Snow Tires

[Fringe Ryder <fringe@ai.net>]

My Blizzaks are great on snow (and ice).  I live high enough that we had 3.5
times more days of snow than the city last year, so good quiet tires OFF
snow was important too.  The Blizzaks make, for me, an ideal winter tire.
(But yes, they are slightly squirmy.)

Fringe
'97 2.8L A4Q

>From: Tom Haapanen <tomh@metrics.com>
>Subject: RE: snow tires
>
>Colin,
>
>You'll find that the Blizzak's special "ice" compound makes it one of
>the best unstudded tires for driving on *ice*.  On snow they're nothing
>particularly special (and probably lose to high-quality dedicated snows
>like Nokian Hakkas), and on dry they tend to be squirmy rather than
>grippy, based on a number of first-hand experiences both on this list
>and elsewhere on the 'net.  
>
>Finally, the ice compound is only used for the first 50% of the tread --
>the remainder is standard all-season stuff, making the tires lose their
>only real advantage at half life.
>
>Unless you like the idea of driving your A4 around in the summer one
>Blizzaks (I don't), go with a different tire.  If you're in an area that
>gets frequent heavy snow, get something like the Nokian Hakkas or the
>Gislaveds.  If you get relatively less snow and you would like to get
>excellent dry performance, the best choices are probably the Pirelli
>Winter 210A and the Michelin XM+S 330H.
>