Quote:
Originally Posted by culprit
FWIW...
I have covered 600 miles now with these tyres, I am a perennial RFT dissenter...I hate the things.
The G31 chassis, suspension and adaptive drive had me fooled initially! Last car I ran had MPSS's - 2 years to forget the horrors of RFT and I really did forget, I had an open mind when I realised there was no 20" non RFT option for the G31...the first few hundred miles suckered me in, I thought that Pirelli had miraculously solved the problem....wrong!
First time I inadvertently hit a decent sized pot hole I thought the wheel was done for! The feedback and noise on impact was as bad as I had ever heard - suspension was soaking up the majority of the issues only to reveal the true nature of the RFT when the chassis / suspension hit their limits.
Not once did I have this experience with the MPSS's, I lost two tyres due to pot holes over the winters during ownership (I live in a very rural area of the UK, roads get worse by the week - I have friends who have switched to SUV's simply because of the conditions of our roads). In both cases it was clear that the tyre giving way saved the wheel, in essence it acted as a fuse; before any criticism, I watch for holes like a hawk - I got caught out in both instances on familiar roads where holes had appeared overnight.
RFT's transfer the full force of that kind of impact into the wheel via the sidewall. I am dreading buckling a 759 rim, it really does though feel like one good bang will either bend or crack a rim. You could argue that the 5 increases the chances of this because the car has such a phenomenally supple ride at all other times. I have found my brain switching off to the dangers of pot holes because of it.
I am likely to swap out the RFT's for some PS4's and a tube of glue (cough cough, BMW assist, cough). Will add in a space saver for the trips to Europe.
RFT's can do one  |
What an excellent post.
I have just collected my 12 month old 540i M Sport which is on 20" individual rims and Michelin RFTs.
It is fine a lot of the time but on bad roads it is shocking and feels exactly as you say, that it is going to bend or crack a wheel. The first opportunity I get i will be putting normal tyres on the car. On bad roads i can actually feel scuttle shake like the car is a cabrio, that is how much energy is being put into the wheel and then the body.