Interesting Conversation With Young Female Police Officer

[holden#1]

Won't go into all the ins and outs of it, but after receiving a fine for a rather minor offence (very rare for myself), got into conversation as you do with this young constable regarding tread depth and its relationship to grip level.
I tend to hold the view that on a dry road bald tyres have more contact area therefore more grip. Of course in the rain bald tyres are dangerous, so you naturally don't drive with bald tyres...
what do yous reckon... Bald tyres give more grip in the dry or what???

[holden#1]

P.S Constable did not exactly agree...

[VT-565]

Ha Ha! I wonder why not??!! Rain showers happen, bald tyres+rain shower=funeral. sorry to be so blunt but unless you're on the track, have some tread. doesn't matter whether we think they grip better or not, which they probably don't since they are not designed to run like that, it is illegal.

[holden#1]

you've slightly misunderstood me.... i stated "Of course in the rain bald tyres are dangerous, so you naturally don't drive with bald tyres..."

we were talking about the technical aspect of more contact area on dry road surface with a bald tyre. excluding the possibility of rain etc....

[Z()LTAN]

well.. ofcourse.... altough on tight tracks u want a bit of wheel slip, thats y u see that F1 racers dont always use slicks even when its not raining

[VT-565]

you've slightly misunderstood me.... i stated "Of course in the rain bald tyres are dangerous, so you naturally don't drive with bald tyres..."

we were talking about the technical aspect of more contact area on dry road surface with a bald tyre. excluding the possibility of rain etc....

on 99% of QLD's roads (re: F#@KED), bald tyres won't do squat. slicks on the other hand have their compound designed for maximum traction and even then, if you're not on a smooth surface, youre wasting time and money.

[Barman]

Bald radial tyres in the dry , definatly no good , race tyres (radial type) are relative useless after 6-10 heat cycles , after the tyre gets hot then cools it alters the compound . So in the time it took to kill your tyres 1000;s of cycles.. they would be shit .

oh and


I have never heard of a fomula 1 using wet tyres in the dry .. quite the oppisite ..

[theburna]

man you have lost the plot. Track tires are a sticky compound thus they are good for perhaps 500kms so on ideal dry conditions they are like the proverbial shit to a blanket. If there is rain the use a less sticky compound that has a tread thread which directs the water out of the way of the tire.
Bald road tyres are a guarantee that you will hit something and farking hard because you have limited brake effeiciency. Its the same issue when you lower some cars without other considerations.

[MOTIV8]

The reason tyres have grooves is to funnel surface water away from the contact patches between the road and the tyre surfaces to prevent aquaplaning.

If it never ever rained and there was never ever any water on the roads then there would be no need for grooves.

However we live in a world where it does rain on occasion.

The reason that F1 cars have grooves even on their dry weather tyres is simply part of the F1's governing bodies decision to slow the F1's down. The grooves lessen the amount of tyre in actual contact with the road surface.

They used to have traction control and automatic height adjusters and heaps of other whizbang technologies that made them simply too fast and removed the competative edge between the poorer teams and the richer ones.

[PEAKN6]

well i know that when u do a burnout, new tyres brake traction easier and bald 1s dont brake traction as easy.

so yea i think that bald tyres may have a little more grip in the dry but i wouldnt recomend them. i just keep my old tyres for burnouts n stuff, i would never use them on the road tho.

my advice is that on ur street cars have good quality tyres with alot of tread as most street cars arent made for drifting n stuff like that unless we spend the money on doing that sorta stuff.
also if u have insurance on ur car and u crash it with bald tyres on it then the insurance wont cover u or ur car because they would say "The tyres would be the cause of he crash and their illegal when their bald".

[sc0pe]

you need to understand how tyres are made before you can even fathom the question...

once your tyres are bald they are running into a different compound of rubber. not sticky at all.the bald part of the tyre is of a different compound to the rubber blocks on top of them.

hence the difference between street tyres and track tyres, it has alot more to it then simply tread design...

ps...have a search on the net and look for tyre construction or similar, will explain it a little more...

