A tire worn to perfection

[slo town]

The Michelin Cup 2s on our BMW E90 are worn to dry grip, steering response perfection. This is the left front, a 235/35-19 mounted on a 19x8.5 BBS CH.

Scott

Here's what it looked like brand new.

 

[f355spider]

Mine still look like your bottom picture. 13 months have passed, and have put less than 600 miles on them...

 

[Lubener]

How many miles and how old?

 

[ctechbob]

Nothing like a nice sticky, treadless tire.

I really miss those days.....

 

[tbm5690]

Ahh to live in a place where you can actually wear tires down to that point!

 

[Patman]

This is what one of my rear Michelin Pilot Super Sports looked like just before I replaced them at the beginning of the year, I got 106,200 km out of them!

 

[wander2039]

This thread makes me feel better about the Dueler's on the back of the X3 Dreading and hoping I don't have to argue just replacing two at Discount tire.

 

[Patman]

This thread makes me feel better about the Dueler's on the back of the X3 Dreading and hoping I don't have to argue just replacing two at Discount tire.

I have never had a tire shop give me grief about buying just two tires. In fact with my Corvettes I have never bought 4 tires at once because they never wear out at the same rate. I don’t want to chuck a pair of tires with 50% tread left just because the other two are almost done.

 

[slo town]

How many miles and how old?

Just over 7K miles on the fronts. The rears last about 4K miles.

Scott

 

[Astro14]

Wow, short life - but I suspect that the handling is wonderful. That is some nice, even wear, though, the suspension on that car is excellent.

 

[thastinger]

This is what one of my rear Michelin Pilot Super Sports looked like just before I replaced them at the beginning of the year, I got 106,200 km out of them! View attachment 317590

I have MPSS on my GT500, tread is fine but they are cracking from age. What did you replace them with cause they don't make the MPSS anymore.

 

[benjamming]

So, have you measured to see what the tread depth really is?

 

[Astro14]

So, have you measured to see what the tread depth really is?

From the wear bars - 3/32”. Worn to perfection!

 

[Patman]

I have MPSS on my GT500, tread is fine but they are cracking from age. What did you replace them with cause they don't make the MPSS anymore.

I replaced them with Continental DWS06+
Mine never cracked even though the rears were almost 8 years old

 

[wander2039]

I have never had a tire shop give me grief about buying just two tires. In fact with my Corvettes I have never bought 4 tires at once because they never wear out at the same rate. I don’t want to chuck a pair of tires with 50% tread left just because the other two are almost done.

AWD things.. But BMW says it's ok within a certain depth not like Subaru's.

 

[slo town]

Wow, short life - but I suspect that the handling is wonderful. That is some nice, even wear, though, the suspension on that car is excellent.

I was hoping someone would notice the even wear. It's combination of both proper suspension settings and tire pressures (which on the Cup 2s is supposed to be checked hot).

I have a pair of well banked 180 turns I like to play on, one a freeway off ramp, the other a freeway on ramp. One of my "party tricks" on the on ramp is to merge onto the freeway faster than the speed of the actual freeway traffic. Given how short and tight the on ramp is, my merge speed seems impossible.

Scott

 

[slo town]

So, have you measured to see what the tread depth really is?

The war bars are 2/32". I didn't measure the tread depth but I think @Astro14 called it right - 3/32s.

Scott

 

[slo town]

I have MPSS on my GT500, tread is fine but they are cracking from age. What did you replace them with cause they don't make the MPSS anymore.

I've run Super Sports on our E90. A great tire! IMO the newer Pilot Sport 4S is not as good as the Super Sports. Steering response is less crisp and they lack the raw grip of the Super Sports. FWIW.

Scott

 

[Kira]

All-American Bald Eagle Tires! (well, gettin' there)

^^I was 6 years old when I heard my uncle use that expression and it just makes me laugh.

Years ago, a set of 4 Bridgestone Turanzas, with a QTQG rating of 80,000 miles, wore out 'straight and true' after 51k.
The short of it is that I was told the number was to be used as a buying guide only......and that I'd need documented commercial tire rotations for any shot at a claim with any brand.

With so much blatant truthlessness in the world, I was surprised how much it galled me.
I'm even more surprised that it still does.

Hmmmm......maybe those tires would have lasted 80k had my driving been 100% highway?

 

[slo town]

All-American Bald Eagle Tires! (well, gettin' there)

^^I was 6 years old when I heard my uncle use that expression and it just makes me laugh.

Years ago, a set of 4 Bridgestone Turanzas, with a QTQG rating of 80,000 miles, wore out 'straight and true' after 51k.
The short of it is that I was told the number was to be used as a buying guide only......and that I'd need documented commercial tire rotations for any shot at a claim with any brand.

With so much blatant truthlessness in the world, I was surprised how much it galled me.
I'm even more surprised that it still does.

Hmmmm......maybe those tires would have lasted 80k had my driving been 100% highway?

Michelin is my much preferred brand, but I've owned two sets of Bridgestone RE-11s. The RE-11s had dry grip that was very, very close to the Cup 2s - but my gawd the RE-11s were harsh - and heavy.

The Cup 2s are magic to me. They're light, they're quiet, and they're amazingly supple. The worst thing about the Cups 2 is they pick up every rock and stone when they're hot and sticky.

Scott