Oldham Tyres

 
With the “summer” well and truly behind us, it’s downhill now all the way to Christmas. But if you visit Oldham Tyres at least you know you’ll be able to stop in time – no matter how steep the hill is. Boom, Boom!!

 
Err yes, you’re right. We won’t give up our day jobs. But we don’t want to give up our day jobs, because we love it here at Oldham Tyres.

 
Just as we take time to get ourselves ready for work again after the summer and the kids for school, now is the perfect time to prepare your car for the changing of seasons – and of course this includes your tyres.

 
To know what to look for you can check out one of our previous articles How to Spot Dangerous and Defective Tyres in Oldham – which will show you how and what to check on your tyres – and will take less than five minutes to do so.

 
It’s so easy to forget how big a part your tyres play in the safety of car – and for all your precious family who travel in it. Just take 5 minutes to carry out these checks today and you will have piece of mind you are much more likely to arrive wherever you are going in one piece.

 
And of course, if you do spot something not quite right – or you’re not sure – please pop in to Oldham Tyres and we’ll give them a check over without any charge. As the roads get wetter and slipperier – isn’t it worth being safe and sure?

 
The other thing to start thinking about now is Winter Tyres. Every year we are seeing an increase in the sales of Winter Tyres, with more and more people being astounded by how they feel noticeably much safer and more “secure” on the road.

 
To find out more about Winter Tyres and how much difference they could make to your car during not just the snow, but through out the colder months of the year, check out an earlier article called Record Sales for Winter Tyres in Oldham

 
Or call us now, or pop in to see us at Oldham Tyres, for any help and advice we are able to give.

 
We wish you happy and safe motoring for the coming months ahead.

 
With the school holidays fast approaching it’s time to prepare your car for the much anticipated British Summer.
 
Yes, it’s important to have ample tread on your tyres – and good grip on our wet and greasy roads.
 
Of course we’re joking… we hope!

 
The summer usually means extra time on the road as we have more days out – and maybe even a drive of several hundred miles for our annual family holiday.
 
At Oldham Tyres we want to make sure you arrive safely wherever you are heading.

 
Way before you lift the bonnet to check the water and oil, you should take time to carry out a few basic checks on your tyres.

 
Carry out the 20 Pence Check for yourself and make sure your tyre tread is not only legal – but able to do its “job” and keep you and your family safe on the road.
 
Also have a close look at the walls of your tyres to make sure there is no sign of bulging, cracking – or damage in any way.
 
Finally the pressure in all your tyres should be as recommended in your manufacturers owners manual.

 
If you need help with any of these checks, or a second opinion on anything you have found, we would be happy to be of assistance.
 
For a free, no obligation, honest assessment on the condition of your tyres, we are here for you. If they don’t need replacing, we won’t tell you they do!
 
Call now to talk to one of our qualified technicians, or just drop in for a quick check over.
 
Visit our Contact Us page for our details.

 
Oldham Tyres wish you safe driving on the roads this summer – whether it’s dry, or it’s wet!

Of course, neither of the kids would admit to leaving the window open!

 
Well you can’t say we’re not on the ball here at Oldham Tyres.

 
We wrote about the benefits of winter tyres and why you should be asking your local Oldham Tyres dealer about having them fitted to your car – and 3 weeks later the first snow of the winter came.

 
With a vengeance!

 
In fact the official start of winter is still 10 days away – but already tyre dealers up and down the country are reporting record enquiries and sales for winter tyres.

 
According to forecasters Britain is set for a repeat of last winter’s horrendous weather conditions. (Doesn’t it really seem just a few weeks ago since we last had snow on the ground?)

 
Even though we still lag someway behind the rest of mainland Europe – awareness and demand for winter tyres is rocketing.

 
At Oldham tyres, we expected to see an increase in interest after the bad weather we had earlier this year – and stock levels across the industry are 400% more than this time last year!

 
What we didn’t expect was for the snow to come this early and be so severe – for the eastern side of the UK at least.

