Tire siping

[whc03grady]

Does anyone have opinions on tire siping, one way or the other? Academically, it seems to me that it's either mildly worthwhile or worthless. But the real question would be, is it dangerous?

[Amskeptic]

Does anyone have opinions on tire siping, one way or the other? Academically, it seems to me that it's either mildly worthwhile or worthless. But the real question would be, is it dangerous?

Mildly worthless.
Modern tread design is a science. My biggest concern would be the integrity of the tread blocks over time, particularly with braking effects causing them to wear with little bevels in the braking direction.

I have a set of Michelin X-Ice tires on the BMW and find that they are siped nicely because that is a requirement of good snow/ice/slush/rain traction. But the summer tires in their list do not have sipes, not as an economizing move, but for tread support in performance applications.

The advertising and proponents of siping seem to promise you a lot. That makes me a little skeptical at times. . . do we have long-term results yet?
Colin

[DurocShark]

Both the Blizzaks and Nokians I've had were siped from the factory, and they performed outstanding in snow and ice.

The problem is trying to find a way to compare how they would do without the siping, or if it'd designed into the tread from the beginning... IE: The siping is just one component in the overall design to provide good traction.

If I had tires that weren't siped and couldn't afford new tires, I might consider it.

[whc03grady]

I'm all for tires that are factory-siped; I suspect (most) tire manufacturers know what they're doing. But since the only information I'd ever heard on siping non-siped tires came from, ta-da!: a place that makes money siping tires, I was naturally skeptical. I think it probably voids the warranty also.

Thanks for the input, guys.