[dkan]

22k is not bad, I used Falken in the past on my old cars, and to be honest were not that impressed with them. Girp was ok, but wet and wear performance were poor. But I guess thier tyres have improved now.

Would be interest to see how the 452s are wearing. I do drive a lot of motorway so comfort and wear is more importantant than on the edge performance. I tend to drive like an old man these days anyway...but good wet performance will be a must. How did they perform in the snow ??? I know most tyres are pretty poor...but I was quite happy with my Continental runflat to be honest, just the price and crashy ride which lets it down ..

Cheers

Originally Posted by survivalist

From memory I got about 22k out of my 912s, although at that stage parts of the tyre we're borderline legal, fronts were at 3mm. As no one seemed to have the 912s in stock in time for my imminent MOT I swapped all 4 to 452s. They've done 12k now, no idea what the wear is (visually they have plenty of tread).

Can check tomorrow if you're interested.

ETA - That's on a 2006 325i MSport Auto. Not driven gently by any stretch, but probably 65% motorway. Had a manual 320d before that and it went through rear tyres much quicker - quite possibly because of the way the turbo/torque "thumps" in under acceleration.

S

[SteveC]

[QUOTE=Jeff123;8058992]Steve


The safety aspect is so that you are not stranded miles from a garage - not in the event of a blow-out.


Obviously you're not paying attention to BMW's marketing...they run a video in dealerships showing what happens when they drive a regular tyre over a spike then a run flat. The regular tyre bursts and pops straight off the bead, causing a complete loss of control. The RFT remains completely stable and under control. According to BMW, the main advantage of a RFT is the fact it remains on the rim in case of a blow-out

[11ker]

Vredestein ultrac sessanta best tyres for money IMO..check them out..

[Jeff123]

[QUOTE=SteveC;8064394]

Originally Posted by Jeff123

Steve


The safety aspect is so that you are not stranded miles from a garage - not in the event of a blow-out.


Obviously you're not paying attention to BMW's marketing...they run a video in dealerships showing what happens when they drive a regular tyre over a spike then a run flat. The regular tyre bursts and pops straight off the bead, causing a complete loss of control. The RFT remains completely stable and under control. According to BMW, the main advantage of a RFT is the fact it remains on the rim in case of a blow-out

What they don't show is where a driver has being happily driving around for a nember of days with zero pressure in his tyre.

[m1bjr]

Originally Posted by SteveC

they run a video in dealerships showing what happens when they drive a regular tyre over a spike then a run flat.

The regular tyre bursts and pops straight off the bead, causing a complete loss of control.

Pretty handy if you live in Salford.

But they rarely deploy the Stingers down here in peaceful Somerset.

[m1bjr]

Set of 452s going on later this week.
At that price, if they are crap they can go onto eBay and we'll move to Contis.
Inner edge of my front BS RFTs were toast already, and the geo was in tolerance, as were pressures. Odd.

[Carjack]

A lot of posts are critical of runflat tyres and the way to go is non RFT, an aerosol and a pump.

This is OK in the main for blokes and a lot of the ‘ladies’. But the problem is that one is more likely of getting a flat in the wet and on the motorway.

The reason is:
1) Water is a perfect lubricant for rubber.
2) The rubber is under high tension & compressive stresses.

Given these conditions the nail dos’nt have to be set upright or at an angle, it will just flip over naturally and will slide in, nice and easy. You know what I mean?

As it always seems to rain in the most at night and on the motorway, they are essential for my Wife.

I would just hate to think she was stuck on the hard shoulder by herself.
RFT reassure her. She knows she can always get home without stopping.
For her they are a godsend.

I would like to add that I've been driving NFT for nearly 5 years now and never had a punture. Touch wood!

So please do not hammer RFT too hard!

[hmi1750]

Originally Posted by Carjack

A lot of posts are critical of runflat tyres and the way to go is non RFT, an aerosol and a pump.

This is OK in the main for blokes and a lot of the ‘ladies’. But the problem is that one is more likely of getting a flat in the wet and on the motorway.

The reason is:
1) Water is a perfect lubricant for rubber.
2) The rubber is under high tension & compressive stresses.

Given these conditions the nail dos’nt have to be set upright or at an angle, it will just flip over naturally and will slide in, nice and easy. You know what I mean?

As it always seems to rain in the most at night and on the motorway, they are essential for my Wife.

I would just hate to think she was stuck on the hard shoulder by herself.
RFT reassure her. She knows she can always get home without stopping.
For her they are a godsend.

I would like to add that I've been driving NFT for nearly 5 years now and never had a punture. Touch wood!

So please do not hammer RFT too hard!

Last time I had a nail in my RFT I couldn't limp home as the RFT was damaged. The time before it was too far for me to get home at 50mph so I was towed.

Sure might save a blow out, but I had one of those on my non-RFTs and I gently edged over the hard shoulder and got towed home an hour later. Then had new tyre on the next day (whereas the RFT was not available for few days).

[survivalist]

Checked the 452's and they are on about 6mm at the rear and fronts have even less wear after 11k miles. Most of that was motorway or city driving as I've been out in the weekend car much more this year.

Hope this helps.

S

[Jeff123]

Originally Posted by Carjack

A lot of posts are critical of runflat tyres and the way to go is non RFT, an aerosol and a pump.

This is OK in the main for blokes and a lot of the ‘ladies’. But the problem is that one is more likely of getting a flat in the wet and on the motorway.

The reason is:
1) Water is a perfect lubricant for rubber.
2) The rubber is under high tension & compressive stresses.