 
Last winter is still fresh in motorist’s memories – and with another 2 to 3 months of this winter still to face, they don’t want to be so inconvenienced and helpless this year.

 
Tim Bailey, safety expert at Continental said: “There is an increasing awareness about winter tyres with UK drivers, as people realise that standard tyres are not designed to be used in colder temperatures and are not as effective.

 
“In many European countries, it is a legal requirement to fit winter tyres between October and April. However, until recently, there has been very little knowledge and guidance about it in this country. Working with tyre retailers we are trying to change that.

 
“Winter tyres are not just for snow and ice – whenever the temperature dips below 7 degrees centigrade, winter tyres are more effective.

 
“The key is to get them on your car before the really bad weather comes. You’ll see the benefits as soon as the temperature drops below 7°C and you won’t be caught out when the snow and ice means others can’t get off their driveways.”

 
So, pop in to your local Oldham Tyres dealer today and ask them about how you can stay safe and mobile in the long winter months that lay ahead.
 


 
This is Part 2 of Oldham Tyres Brief History of the Tyre, so if you missed Part 1 – you’ll find it right underneath this one.

 
Are you sitting comfortably….

 
In 1887 problems with a bicycle led John Boyd Dunlop to the invention of the pneumatic tyre. He went on to patent the pneumatic tyre in 1889. But, two years later Dunlop was told that fellow Scotsman, Robert William Thomson, had actually invented the pneumatic tyre 41 years earlier.

 
So Dunlop took out a UK patent for it. The ‘tyre’ was back. The t-y-r-e spelling, having died out in the seventeen hundreds in favour of the t-i-r-e spelling, became popular once again because of the pneumatic tyre.

Jim, the Assistant Manager at Oldham Tyres had been waiting for his new company car for some time now!

 
By the time Dunlop had his patent, Karl Benz’s first car was two years old, and had been patented for a whole year, but the first car that could be said to be recognizable as an automobile was patented as far back as 1882.

 
It was around this time that the shaped rim was being developed. This would prove to be a huge step forward because prior to that they were either taped or glued to the rim.

 
In 1891 Édouard and André Michelin had a revelation. A cyclist showed up at their rubber factory to get a pneumatic tyre repaired; because it was glued it took three hours to remove and the whole night for the new glue to dry. The Michelins’ soon realised removable pneumatic tyres were the answer.

 
In 1895 they would pioneer the pneumatic car tyre, but it wasn’t until 1929 that the solid car tyre went out of use.

 
In 1903 the Goodyear Tire Company took out a patent on the tubeless car tyre, and in 1904 they and Firestone began the production of cord-reinforced tyres.

 
1904 was a monumental year for drivers – at Oldham Tyres we remember it well! – as they were given the chance to fix their own flat tyres. This was made possible due to the introduction of mountable rims.

 
Considering the current regulations about the depth of tyre tread it’s worth noting that the first grooved tyres didn’t make an appearance until Frank Seiberling invented them in 1908 – so that’s a full five years where drivers used nothing but ‘slicks’.

 
In the early part of the twentieth century the tyre companies were busy trying to create a more durable car tyre. Some of the odd ingredients they tested included adding wood, steel, leather, and then there was the mixing of a substance called carbon black with white rubber. Not all of the combinations made it through to today.

 
The first synthetic rubber tyre was introduced by BF Goodrich in 1937. Following on closely were Goodyear’s rayon cord tyre (1938), Michelin’s radial tyre (1946), Goodyear’s nylon belted tyres (1947), and Goodyear’s polyester cord (1963).

 
And there we have it; everything you never wanted to know about the history of the car tyre!

 
We’ve gone from steel bound wooden wheels, to steel banded rubber tyres. We’ve seen some of the hits and misses on improving durability, and discovered the fact that there were two separate inventors of the pneumatic tyre.

