So the Yokohama S.Drives are proving to be great on my TF. Certainly handled the snow without a problem and the only place where there's ever a hint of them losing grip is on the wet and slippery spiral concrete ramp into the multi-storey car park at work and even that needs a bit of a heavy right foot
All the threads that seem to crop up on forums around tyres got me thinking and I'm wondering if some of the issues that people see are down to the two styles of tread pattern that tyres for the F/TF seem to fall into.
Because I don't know the technical terms I've called them blocks and sliced.
Blocks are tyres like my S.Drives where the tread pattern is like "normal" road tyres
Sliced are tyres like the T-1Rs where they look more like a slick with a tread pattern cut out
One big difference between the two types is that block tyres generally have one or more rings that travel around the whole circumference of the tyre, usually with tread depth blocks in them. I think these rings must help a lot in very wet or snowy conditions by helping to keep the tread clear. The disadvantage comes in warm, fast road or track conditions where the blocks will shift laterally under load meaning there is less outright grip than a sliced tyre.
All of this makes me think that a lot of the issues that people see when mixing tyres may not be down to just different tyres but more different tread styles. When I got the TF it has Continental SportContacts on the front (blocks) and Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3s (sliced) on the back. Now I know GSD3s are not recommended and so I was looking to change anyway but when the first heavy rains hit the handling became a little un-predictable.
What do you think? I'm just thinking that this may help people decide if they are just changing one pair of tyres.