I just recieved my 15" new holies from an Ebayer,thanks, whoever you are! I'm mounting Pirelli Winter Carving tires on them, should be good to go . Maybe I'll install them on the car around Thanksgiving if the weather looks mild.

 

I'm getting my Nokian WRs tonight. I'm debating whether or not I should have them put on the car or wait a little longer. Weather is 40s-50s for the time being.

 

I'm going today for Nokians WR. I'm just going to swap them out with the 15" Conti's that I have on my MC. It might be a tad early but at least I won't have to deal with it later.

 

I changed my wife's tires last weekend. I'm a die hard and hang on to those grippie summer tires as long as I can. Alas, we got snow yesterday during my 100 mile drive to Colorado Springs and today and I'm wishing I'd changed mine too.

 

Thanksgiving weekend is my changeover time, unless there's snow in the forecast. Whatever weekend falls AFTER (not ON) April 1 is change-back. Unless it's warm and I'm sick of the snows, in which case I'll change back early, get caught in snow, and c..r..a..w..l... home (been there, done that, lucky to be alive).

That said, it was an interesting drive to State College from Pittsburgh this week - I was heading to a seminar and meeting a friend who had my snows with him... I was on Euforis... watching sleet bounce off my windshield... and thinking how embarassing it'd have been to spin out in snow on the way to pick up my snow tires!

And let's not start the all-seasons vs. snows debate. Snow tires are better in snow, hands down. Check the tests. Check www.tirerack.com. Ask folks who run snows.

 

I bought an electric impact wrench so I can do tire changes in less than 15 minutes at home. I've already put the snow tires on twice this year for a grand total of 3 days, but now I'm back on my sticky summers until it snows again.

Snow tires just totally kill cornering in the MINI, maybe I just drive too fast, but if I don't feel the g force I get upset

 

I want to wait as long as possible, but I am affraid that if I wait to long, I will have to wash the summer wheels in the COLD because I don't want to store the tires/wheels with brake dust or dirt on them. I may just switch out while it is still like 45 F out and tollerable.

 

My wife laughs when I'm outside in 35 degree weather washing summer wheels... I don't, I shiver. It's a good feeling in spring, though, to put on clean shoes.

 

Just got some 195/60/15 Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2's for my holies to replace
the half worn 175/65/15 Conti's that came with the MINI.
The Conti's were passable, but not that great for wet, dry, nor snow.
Now watching the 10 day forcasts and waiting for the temps to drop more
or a snow forcast, then I'll swap them with my summer 205/50/16 S03's.

 

^^^ Yep times 10.

 

I bought a winter tire package from Alex at the TireRack. I went with the 16" Sport Edition F7's with Dunlop Winter Sport's...I wanted to stick with runflats (I know I know).

I put them on my car Monday night (10/30)...they're great so far! We're now dipping into the low 30's in the mornings so I figured it was time to put them on.

My stocker S-lite wheel setup weighed in at 48.6 pounds! The new ones totalled 42.4 per wheel+tire. Not sure if it's the tire size or the slightly lighter weight but I'd swear the car is shifting a lot smoother now?! I really like how this setup looks on my car too. I'll post some pics soon.

 

I'm perfectly comfortable using non runflats for summer, but I'm all for runflats for the winter. I wouldn't want to die of exposure because I got a flat & was stranded in the middle of nowhere....!! (ok, so there's only a 0.00001% chance that that would ever happen, but why take the chance!)

 

I had that problem last year. It could have also been attributed to the switch to ethanol gas around thanksgiving. The dealer reset the fuel map in the computer, and the sputtering went away.

 

mm, yup. I'm waiting till some decent snow before changing over. I've got the 16" oem all-seasons, but the fronts are pretty much gone tread-wise. Going to use 'em as long as possible, so next spring I can rotate them one last time. Also want to stretch out my nice new winter tires for as long as possible.

Traction is pretty lousy, but that's fun as long as you keep it shiny side up and on the pavement.

 

here on the northern shores of Massachusetts, we either get nuthin... or everything. My Blizzaks went on last weekend and although I will sorely miss my Potenzas , I would rather have a MINI that is a MONSTER in snow. For three years I "made do" with Traction T/A's (all season's), and only wound up getting half best for both seasons. I got lucky and found someone from Colorado moving to Texas and bought the BLIZZAKS mounted on Borbet 15" 5 spoke alloys for $350 (yeah delivery was half that again, but still worth it in the long run I think.)."Actual Size" refers to driving on snows as "driving on pencil erasers" Jock

 

Big Red got her new shoes yesterday. We went with the Blizzaks too. I agree with having two sets of rims. It makes the switch so much easier.
We felt every bump in the road. Does it get any better once the tires are broken in or is that just what you get with run flats?

 

one of the most pertinent mods I made on my car was the move away from run flats. The difference in ride and handling makes this totally worthwhile IMHO. Jock

 

Just swapped summer tires and wheels (Bridgestone S-03's) on my MINI
(205/50/16) and my wife's VW Cabrio (205/50/15) for Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2's
on my MINI (195/60/15 on holies) and Blizzaks on my wife's Cabrio (185/60/14
on steelies).
Summer wheels/tires are now cleaned and stacked in the basement awaiting
mid-March or so.

 

Well here in Calgary it snowed for about 4 weeks, but now it's been dry and warmer (as in, above zero, haha) Got the summer tires back on the MINI for a week before it snows again! I can't stand snow tires on dry tarmac, even at slightly below freezing temperature my summer tires grip and respond way, wayyyyyy better than the snow tires.