<VV> Re: Michelins and swing axles folklore

[Larry Forman]

At 12:30 AM 7/16/2004 +0000, djtcz@comcast.net wrote:
>-------------- Original message --------------
>   I asked what he thought about Michelin tires.  He suddenly got very 
> quiet, and may even have gone a little pale.  He said something about 
> steel belted radials not providing much warning, and hugged himself as if 
> cold, and muttered something about decreasing radius corners..
>_______________________________________________

Hi,
I bet he was thinking of the ORIGINAL Michelin X radials.  I put a set on a 
67 Sunbeam Alpine, when that car was fairly new, they certainly cornered a 
lot better than the old bias ply, but when hanging out on a mountain road, 
it would hold, HOLD, and THEN, very suddenly, LET GO without warning, and 
slide a few inches to a foot or so sideways.  It was scary or exciting ... 
depending.  So I suspect he had a similar experience and I think some of 
the other radial were more forgiving, since some of them had softer 
rubber.  Michelin X was trying to be all things to all people at that time 
and they wore like iron and lasted a whole lot longer than nearly any other 
tire at that time.  I also noticed they had a very flat footprint.  When 
getting off the college offramp I took daily, I needed to hold onto the 
steering wheel tightly since there was a huge step along the roadway, the 
Michelin's were the first tire that simply climbed up that step without 
jumping.  It made the transition a lot safer.  In general, they were much 
better than belted in nearly all categories.
-- Larry