Chris Dennis

[QUOTE]Originally posted by danprice
[B]Chris,

naishou

I've never heard of wheel alignment being done with the wheels off. Every wheel alignment machine I have seen has sensors that attach to your wheel rim. Since the alignment is a property of the suspension and steering it wouldn't make much sense to take the wheels off the car

Are you sure you don't mean wheel balance, which is actually a property of the wheel itself? In that case it would be better to do it off the car.

Chris Dennis

OK complete brain fade occurred... wheel balanancing

DC2SpecR

I havent really used the FALKEN AZENIS RS myself, but from the compound, it seems like it is just the compound for a street use with Semislick style patern block, while Bridgestone RE540S and Dunlop D01J has the latest compound for semislick with a very good drain patern block for wet weather.

naishou

I've got to agree here. 540S has treadwear rating 60 and Azenis RS is 280. They're not really the same kind of tyre. There's more to grip than rubber compound though and nobody I've heard of who has used the RS has been critical. Seems like a good value performance tyre for the road.

N1R

just a note. treadwear rating is only comparable against that of the same manufacturer. So if tyre X from Bridgestone has a treadwear rating of 100 and tyre Y from Dunlop has rating of 50, it doesnt mean the Bridgestone tyre is twice as sticky or twice as soft as the Dunlop.

The Azenis are pretty shit imo, my stock RE010 and RE711 were much better.

naishou

The treadwear rating is determined independently by the US Department of Transport. It is the result of an objective test comparing the tyre with a reference tyre. It doesn't vary between manufacturers as far as treadwear itself goes, but you are right that it is a poor indicator of grip. I can make a tyre with chalk as it's tread compound and it will have zero grip and a very low treadwear rating. That's why there's also a grip rating on the tyre, and the Azenis RS is AA rated - the highest you can get. The OEM S02 is A rated, which simply means it doesn't grip in the wet as well as the Azenis RS, even though it might grip better in the dry. I don't think it's all that hard to get an A or AA rating these days.

Interesting that you found the RE010 better. I have only ever used Falken tyres once and that was the now very old G series. I put them on an ST162 Celica that previously had some Taiwanese things called Sonar. I was expecting a huge improvement and was shocked when I had notably poorer response and grip. Since then I've been very wary of Falken tyres which I tend to think have been built down to a price with a lot of marketing in mind. They fill a "value" niche in the market that other makers steer clear of. However, I've heard so many good reports of the Azenis RS that I was almost prepared to give them a go. It would have been nice if Motor had included them in their last test, even if a lot of you guys don't trust Motor very much

RedRover

Well 1blackS2K, has all this discussion helped you with making a decision?

Have you bought any yet? If so, let us know what you got. It's a subject that everybody is interested in.

realthing

Makes me wonder if this is this blacks2k guy is "Takashi returns"

AusS2000

I doubt it unless he spent the last month in 'Grammar Rehab'.