Given these conditions the nail dos’nt have to be set upright or at an angle, it will just flip over naturally and will slide in, nice and easy. You know what I mean?

As it always seems to rain in the most at night and on the motorway, they are essential for my Wife.

I would just hate to think she was stuck on the hard shoulder by herself.
RFT reassure her. She knows she can always get home without stopping.
For her they are a godsend.
I would like to add that I've been driving NFT for nearly 5 years now and never had a punture. Touch wood!

So please do not hammer RFT too hard!

As I said on another post, a great number of cars don't have RFT's and also don't have a spare wheel - the '59 reg C Max that my wife had as a courtesy car. So that scuppers that point of view.

[doughboy]

And RFTs can still suffer blowouts and catastrophic failure after a decompression or puncture at speed, as plenty of photos on here will show. The side wall may be stiff but the tread is just like a normal tyre and the centrifugal forces and speed can rip it to shreads just the same after damage.

The bead may stay on the rim, but that doesn't matter if the rest of the tyre isn't joined to the bead anymore!!!!

This is about the status of the technology, current RFTs are for some too much of a compromise with good ride and handling, as they get better in time this will even up.

I'd love to have RFTs that drove like regular tyres, but no one makes any, so in the meantime i'll do without and run the gauntlet of 'no spare' just like thousands of pensioners and mums in their hondas and toyotas and fords etc etc that all have no spare and no RFTs - none of them are forcing RFTs on unsuspecting customers are they????

Personal choice in the end.

[Jeff123]

In most ways I agree with DB, but there many other factors against runflats:

- Twice the price of a mid-market tyre
- Probably less mileage before the tyres need changing
- Highly prone to inner edge wear meaning even less overall mileage
- Poor handling - wheels spinning TC always on etc..........
- The fact that the TP sensors won't pick up a slow puncture and you could be driving around for a long period of time not knowing this; including high speed motorway drives
- If you actually get to a tyre repair place, there is a good chance that they won't stock a RFT; or you end up buying two tyres
- They actually seem to have more puntures than normal tyres

etc.........

[dkan]

Well, I got confirmation back from Admiral that it's ok to switch to run-flats. No change or additional cost involved so no problems there. Also have it in writing in an email.

With the wet weather the backend is sliding like anything under acceleration, fun..but scares the S--t out of me . Will be going with the Kumho KU31 or the Falken 912...see which one is the cheapest. I'm strapped for cash this month

[BIGTIME]

The main factor for me is if changing to non rft will make the alloys more prone to cracking.

[rsmallwo]

Originally Posted by BIGTIME

The main factor for me is if changing to non rft will make the alloys more prone to cracking.

The physics would suggest to me that normal tyres (non runflat's) would make the alloy wheel less prone to cracking as the tyres have a more cushioning affect than runflat tyres with their stiff sidewalls.

[dkan]

Just got off the phone to a tyre dealer in Milton Keynes (Protyre) and gave me an earful about "do you know the consequences of moving away from runflats", he said :

1. that my currrent alloys needed to be ditched because they are specific for runflat tyres - my response was really, cause no other tyre centre mention this problem, or BMW.

2. that i need to inform my insurance - done that

3. then said i need to carry a full size spare cause of MOT - my response to that was, well my other car does not have runflats and does not have a full spare, it doesn't even have a space saver. I don't even think the MOT test the spare.

4. if you go from run flat to non-run flats if i had a blow out or puncture on the motorway i would be liable and prosecuted by the police - think this is BS...no different to my other car, which is on non-runflat and does not have a spare.

In the end i though he was talking a load of BS, and declined the quote and put the phone down. Crazy some of the stuff that comes out.

[willhollin]

Utter bullshit.

[Jeff123]

Originally Posted by willhollin

Utter bullshit.

+1

Try one of the mobile fitting companies such as Event Tyres or Camskill. Event did mine, they are good and knowledgeable.

[chris_s1]

Originally Posted by willhollin

Utter bullshit.

+1

I had mine done at Micheldever tyres (part of the Protyre chain) and the discussion went something like this :

Me : Falken 452's please
Fitter : Ditching the run-flats?
Me : Yeah
Fitter : Don't blame you, we get loads of people in that are sick of them

And the tyres were fitted

[dkan]

I was quite surprised to be honest, as I've used Protyre (Bristol) a fair few times and they have always been very knowledgeable. But the guy at Protyre in MK, what a muppet.

Business will be taken elsewhere

[m1bjr]

Originally Posted by chris_s1

+1

I had mine done at Micheldever tyres (part of the Protyre chain) and the discussion went something like this :

Me : Falken 452's please
Fitter : Ditching the run-flats?
Me : Yeah
Fitter : Don't blame you, we get loads of people in that are sick of them

And the tyres were fitted

Yup, exactly my experience this week too.
I have a new E90 with eco tyres and an inflation kit in the boot, no space saver

I bought a genuine Continental mobility Kit (compressor and slime can) from ebay this week - still in wrapper £20.
Worth a look - the guy advertised it as a S-MAx/Ford Galaxy tyre kit.
Its the same one in the Alpina and many others with Contis, about £60 retail
Do some digging as there are a few knocking about cheaply.
The tyre inflater is really good on its own, you only screw the slime can on if you need to fix a puncture.
And if you are binning RFTs then you need one of these kits really.

[PoppyStaff]

I wanted to change to non-rft's last month but was put off because I read somewhere you should have the suspension set up modified. I was also concerned about losing the 'turn in ability' of my E92. In the end I took it to BMW who stung me 600 quid for two new rears. Was worried my local tyre dealer might crack the wheels when changing the rft's!