Waiting for a snowstorm

JK42 · 10-30-2006, 05:46 PM

Weather forecasts predict a snowstorm for tomorrow (in about 12 hours from now)... No snow or ice so far, temperatures have been just above freezing point. I have ordered and scheduled the change of winter tyres for my car for this week's friday. It'll receive 205/50R17 in the front and 225/45R17 in the rear non-runflat Continental WinterViking2's. Those tyres correspond with the recommended tyre-size for the Type 207M wheels that the car was delivered with, so that's why I'll be using those wheels for the winter tyres - so I can buy a set of type 135M wheels (8" x 18" front and 8,5" x 18" rear) and tyres (225/40R18 front, 255/35R18 rear) for next summer - I definitely want wider rubber in the rear wheels than BMW currently offers for the 1-series officially. Their biggest wheels/tyre combo for the 130i is only 205/50R18 front and 225/45R18 rear. Way too narrow for rear tyres for the kind of performance this car will be putting out after the second set of exhausts with sport cats will be installed, and even for the current ECU upgraded performance (and even the DEFAULT performance - especially when it's wet)

Anyway... It's gonna be the snow season here soon... I just hope it isn't gonna be like last year, when it snowed for 1 day, then it was dry for 4 weeks when I had to use the winter tyres for no reason at all for extra 4 weeks. Studded winter tyres are not nice to drive on dry roads - the Continental WinterVikings are about the best you can buy for that, but still it's not fun. Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5 tyres would have been available as run-flats in all the right sizes, but the price for the RFT winter tyres was ridiculously high, and since winter tyres will always be stiffer anyway, I think the non-RFTs should be okay with the suspension. I'll just have to buy one of those M tyre repair kits from BMW parts department... good thing I get a discount. (Much cheaper than the price difference between RTF and non-RFT winter tyres) - and besides, I don't like the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5 tyres. I used to have Hakkapeliitta 4 tyres 4 years ago when they came out on my BMW E46 323Ci and after just 1 winter 50% of the studs in the rear tyres had come out. After that, I changed into a 330Ci and WinterViking1 tyres, which only lost about 5% of studs per winter, and have superior dry handling qualities, and are much quieter - and the WV2's are even more improved, they even have the speed rating of T which means top speed of 190km/h, a first for any winter stud tyre. All the previous generation studded winter tyres used to have a speed rating of Q, which meant 160km/h Vmax, which is often something you can exceed on extended motorway runs, so that really sucked. So I'm excited about the new winter tyre qualities and can't wait for the snow season (especially to test the new X5, then re-test the X3 and finally the new BMW E92 330xi Coupé and 330xi Coupé 4WD models, all with different top of the line winter tyres, studded and non-studded.)

Best regards,

Jussi

JK42 · 10-31-2006, 04:12 PM

Well, the snowstorm happened - everywhere but the southernmost part of Helsinki, which is where I live. Not an ounce of snow here, just shitloads of water and +4C. They have promised freezing temperatures for tomorrow though, so if the rain keeps falling, it's gonna snow tonight or tomorrow.

The dealer I scheduled my Continental WinterViking2 installation with called today and claimed they couldn't get the size 205/50R17 "till next summer" - and suggested they'd put 225/45R15 on all my wheels (7" wide front, 7,5" rear). I said I'd think about it and call back, as I hate compromises. Then I called another dealer that sells Continental and they checked right off continentals import database on their computer, and it turns out Continental has warehouses full of them in all sizes, and they can get both 205/50R17 and 225/45R17 shipped for me for tomorrow (Wednesday) and since it's the high season, they're working till 10 pm so I got an installation time at 9.15 pm tomorrow, which is great if the snow really does fall. Gonna cost a little bit more than with the first dealer (+50 euros or so, so no difference really), but I know this shop is better with handling aluminium wheels (they don't scratch them, I've used them in the past), whereas I didn't have any experience with the first shop - just looked up the cheapest one, but now that they lied to me about the 205/50R17 size being unavailable, they sound like a shitty place to change tires at, too, so I won't be calling them again.

880 euros for the whole round of tires + the work.

Best regards,

Jussi

replicat · 11-01-2006, 02:43 AM

No action in this area. but, Good times!

