiculous. The discount is for using tires designed for winter conditions during winter, and according to my insurance contract, all I need is a set of tires with the snowflake symbol to qualify. Maybe double-check yours as well, as there's no point in just giving your insurer an extra undeserved 5%
 
Insurance!!! I have 6 motorized vehicles all insured thru one co and I don't qualify for a multi vehicle discount. ( "sorry that only refers to ""conventional"" vehicles" WTF!!)
 
Unloading the Dragonfly trials bike last nite from the trailer. It was a bit crowded in there,so i pushed it out backwards with my left hand on the throttle. At the bottom of the ramp my right wrist must have touched the on button. My left hand was on the throttle and probably had it open a bunch. Instant launch into me. Rear tire ran up my chest, bike landed about 15ft on my neighbours lawn. I landed under his blue spruce. No damage to the bike or me. From now on the magnetic lanyard kill switch comes off when not riding.
 
That's ridiculous. The discount is for using tires designed for winter conditions during winter, and according to my insurance contract, all I need is a set of tires with the snowflake symbol to qualify. Maybe double-check yours as well, as there's no point in just giving your insurer an extra undeserved 5%
5%! I'd kill to only be paying $60/mo for our insurance. It's closer to 1.7% for our household. While the policy itself is ambiguous, I did double check with our broker, and they said the insurer stipulates the tires be winter-specific and changed seasonally, not used year-round. Apparently different insurers have different definitions. Regardless, even if it's a grey area, I'll happily spend $3/mo to eliminate having to fight a claim denial.
 
Even though I don't have disposable lug nuts on my car I was getting fed up with the seasonal tire change over and decided to buy new All-Weather tires to replace the OEM summer tires that came on my 2016 CX3. I then sold the old Michelin X-Ice tires, which were mounted on aluminium rims. They only had a season or two left in them and I got $250 for the set.

It will be interesting to compare winter traction with the All-Weather (snowflake approved) tires to my old X-Ice tires.
I drove to Florida last Feb so I put cc2s on before the drive and never bothered switching back as there wasn't much more snow. On days where there was snow and ice, there was no contest. Well worn xice blew the new cc2's out of the water. Especially on ice. If you lived in Toronto and/or could pick when and where you drove, the cc2s are probably good enough but I will be putting snows on again soon.
 
I drove to Florida last Feb so I put cc2s on before the drive and never bothered switching back as there wasn't much more snow. On days where there was snow and ice, there was no contest. Well worn xice blew the new cc2's out of the water. Especially on ice. If you lived in Toronto and/or could pick when and where you drove, the cc2s are probably good enough but I will be putting snows on again soon.
I'll report back after this winter. Living in Hamilton, it's pretty rare that we drive on unplowed roads in temps below -10C, so I'll be curious if we notice. I had a set of all-weather tires in BC on my Tacoma, and while they performed well in the snow, it was usually in the -5 range, not -20. Per the extensive testing over at Tyre reviews, tests and ratings - Tyre reviews and ratings , the CrossClimate 2's offer a pretty jack-of-all-trades performance, especially with excellent snow performance in and around the -10 envelope, and is at or near the top for lowest rolling resistance. I'd have loved to try the Pirelli Cinturato SF3, but it seems to be a Euro-only model, and the one all-weather tire Pirelli does sell here doesn't come in a size to fit my rims.

I guess ultimately I'm relying on the climate change trend to generally warmer winters with very few longer snaps below -15 or thereabouts, so enjoy the cold winter, everybody!
 
I tried All weather tires once, but they wore out way faster than the swap combo. They didn’t last a year.

We cleaned the hazardous waste out of the garage on the weekend. I’m debating putting the snow tires on before having them replaced. I can’t remember if places charge you for swapping tires when replacing them, since they have to take them off anyway.
 
When you look at the cost of insurance increase for an at fault accident, the huge hassle of getting a collision damaged vehicle repaired, it's loss in trade in or future private sale value, the incremental cost of real winter tires is a moot point IMO. How do you quantity and value the accident you didn't have.

I have a set of Michelin X-Ice winter tires on aluminum rims similar to the OEM ones. Why drive around for 5 months with crappy looking black steel rims.
 
I have a set of Michelin X-Ice winter tires on aluminum rims similar to the OEM ones. Why drive around for 5 months with crappy looking black steel rims.
Steel is often more durable. It also rarely breaks. If you slide and nail a curb, you can often still drive home even if the ride is a little lumpy. The other upside to crappy steels is some people paint them ridiculous colours every year. Fun activity for the kids. No affect on resale value of vehicle.

I used to run steels for snows. Current snows happen to be on aluminum rims as that's what they came on.
 
Three sets of steelies in the garage right now.
If I got aluminum rims, I’d feel pressure to get the tire pressure monitors, and then it would be difficult to have eight tires, in the same garage transmitting to a single car.
 
