Getting new Bridgestone RE960AS in half an hour

 

I ordered some 215/45-17 RE960AS from TireRack a couple days ago, and had them shipped to a recommended installer. My mount/balance appointment is in half an hour, and I can't wait.

 

I bought the GT a few months ago, and it's got really worn RE92s. I haven't had a set of these things since I bought my old 2.5RS new, 8 1/2 years ago.

 

I used to live in NH, where winter tires are very useful, but we moved to southcentral Penn in early 2004. I had a new set of Nokian RSi winters, but they were overkill. I considered the Nokian WR G2, still an all-season, but not as aggressive, and better in the dry. But they were $150-ish more, for the whole set, all said and done. So I'm going to try the A/S thing year round for a while, see how it goes.

 

I'd still love a nice set of summer 18"s, but we'll see how it goes. User review pending!

 

=S2=

S2 - It's been an hour! How come you aren't back already with a review

 

In all seriousness, if you can resist, try putting 500 miles on them and ensuring they are at the right pressures before giving a review. It'll be much more accurate than the initial feeling.

 

FYI - I went with cheap 215/45/17 tires on my 06 Civic SI.....Falken Ziex 912 (the new Ziex).

 

At 14,000 miles, they've begun to tramline not insignificantly. I really wanted to get 30k out of these, but between noise becoming more and more prevalent, comfort going down, and now tramlining.....i think 20-25k is going to be more realistic. Better start prepping the wife for that expense...

 

Joe

Well I'm back.

 

MAN that place was efficient! I arrived at 9, and believe it or not, they pulled it right in. Tim, the owner, did the work on the car. I asked mid-way what they usually do with tire pressure, and he said he likes them a little high. Around 39psi. I told him I like 35, so we split the difference.

 

I was in and out within 45 minutes. Now that's impressive. Yep I'll drive on them for a while before giving a real impression, but for right now I can say that they ride a bit stiffer. Considering the RE92, though, that's not much of a shock. I don't hate RE92s, but I certainly don't like them.

 

A++ for Mechanicsburg Sports Car in PA.

I had a similar experience last year when I traveled to WA to visit some friends and get snow tires installed.

 

I contacted the Discount Tire in Bellingham, told them when I'd be be visiting (I live in Calgary, Alberta) and we set up an appointment. I arrived on the said date and time and a couple of hours later (had coffee and did some shopping with my friend's kid at the nearby Fred Meyer) everything was good to go.

 

They were very thorough, setting the tire pressures at the recommended pressures and the balance seems to be right on and holding up with no shimmy or wobble.

 

The best thing was I saved well over $200 compared to same purchase in Canada. Sure I spent more than that in gas to get there and back, but combined with the visit with my friends it was well worth it!

Very cool.

 

I've had some good, some bad tire experiences. Most shops, you schedule an "appointment" which is nothing more than a rough suggestion. An hour later and your car MIGHT be in the install bay. And the list goes on.

 

So today was a pleasant surprise. Anyway! Review will follow in a couple weeks. We're also driving to SC to see my Mom late this month, and I may take the GT for its first road trip under my ownership. So that'll be a good chance to give some opinions too.

ALRIGHT! I don't know exactly how many miles it's been, but a few gas fill-ups since 12/4, so that's enough for a preliminary review.

 

I use my car primarily for commuting to work, so unfortunately I can't comment a whole lot on performance. That and of course it's December, so warm weather performance is unknown at this time (aside from other people's reviews, of course!!).

 

So far though, I can certainly say that the sidewalls seem quite stiff for an all/season. I had some 215/45-17 Pirelli P-Zero Nero M&S on my old RS for a few summers, and these seem to have a comparable sidewall rigidity. The tread design is quite different however; the RE960 is more directional, in a manner of speaking, and you definitely notice some tramlining on certain surfaces. However that's a common occurrence with performance tires and certain A/S ones, as well.

 

I take a few corners quickly, and they seem to be very confident tires. Having experienced some light snow and ice in the past few weeks, I am not impressed with their winter capability, however. Coming from two former sets of Nokian winter tires on the RS, I've not driven on an A/S in the cold months for nearly eight years. So I was not expecting them to even come close in terms of potential, but didn't think they'd be quite so squirrelly.

 

We had some light ice on two days in particular, and grip levels felt very, very low. I know, no tire short of a fully-studded winter tire will really have grip on an icy road, but I could definitely tell that these weren't ready for it. My wife and I left our house one night, pulling out of the neighborhood onto the main road. The car swerved at about 15mph after about an inch of snow with a little mixed-in icy stuff. We opted to turn around and go home.

 

The next day we heard that a lot of cars were all over the road that night, but I knew that the RS with my Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi tires would've handled that with much greater confidence.

 

None of this should be much of a surprise, with the RE960 classified as a high performance A/S tire. TireRack rates it about a 7 in light snow, but that's within class/category. I may look around for some used Nokians with good tread left, and save the Bridgestones for the warm months. We'll see. I did keep my '05 GT 17"s that I had on the RS, when I sold it, so I've got them in the garage as spares.

I put 100 miles on these tires on Saturday in absolute crap ice/snow/slush/fresh snow/matted ice pack snow on the highways around Boston.

 

These tires handled like a champ. Very pleased.

 

Ice is another story for ANY tire other than a studded tire as you mention.

 

Nobody should be driving in very icey conditions ever...better of staying home.

No issues with my 20k old RE960's on my WRX in heavy snow. No they are not as good as my wife's Nokian WR G2's on a LGT wagon but no real issues. I drive pretty slow though.

 

I think they are best described as usable in light - moderate winter conditions.

I put 100 miles on these tires on Saturday in absolute crap ice/snow/slush/fresh snow/matted ice pack snow on the highways around Boston.

 

These tires handled like a champ. Very pleased.

 

Ice is another story for ANY tire other than a studded tire as you mention.

 

Nobody should be driving in very icey conditions ever...better of staying home.

 

Yep ice will knock anything out.

 

Speaking of Boston, I spent 26 years in southern NH and had driven my wife to work on Charles St. once, in 2003. Right before dropping her off, this weird flash snow/ice/whatever storm happened. I was heading out and it took me **2 HOURS** to get to I-93 from Charles St. Then another 2 to get back home.

 

93 was so icy that people were doing full spins at 10mph. Even my Nokian Hakka 1 tires were struggling. Yeah, ice has no worthy adversary.

S2 - It's been an hour! How come you aren't back already with a review

 

In all seriousness, if you can resist, try putting 500 miles on them and ensuring they are at the right pressures before giving a review. It'll be much more accurate than the initial feeling.

 

FYI - I went with cheap 215/45/17 tires on my 06 Civic SI.....Falken Ziex 912 (the new Ziex).

 

At 14,000 miles, they've begun to tramline not insignificantly. I really wanted to get 30k out of these, but between noise becoming more and more prevalent, comfort going down, and now tramlining.....i think 20-25k is going to be more realistic. Better start prepping the wife for that expense...

 

Joe

 

Hey Joe-

 

Sorry to hear your 912's are wearing so quickly--unless of course you're tired of them and can't wait to try something else ;o)

 

For some reason I'm wondering if the 20-25k mark is about it for Falkens on these cars. Out of curiosity, where are the 912's wearing most? Outer edges?

 

Hope all's well....

Tim

to the OP...stiff sidewalls on the 960's? what pressure are you running? I thinkn the 960's ride quality (function of tire pressure and wall stiffness) is MUCH better than the re92's... at least mine.

That was a good thing. The RE92 is mush.

 

I'm currently running about 38. I normally do 35 but the tire place recommended to try a little higher, so I'll give it a go for a few months.