Official safe driving advice is targeted at morons - all you ever hear is: don't speed, don't drink, don't drive when you're half asleep and don't forget to wear a seatbelt. Safe driving is more complex than this, and most of us - 90-something percent - are already complying with those basic four rules.
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Are you thinking about fitting retread tyres? The simple advice is: Don't.
I tested retread tyres for Wheels magazine in 2003 in the publication's annual tyre test. It was enough to make me doubt any purported justification for making retreaded tyres legal.
Shockingly, the retreads I tested added almost 10 metres to the length of a wet stop from 100km/h (and three metres from 60km/h). That's about
The most common cause of a tyre blowout is the pressure being too low. Here's why:
When a tyre is properly inflated, the sidewall is fairly stiff. There's enough 'give' in the sidewall, thanks to the pressure, to absorb normal bumps. However, the sidewall really doesn't flex that much in normal driving.
If a tyre develops a slow leak, however, the sidewall flexes more and more. At least the bit directly under the axle, subject to the car's weight, does. And then, as the car rolls forward, a new bit of the sidewall bends under the weight, while the bit that was bent like this just moments ago straightens back out.
You’ve just had new tyres fitted, added to the nation’s credit card debt (not to mention your own) via the retailer’s EFTPOS terminal and driven off the forecourt with fresh new rubber.
Feel like testing them out? Maybe right now isn't the ideal time. Here's why:
New tyres are coated in a material called 'mould-release compound', a slippery substance that helps their final extraction from the manufacturing process. It literally helps the new tyres be released from their moulds on the production line. Note that word: ‘slippery’.
New tyres are also kind of furry, you might have noticed, often with flexible rubber ‘stubble’ protruding from the tread face. These little fluffy bits of rubber are called 'vent pips'. They're formed as the rubber flows into little holes in the metal manufacturing dies. They prevent air bubbles from forming in the tread face by allowing all the air (and a little follow-on rubber) to flow out of the dies.
Brace yourself for a shock. The law doesn't differentiate between public and private property when it comes to where the road rules apply. This can have startling, and sobering, consequences. Just below is an example that relates to being on a camping trip in a 4X4, but the same principle applies in the car park of a major shopping centre.
Let’s say you’re in the bush. Let’s say you’re camped on an outback station, on private property that’s open to the public. Legally. A place where recreational camping is allowed. Encouraged, even, as a source of revenue for the grazier. The sun’s setting. You’re on the bank of a choice creek. It’s been a textbook day. Half a dozen fresh fish on the barbecue plate (bad day for them; a good one for you), and you’re swapping lies with mates, with a few beers to chase them down.
A light chill is creeping in as the sun sets. You decide that maybe there isn’t enough firewood at hand