[holden#1]

good point scope.

however, on the humble tyres that us poor blokes drive on, there is not a lot of difference in rubber compound tread to case. (I'm talkin RE92s, that sort of tyre)

You can actually get more miles out of a retread (if it stays on) than a cleanskin as a retreading rubber compound can be made a lot more 'durable' than the tread compound on a cleanskin... when they manufacture tyres, they can't have too big a variation in rubber compound between tread compound and case compound... it gets very technical....

I have retreaded a couple of RE92s with a slick tread applied. (50mm thick) took a while to burn those ones out...

the company I work for uses a ring of rubber that get stretched over the tyre, as opposed to every other mob that has a join half way around, that tends to let go every so often...

[itchy pits]

a trucky told me they blow more tyres in the wet cause the friction from the water passing through the tread creates heat

[rattattack1313]

Personally, I think the Truck Companies should somehow brand their name all over their tyres....then the drivers might pick all the bits up, so they don't get busted for littering............. I hate having to swerve around bits of black shit poking up outa the road........

[holden#1]

itchy pits, thats an interesting one. I would think that the cooling effect of the water would more than compensate for friction that the water would cause... I'll look that one up.
From what I know of truckies, he might remember the wet blow outs more because of the inconveinience!!!

The name of the Truck company is written inside all the tyres we retread, bandag & others use a code in place of company name, a lot of truck companies brand their cases to stop theft etc.

[holden#1]

good idea but rat...

[markovr]

Bald tyres in the dry as long as there are not wire sticking through or they are worn unevenly dont handle any different to a near new tyre of the same size type and compound.
How can they?... they are basically using the cars weight to put force on a section of rubber at the bottom of the tyre to grip the bitumen ...the grooves do nothing but dissipate the air in front of them.
In the wet its a different story but thats not being desputed here.
And as far as her not agreeing with you even if you were right...... do you think a cop let alone a female one would agree with a motorist especially after they have just booked you...... not f#cking likely!
As far as the constable was concerned .....was she good looking ...sometimes that softens the blow

[holden#1]

yous all jump to conclusions... no I didn't get a defect for bald tyres.
I was in the *hit for something else (minor offence). we were just chatting afterwards...
I not stupid enough to say ' I only drive my bald tyres on dry days ' we were just talking about the technical aspect of tread depth in relation to grip levels on dry road...

[holden#1]

markovr,
have you seen the add for some new Bridgestone tyres with a silica compound where grip levels increase as they get bald?
they can make a tyre with a slightly different compound tread to case, but there normally a fair bit more expensive...

But as you say, for the most part rubber compound stays the same on a standard tyre...

[greenfoam]

Alot of guys use the old G Grid mk1 for track days once it's bald. Mine are half way gone so I'll keep them for later when I have my car on the drag strip, very soft compound for a street tire

[VY Equipe]

I have the opposite, still a fair wack of tread (definatly legal), but any rain and i break traction with just thinking about touching the accelerator from the lights. I guess heat cycles have caused the compound to harded up.

[Patrio7]

The reason tyres have grooves is to funnel surface water away from the contact patches between the road and the tyre surfaces to prevent aquaplaning.

If it never ever rained and there was never ever any water on the roads then there would be no need for grooves.

However we live in a world where it does rain on occasion.

The reason that F1 cars have grooves even on their dry weather tyres is simply part of the F1's governing bodies decision to slow the F1's down. The grooves lessen the amount of tyre in actual contact with the road surface.

They used to have traction control and automatic height adjusters and heaps of other whizbang technologies that made them simply too fast and removed the competative edge between the poorer teams and the richer ones.

well Iwas beaten to the mark by a fair chunk but yes, the F1 tires as we know have the grooves to slow the cars down.

My opinion on the road slick tires is that unless it is a very soft compond tire it is better to have grooves.

Rain isn't the only factor, you also have water from drains or sprinklers, the rough surface of bluemetal and ofcourse general inconsistantcies with the road itself [ "patches" or simply where it changes from asphalt to blacktop or bluemetal etc. Not to mention sand!

I would rather have a well grooved tire on the rear of my car thankyou.

[MOTIV8]

I would rather have a well grooved tire on the rear of my car thankyou.

So would I front and rears and not just for safety but also to be legal.

[Hairy Eater]

i'm still trying to post replies..... cant even see my messgae thingy to see if i have benn noty or not...