Saturday, May 12, 2007

New tyres for my old car

This year, rainy season started earlier than predicted and it has been raining heavily daily. My old reliable BMW has been using the current tyres for slightly over 2 yr but the threads are almost gone. So I had its tyres changed today. There was a little problem at the tyre shop, because it 's difficult to find the exact wide size ones I have been using, even in the capital like Bangkok.

I could ask the shop 's owner to find them from nearby stores but I could end up getting old-stocked unsold tyres, which would not be good for me. In a hot country like Thailand we need newly manufactured ones, since they tend to stiff up fast due to the heat. Moreover, the slightly wider size (1 cm) I used to would cost a lot more. After weighing the option, I decided to order the more narrowed tyres that a Toyota Corona Altis would typically use. It saved me a few thousand Bahts too since Toyota is abundant in Thailand, and thus tyres produced for them are plenty and cheaper.

After getting behind the wheel, I could feel that steering is a lot lighter and my car now can change lane more swiftly with the narrower tyres. New tyres also gave me a rubber cushion feeling I had not experienced for over a year.

Now I am ready to hit the road to several far away places in the coming weeks.

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