Tire performance siping

[DonTom]

What can anybody tell be about tire siping, such as sold at Les Schwab for new tires? Does it really do anything useful and is there any disadvantage of having it done?

-Don-

[Ken]

What can anybody tell be about tire siping, such as sold at Les Schwab for new tires? Does it really do anything useful and is there any disadvantage of having it done?

-Don-

Manufacturers spend millions of dollars/pounds/yen designing tires. The sipes they design into a given tire are there to ensure maximum water transfer commensurate with the purpose of that particular type of tire (e.g. A slick racing tire has no sipes, a wet weather tire has many sipes). I doubt very much whether any non-tire manufacturer/glib salesman, could improve on the efforts of Dunlop, Bridgestone, Firestone etc.

My advice, play safe and fit good quality unaltered tires designed for the type of riding/driving you intend to do. Forget Las Schwab.

Ken.

[grouch]

What can anybody tell be about tire siping, such as sold at Les Schwab for new tires? Does it really do anything useful and is there any disadvantage of having it done?

-Don-

I used to sipe the tires when I was racing but it was pretty labor intensive to gain a slight performance edge. If you have good tread blocks it will help move water but the sipes into the tread block won't do much to help your performance. Siping lets the tread spread out to grab pavement like spreading your fingers to grab a rock wall or such. To me it looks like a good way to shorten the life of your tires. We changed tires after every race.

[DonTom]

Thanks for all the info. I made the correct decision to NOT go with it. As I expected, it would be a trade-off at best.

-Don-