5 ms·

I don't worry about punctures at all, despite living in a country with a shitty roads. What I worry about A LOT is a catastrophic collision of tire with a 90 de

by Yizahi 5y ago

I don't worry about punctures at all, despite living in a country with a shitty roads. What I worry about A LOT is a catastrophic collision of tire with a 90 degree sharp pothole edge, often made by roadworkers before doing point repair, which potentially can destroy tire irreparably. I wonder if these tires are better protected against such impacts, and just looking at them it seems they are - no side walls which are cut in a strong impact. Looking forward to more impact tests of these tires.

rodgerd 5y ago
Punctures are much more of a problem for me - the roads are generally good, but tradies seem to love scattering nails, bolts, and other random bits of construction crap on the roads.
bkanber 5y ago
These tires do have sidewalls. The sidewalls are removed for marketing and demonstration purposes only.
- marcellus23 5y ago
  I'm sure everyone in the tire industry (?) knows that, but it would be nice if Michelin had something to suggest that on their page.
  - bkanber 5y ago
    The only little clue is that one photo of the EV where the sidewalls are visible on the tires. You have to squint to see it :)
    - marcellus23 5y ago
      good catch!
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      Totally missed that on first reading, thank you for pointing it out.
- cjrp 5y ago
  I guess the point is if they can be removed for demonstrations, then they're not critical to the structure.
  - sfe22 5y ago
    They may be for real world usage, you dont want rocks or sticks getting inside
    - cjrp 5y ago
      Absolutely, my point was that if you can remove them for this sort of demo, then if they get damaged by a pothole then it's probably easy to replace them.
      - kube-system 5y ago
        The demo tires shown here don't have "removable" sidewalls. They were manufactured without them. The production tires will be one piece, like normal tires.
  - bkanber 5y ago
    Sidewalls are critical for NVH at higher speeds, as well as fuel economy. But a demo of a tire on a car going 55 mph doesn't make sense, so they are able to remove the sidewalls for these stationary photoshoots and low speed rolling tests.
  - sparrish 5y ago
    I imagine they're critical for noise reduction.
intrasight 5y ago
Other comments here say that production tires will have sidewalls to protect the spokes and keep out rocks. If so, I'm a bit disappointed since I like the look of the spokes. Regarding catastrophic collision with sharp edge, I think these tires will be susceptible as well. If it's enough of a bump to "bottom out", it's going to dent the rim. Also, your comment about potholes reminded me of a time that I was driving with a friend and we hit a pothole and got a flat. My friend was driving and looked a the flat front tire and said "I'm glad I have a spare". I look at the flat back tire and said "Unless you have two, we're still going to need assistance."
- _fat_santa 5y ago
  > My friend was driving and looked a the flat front tire and said "I'm glad I have a spare". I look at the flat back tire and said "Unless you have two, we're still going to need assistance. I did this one time. Ran over a pothole and bottomed out. As I'm replacing my front tire I look to my rear tire and see that it's also flat. That wasn't even the cherry on top. At that point I had my front wheel off and tried putting on the spare anyways. I had a Kia Stinger GT and the GT version has Brembo brakes which have a much larger caliper than the regular version. Well QA at Kia never thought to check if their spare tire actually fits with the larger caliper. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.
  - hammock 5y ago
    How do you like the Stinger? I saw one of those the other day and did a double take on the Kia logo.
  - zubiaur 5y ago
    Been there, with a GM with a similar issue. The manual stated something about putting the spare on a rear, then, taking the good rear and putting it in the front. The rotors on the rear were smaller and could accommodate the spare. Obviously a moot point if one has two blown tires.
    - mcguire 5y ago
InvaderFizz 5y ago
I'm in the same boat. I lose 1-2 tires per year due to sidewall damage from potholes. Lucky for me, the Discount Tire road hazard warranty covers that. Costs me $16/tire each time this happens. It's so bad that I had to replace the factory wheels with aftermarket ones that wouldn't get bent from the impact. Of course, I didn't consider changing the wheel size when I did that. I should have gone with 15" wheels and a higher ratio tire to get the same effective outside radius with more tire between the wheel and the road. Oh well, replacing this car soon anyways as now I am in need of ground clearance and AWD due to having moved to where roads do not always exist year round.
kwhitefoot 5y ago
Same here. In over forty years of driving I have had only two tyres fail that I noticed while driving: one went flat over a period of a few seconds and the other was as you described, a pothole, I was only doing about 30 km per hour but the tyre was damaged beyond repair. In addition I've had a couple of slow leaks due to nails embedded in the tread but they were so slow that I didn't notice for days.
drawkbox 5y ago
Additionally, tires filled with air can be dangerous over or under filling them. Filling tires at too high pressure can lead to blowouts. Filling tires under pressure leads to degraded performance handling issues potentially causing accidents in some cases. A more consistent normalized baseline performing tire, even if louder, would be welcome. This would end the seasonal low pressure tires in winter due to the cold and higher pressure during summer due to the heat. One time we got new tires and went on vacation and parked our car in an outside parking garage in a hot summer for a week, we came back and the side facing the sun the tires had exceeded PSI max and started to buckle. I am sure we have all seen those videos of people standing over tires and overfilling them leading to essentially a pressure bomb. Managing air pressure in tires can be problematic, airless tires are a welcome innovation.
- askvictor 5y ago
  > A more consistent normalized baseline performing tire, even if louder, would be welcome. Background noise can lead to fatigue, which can lead to crashes. I have no idea of the overall impact (pardon the pun) of this, compared to increased safety of (louder) tyre performance, but probably worth considering. > Managing air pressure in tires can be problematic, airless tires are a welcome innovation. True, but modern cars have inbuilt pressure sensors, and these can be retro-fitted relatively cheaply.

