[QUOTE]Originally posted by Phantom
[B]Sunchild,

When you hear people say that stock S02's "suck in the rain...", it doens't mean that a brand new S02 is not a good tire in the rain.

Let me explain why I rather not drive on a S02 in the rain...

1. The rear S02's have very small water displacement channels for maximum dry weather performance.

2. A brand new S02 is fine to drive on in the rain, but the tires are soft and wear down so quick that 6,000 of the 10,000 mile tread life (for example), the tread is not very deep.

3. The stock rear tire tread is wide.

Add those two together and you are mostly driving on a tire that does not have enough water displacement (in my opinion).

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AlexM
[B]

1.

 

I'm with Sunchild on this, but here's one more way to explain people's complaints: I think that the S02s have a bigger differential between dry performance and wet/cold performance than many other tires.

In other words, the S02s are very good in the dry (9 out of 10), but only decent in the wet/cold (6 out of 10). Many other tires are 6 in the dry and 5 in the wet, so you don't have to adjust your driving style as much, if at all, to avoid disaster.

Ted

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by S2kRob
[B]

How many miles are on them.

 

I think you don't know what you are missing by not changing to a different tire. I enjoy my car a good deal more without the OEM rears and, gee whiz, I can still keep up with the boys in the dry.

BTW, I've never wrecked (or even close on either kind of tires) and I still don't think so much of the OEM rears. I do enjoy being able to drive at speed in the wet now too.

Feedback at the limit is a feature that makes it easier to drive at the limit. Even if the stock tires have more absolute grip (and I'm not convinced) being better able to predict tire behavior can make one a faster driver.

Glad you are enjoying yourself.

 

Yeah, it seems that everyone who has problems in the rain has nearly worn S-02's. I'd say to just monitor you're tread wear and when it gets low, take note when driving in adverse conditions.

But I agree, fresh, they seem to be just fine on the wet stuff.

 

[QUOTE]
Posted by AlexM:
1. I drove through some serious torrential downpour shit with stock S-02s - no complaints.

 

jschmidt,

What tires do you have? I changed the rears (still OEM) at 11,000 miles because they were sidestepping in the wet. The fronts are still going at 15,000, but are probably on borrowed time.

 

I disagree with Sunchild's logic here. (Yes I have crashed in the wet, as many of you will know.)

According to the logic of these arguments, if we all drove at 5mph in the rain, all tyres would be perfect performers in the wet.

That is not the argument. Look at the tread pattern and it is obvious that they are not going to be good performers in the wet.

I accept that the accident I had was 100% my fault for driving too fast for the ability of the tyres. Having said that, I will be changing the tyres on my next S2000 for some that can actually handle a wet road at more than 5 mph!! Or what I would call reasonable wet weather tyres....

just my 2 pence worth

 

Hmmm, I don't remember Sunchild saying you had to drive 5 MPH in the rain. I do remember him saying that you should slow down. I guess that just seems obvious to me. I think the lesson is to learn the limits of your tires. I've driven down the freeway in a downpour and felt the car becoming light, starting to hydroplane. Would it have done that with other tires? Who knows. Probably not. I accept the fact that this car, and the tires Honda chose to put on it, are performance oriented. Therefore, I also accept the fact that it probably won't perform as well in the rain since there isn't a lot of performance available in the rain. I'm glad Honda chose to put on the S2000 tires that were equal to the handling capabilities of the car. So I drive mellow in the rain. I don't try to fly around corners. The rain is unpredictable. When I was 19 I had a very bad experience in the rain so I respect it. Maybe that's what's saved me. Dunno. I think it's fair for those of us who've had acceptable performance in the rain with S02's to post that just as those of you who've crashed in the rain with S02's post your experiences as well. I also think it's obvious that if you switch to tires that perform better in the rain you're going to compromise the cars performance in the dry. Very rarely do I see that mentioned. For those of us who push this car to it's limits regularly that's an important point.