Winter Tyres

Summer tyre above, winter tyre below. Can you see the differences?

Last week, Opa helped me arranged to get our tyres changed. Not that I drove over a nail or a sharp edged stone that caused a flat tyre, but because even the car must get ready for the snow season.

Changing from summer to winter tyres is absolutely unheard of for me. I guess I can top my cousin Shin's suaku-ness (direct translation from Teochew or Hokkein's "mountain tortoise" to English should be ignorant? or unintelligent?). See his comment to my The First Snow entry. A quick search in Google got me educated on why winter tyres are important in a blink.

"Winter tyres are specifically engineered to grab snow and ice. Unlike an all season or summer tire, a snow tire is constructed with a softer, more flexible rubber formula more suitable to cold weather. Using this compound, a winter tyre retains its traction capabilities to hold the road better and to grip snow and ice. A summer or all season tire will have a tendency to become more brittle and inflexible in cold temperatures and therefore it will slide much more rapidly. The capacity to bite into snow and ice and to conform to the road is essential in the winter to preclude getting stuck, to steer and corner effectively and to stop. A tyre not made specifically for cold weather cannot function effectively in winter stopping and cornering. Many newer cars are equipped with features like anti-lock brakes, stability control and even all wheel drive to help with effective maneuvering however, these systems are only as effective as the tyres upon which all the systems are dependent. Think of an emergency room equipped with all the most recent and best equipment ready to take care of any emergency thrust upon it. However, this ER is staffed by only first year med students. All the greatest tools in the world will not save lives without the essential expertise of the doctor. In the same way, all the greatest traction systems on a car are useless without proper tyres."

Ah... so that's the reason.

We drove a long way, 80km to be precise, to get the tyres changed. There, is where my step-brother-in-law runs his specialty car workshop. He repairs and refurbishes old American cars, polish them to a mint. The time spent on the road seemed to have been justified as Johann got a first-hand experience in changing the tyres with Berner, his step uncle.

After all four tyres were screwed tight, he had to pump air into the tyres to the right pressure.

When all tyres were filled with the right amount of air pressure, the last thing to do is to fix the tyre ream back to the tyre, that was also when he finally dirtied his gloves with the yucky black grease.