Three sets of steelies in the garage right now.
If I got aluminum rims, I’d feel pressure to get the tire pressure monitors, and then it would be difficult to have eight tires, in the same garage transmitting to a single car.
Thankfully my car uses indirect tire pressure. Makes life easy.
 
Thankfully my car uses indirect tire pressure. Makes life easy.
Don’t think I want to worry about keeping tread depth the same on four tires myself.
 
Don’t think I want to worry about keeping tread depth the same on four tires myself.
That doesn't matter. You set the pressure with an external trusted gauge and tell the car that it has been set. Car uses abs sensor data at that point to store baseline. If one or more wheels differs from baseline, it alerts. Conceivably you could have grossly different tire sizes at baseline and it would still work fine. I've never tried it though.
 
That doesn't matter. You set the pressure with an external trusted gauge and tell the car that it has been set. Car uses abs sensor data at that point to store baseline. If one or more wheels differs from baseline, it alerts. Conceivably you could have grossly different tire sizes at baseline and it would still work fine. I've never tried it though.
I just read an article that made it sound like more of a pita than the old system:
“In one document published by Honda they state that the system could enter calibration on a new car when the pre-delivery service is performed, if the tires were not set to the correct pressure, then the vehicle will learn the pressures at say 65 psi instead of at the tire placard pressure. Honda says to perform calibration the tires must be set to the tire placard pressure only and the calibration should be performed any time the tire pressure is adjusted, or the tires are rotated or replaced. The tires must also be the correct size, same make/model on all four corners and tread depth must also match. (There is no tread depth spec difference given but it states tires must not be different tread depths).”

Direct versus indirect TPMS: How they work and how to diagnose them
 
I just read an article that made it sound like more of a pita than the old system:
“In one document published by Honda they state that the system could enter calibration on a new car when the pre-delivery service is performed, if the tires were not set to the correct pressure, then the vehicle will learn the pressures at say 65 psi instead of at the tire placard pressure. Honda says to perform calibration the tires must be set to the tire placard pressure only and the calibration should be performed any time the tire pressure is adjusted, or the tires are rotated or replaced. The tires must also be the correct size, same make/model on all four corners and tread depth must also match. (There is no tread depth spec difference given but it states tires must not be different tread depths).”

Direct versus indirect TPMS: How they work and how to diagnose them
While that may be best practice, ime, it can be a great system with few issues or hassles (I have never used the honda implementation though). When I put a spare on or change tires, I tell it that pressures are set properly and it just works. I've never had a situation where it freaked out about too much difference when setting baseline.
 
That doesn't matter. You set the pressure with an external trusted gauge and tell the car that it has been set. Car uses abs sensor data at that point to store baseline. If one or more wheels differs from baseline, it alerts. Conceivably you could have grossly different tire sizes at baseline and it would still work fine. I've never tried it though.
Ah…so that’s why my GTI asks me whether the pressures are all set to the spec…

Here I thought ‘what the hell? You should be telling me! Not the other way around!’
 
Three sets of steelies in the garage right now.
If I got aluminum rims, I’d feel pressure to get the tire pressure monitors, and then it would be difficult to have eight tires, in the same garage transmitting to a single car.

You need to make a giant Faraday box to keep stored ones in.

My winter set has TPMS as well. My in storage tires, whether the OEM or the winter set, are in a shed in the backyard, so no issues for me.
 
When you look at the cost of insurance increase for an at fault accident, the huge hassle of getting a collision damaged vehicle repaired, it's loss in trade in or future private sale value, the incremental cost of real winter tires is a moot point IMO. How do you quantity and value the accident you didn't have.

I have a set of Michelin X-Ice winter tires on aluminum rims similar to the OEM ones. Why drive around for 5 months with crappy looking black steel rims.
Everything is a compromise. You give some here, you get some there. Yes, its probably slightly better to use proper performance summer tires and top quality winter tires, especially if you live somewhere with super cold winters and drive on a lot of unplowed roads, but when you live in the GTHA, roads are very rarely unplowed, and truly cold daytime temps are pretty uncommon now all year long, then it becomes a lot less critical. And when you add the convenience factor, then it makes more sense.

A good all-weather (not all-season!) tire will also outperform both a summer/all-season and a winter tire at various points in both fall and spring (especially when compared to average tires, not super expensive P-Zero's etc.) where temps fluctuate above and below the 9C mark daily, so you actually get marginally better performance for just as long as you do over the winter. From what research I've done, a good all-weather tire will be within ~5% of the best full winter tire in snow (and actually a lot better than crappy winter tires, including those from major manufacturers) down to about -10C, after which the winter tire pulls ahead.

If it turns out that the Michelins are bad in the winter, we can always pick up a set of winters and run the all-weathers the rest of the year. They perform just as well as a typical all-season in the summer, get excellent mileage, and will last just as long.
 

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