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Originally Posted by orange4boy
Nice progress on the tail. Subscribed!
Just had to correct you here. All the studies I have seen do not back this statement up. LRR tires have to be taken on a case by case basis. In a recent tire test in Europe many of the LRR tires tested had higher traction numbers than the HRR tires. In fact the two top tires were LRR. The Nokian H came out first in the test followed closely by the Michelin Energy saver. This was in a group of premium tires of which 4 out of 9 were LRR. Nokian also sells a LRR snow tire, the Hakka R which is one of the best winter tires out there. On the other hand, the famously ultra LRR Bridgestone B381 for the insight is a pretty mediocre tire in the traction dept. The carcass has a lot to do with LRR which does not factor into traction much. It's all about quality
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Actually, it is much more complex than that. "Quality" is not the main issue. The compromises made in the design and construction of the tire are quite involved and the technology is still "emerging". Specifically, compounds used in the tread have a great influence on rolling resistance, braking, and traction. There have been indications that some of the LRR tires in Europe have failed tests for braking and have caused the EU to reevaluate their proposed standards requiring LRR tires.
It is true that each tire must be evaluated on its own, but as a class LRR tires should be approached with caution. There is also the matter of just what a LRR tire is. The marketing people at the tire companies are as adept at "spinning" as anyone else. There are "energy", "green" and other terms that have no particular meaning and (unsubstantiated) claims without outside testing to determine their validity. The consumer does not have the ability to do this sort of thing. Some web sites, such as TireRack have a certain amount of testing, but even they are challenged to comprehensively evaluate LRR tires.
In any event, the evaluation of tire performance is not easily done and each individual must consider which characteristics are most important in the driving conditions which they expect to encounter most often.
It is not appropriate to simply say "get some LRR resistance tires".
Cheers