10-30-2006, 05:46 PM	#1
JK42 First Lieutenant 19 Rep 374 Posts Drives: E70 BMW X5 4.8i Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern Europe iTrader: (0)	Waiting for a snowstorm Weather forecasts predict a snowstorm for tomorrow (in about 12 hours from now)... No snow or ice so far, temperatures have been just above freezing point. I have ordered and scheduled the change of winter tyres for my car for this week's friday. It'll receive 205/50R17 in the front and 225/45R17 in the rear non-runflat Continental WinterViking2's. Those tyres correspond with the recommended tyre-size for the Type 207M wheels that the car was delivered with, so that's why I'll be using those wheels for the winter tyres - so I can buy a set of type 135M wheels (8" x 18" front and 8,5" x 18" rear) and tyres (225/40R18 front, 255/35R18 rear) for next summer - I definitely want wider rubber in the rear wheels than BMW currently offers for the 1-series officially. Their biggest wheels/tyre combo for the 130i is only 205/50R18 front and 225/45R18 rear. Way too narrow for rear tyres for the kind of performance this car will be putting out after the second set of exhausts with sport cats will be installed, and even for the current ECU upgraded performance (and even the DEFAULT performance - especially when it's wet) Anyway... It's gonna be the snow season here soon... I just hope it isn't gonna be like last year, when it snowed for 1 day, then it was dry for 4 weeks when I had to use the winter tyres for no reason at all for extra 4 weeks. Studded winter tyres are not nice to drive on dry roads - the Continental WinterVikings are about the best you can buy for that, but still it's not fun. Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5 tyres would have been available as run-flats in all the right sizes, but the price for the RFT winter tyres was ridiculously high, and since winter tyres will always be stiffer anyway, I think the non-RFTs should be okay with the suspension. I'll just have to buy one of those M tyre repair kits from BMW parts department... good thing I get a discount. (Much cheaper than the price difference between RTF and non-RFT winter tyres) - and besides, I don't like the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5 tyres. I used to have Hakkapeliitta 4 tyres 4 years ago when they came out on my BMW E46 323Ci and after just 1 winter 50% of the studs in the rear tyres had come out. After that, I changed into a 330Ci and WinterViking1 tyres, which only lost about 5% of studs per winter, and have superior dry handling qualities, and are much quieter - and the WV2's are even more improved, they even have the speed rating of T which means top speed of 190km/h, a first for any winter stud tyre. All the previous generation studded winter tyres used to have a speed rating of Q, which meant 160km/h Vmax, which is often something you can exceed on extended motorway runs, so that really sucked. So I'm excited about the new winter tyre qualities and can't wait for the snow season (especially to test the new X5, then re-test the X3 and finally the new BMW E92 330xi Coupé and 330xi Coupé 4WD models, all with different top of the line winter tyres, studded and non-studded.) Best regards, Jussi
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10-31-2006, 04:12 PM	#2
JK42 First Lieutenant 19 Rep 374 Posts Drives: E70 BMW X5 4.8i Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern Europe iTrader: (0)	Well, the snowstorm happened - everywhere but the southernmost part of Helsinki, which is where I live. Not an ounce of snow here, just shitloads of water and +4C. They have promised freezing temperatures for tomorrow though, so if the rain keeps falling, it's gonna snow tonight or tomorrow. The dealer I scheduled my Continental WinterViking2 installation with called today and claimed they couldn't get the size 205/50R17 "till next summer" - and suggested they'd put 225/45R15 on all my wheels (7" wide front, 7,5" rear). I said I'd think about it and call back, as I hate compromises. Then I called another dealer that sells Continental and they checked right off continentals import database on their computer, and it turns out Continental has warehouses full of them in all sizes, and they can get both 205/50R17 and 225/45R17 shipped for me for tomorrow (Wednesday) and since it's the high season, they're working till 10 pm so I got an installation time at 9.15 pm tomorrow, which is great if the snow really does fall. Gonna cost a little bit more than with the first dealer (+50 euros or so, so no difference really), but I know this shop is better with handling aluminium wheels (they don't scratch them, I've used them in the past), whereas I didn't have any experience with the first shop - just looked up the cheapest one, but now that they lied to me about the 205/50R17 size being unavailable, they sound like a shitty place to change tires at, too, so I won't be calling them again. 880 euros for the whole round of tires + the work. Best regards, Jussi
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11-01-2006, 02:43 AM	#3
replicat Lieutenant 23 Rep 515 Posts Drives: 40MPG Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Southern California iTrader: (0)	No action in this area. but, Good times!
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