by Yizahi 5y ago

rodgerd 5y ago

Punctures are much more of a problem for me - the roads are generally good, but tradies seem to love scattering nails, bolts, and other random bits of construction crap on the roads.

bkanber 5y ago

These tires do have sidewalls. The sidewalls are removed for marketing and demonstration purposes only.

marcellus23 5y ago
I'm sure everyone in the tire industry (?) knows that, but it would be nice if Michelin had something to suggest that on their page.
- bkanber 5y ago
  The only little clue is that one photo of the EV where the sidewalls are visible on the tires. You have to squint to see it :)
  - marcellus23 5y ago
    good catch!
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Totally missed that on first reading, thank you for pointing it out.
cjrp 5y ago
I guess the point is if they can be removed for demonstrations, then they're not critical to the structure.
- sfe22 5y ago
  They may be for real world usage, you dont want rocks or sticks getting inside
  - cjrp 5y ago
    Absolutely, my point was that if you can remove them for this sort of demo, then if they get damaged by a pothole then it's probably easy to replace them.
    - kube-system 5y ago
      The demo tires shown here don't have "removable" sidewalls. They were manufactured without them. The production tires will be one piece, like normal tires.
- bkanber 5y ago
  Sidewalls are critical for NVH at higher speeds, as well as fuel economy. But a demo of a tire on a car going 55 mph doesn't make sense, so they are able to remove the sidewalls for these stationary photoshoots and low speed rolling tests.
- sparrish 5y ago
  I imagine they're critical for noise reduction.

intrasight 5y ago

Other comments here say that production tires will have sidewalls to protect the spokes and keep out rocks. If so, I'm a bit disappointed since I like the look of the spokes. Regarding catastrophic collision with sharp edge, I think these tires will be susceptible as well. If it's enough of a bump to "bottom out", it's going to dent the rim. Also, your comment about potholes reminded me of a time that I was driving with a friend and we hit a pothole and got a flat. My friend was driving and looked a the flat front tire and said "I'm glad I have a spare". I look at the flat back tire and said "Unless you have two, we're still going to need assistance."

_fat_santa 5y ago
> My friend was driving and looked a the flat front tire and said "I'm glad I have a spare". I look at the flat back tire and said "Unless you have two, we're still going to need assistance. I did this one time. Ran over a pothole and bottomed out. As I'm replacing my front tire I look to my rear tire and see that it's also flat. That wasn't even the cherry on top. At that point I had my front wheel off and tried putting on the spare anyways. I had a Kia Stinger GT and the GT version has Brembo brakes which have a much larger caliper than the regular version. Well QA at Kia never thought to check if their spare tire actually fits with the larger caliper. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.
- hammock 5y ago
  How do you like the Stinger? I saw one of those the other day and did a double take on the Kia logo.
- zubiaur 5y ago
  Been there, with a GM with a similar issue. The manual stated something about putting the spare on a rear, then, taking the good rear and putting it in the front. The rotors on the rear were smaller and could accommodate the spare. Obviously a moot point if one has two blown tires.
  - mcguire 5y ago

InvaderFizz 5y ago

I'm in the same boat. I lose 1-2 tires per year due to sidewall damage from potholes. Lucky for me, the Discount Tire road hazard warranty covers that. Costs me $16/tire each time this happens. It's so bad that I had to replace the factory wheels with aftermarket ones that wouldn't get bent from the impact. Of course, I didn't consider changing the wheel size when I did that. I should have gone with 15" wheels and a higher ratio tire to get the same effective outside radius with more tire between the wheel and the road. Oh well, replacing this car soon anyways as now I am in need of ground clearance and AWD due to having moved to where roads do not always exist year round.

kwhitefoot 5y ago

Same here. In over forty years of driving I have had only two tyres fail that I noticed while driving: one went flat over a period of a few seconds and the other was as you described, a pothole, I was only doing about 30 km per hour but the tyre was damaged beyond repair. In addition I've had a couple of slow leaks due to nails embedded in the tread but they were so slow that I didn't notice for days.

drawkbox 5y ago

Additionally, tires filled with air can be dangerous over or under filling them. Filling tires at too high pressure can lead to blowouts. Filling tires under pressure leads to degraded performance handling issues potentially causing accidents in some cases. A more consistent normalized baseline performing tire, even if louder, would be welcome. This would end the seasonal low pressure tires in winter due to the cold and higher pressure during summer due to the heat. One time we got new tires and went on vacation and parked our car in an outside parking garage in a hot summer for a week, we came back and the side facing the sun the tires had exceeded PSI max and started to buckle. I am sure we have all seen those videos of people standing over tires and overfilling them leading to essentially a pressure bomb. Managing air pressure in tires can be problematic, airless tires are a welcome innovation.

askvictor 5y ago
> A more consistent normalized baseline performing tire, even if louder, would be welcome. Background noise can lead to fatigue, which can lead to crashes. I have no idea of the overall impact (pardon the pun) of this, compared to increased safety of (louder) tyre performance, but probably worth considering. > Managing air pressure in tires can be problematic, airless tires are a welcome innovation. True, but modern cars have inbuilt pressure sensors, and these can be retro-fitted relatively cheaply.