 
It just makes you wonder what the next hundred years has in store for the humble car tyre. Whatever happens, you’ll almost certainly find it here – at Oldham Tyres.
 

 
We realise we’re at severe risk of being accused of bias – but here at Oldham Tyres, we believe the importance of the car tyre is often overlooked.

 
Whatever speed or conditions you drive in, you wouldn’t be going anywhere – or stopping whenever you want either – without the four “postcard sized” patches of rubber in contact with the road.

 
So in homage to our favourite component of your motor vehicle… we’d like to take you back over a brief history of the tyre…

 
Have you ever wondered where we would be if it wasn’t for the humble car tyre?

 
You’d either be walking, or stuck in a “Hansom Cab” traffic jam on the M62! The truth is the car may never have made it into the twentieth century – if it hadn’t been for advances in the car tyre.

 
In this, and the next blog-post, we’re going to have a brief look at some of the key developments in the car tyre – and see how it’s gone from a “wild west-style bone shaker” to something that lets thrill seeking speed junkies break the land speed record.

 
Have you seen the old cowboy movies – where the wagon train pulls out of New York and heads off to the promised land of California? Well, most of the early “cars” were little more than wagons with motors – or ‘horseless carriages’ – and they were still using wooden wheels.

 
The first evolution was to replace the wood with steel. Carriages progressed to having steel on the outside of the wooden wheels to hold the segments together, and it’s believed that this steel ‘tie’ is where the name ‘tire’ has its origins.

 
We can trace the first real development of the car tyre as we know it today – back to 1736 – 30 years before the first ever “self-propelled road vehicle” appeared. It was then that Frenchman Charles Marie de La Condamine invented rubber – from samples he’d taken from the Para-Rubber tree of South America.

 
The next piece in the puzzle was Charles Goodyear‘s discovery of the process of vulcanization (1839). But, it was later revealed that the Mesoamericans had used a stabilized rubber way back in 1600 BC. – a mere 3450 years before Goodyear invented it!

 
Goodyear was the first of many key figures in the development of the tyre – whose brand is still available at Oldham Tyres today!

 
So, in the beginning there was the wheel – but it took two Scotsmen to really get it rolling.

 
And this is where we will pick up from, in Part 2 in a couple of days time…
 

Bob was shocked when Oldham Tyres told him this probably wasn't just a case of bad luck!

In an earlier post, Treading Carefully at Oldham Tyres we highlighted the penalties for driving your car with a tyre tread below the legal limit of 1.6mm – up to £2500 and 3 points on your license per tyre.

 
But did you know it is not just the tread depth of your tyres which may make them dangerous and defective in the eyes of the law?

 
In fact there are many other defects to tyres which could lead to prosecution and even the lose of your driving license.

 
These include;

a) Tyres that don’t fit properly or which are unsuitable for the vehicle – including having a different size tyre to the others on the vehicle – or than those recommended by the manufacturer.

 
b) Having a combination of tyres on your car which makes it dangerous as well as illegal. Most commonly this would mean mixing radial ply and cross ply tyres on the same axle – or having radial ply tyres on the front axle and cross ply tyres on the rear axle.

 
c) Driving with tyres in Oldham which are under-inflated for the use of the vehicle. This might be if you are pulling a trailer or caravan, or a van which is heavily loaded.

 
d) A tyre with the cord exposed through the rubber.

 
e) A tyre that has a cut which is more than 25mm or 10% of its width

 
f) A tyre that has a lump, tear or bulge in the sidewall. This will affect the overall structure and safety of the tyre and makes it more susceptible to blowouts.

 
Damage may be caused by hitting the kerb, potholes and even objects such as nails and stones imbedding themselves in the tyre.

 
Cracking can also appear in the tyres if they deteriorate over time due to low usage or old age.

 
We recommend checking your tyres regularly and if you are in any doubt – (this is not a full list but for informational purposes only) – drop into your local Oldham tyres dealer and ask them to check them over for you.
 

 
When the time comes to buy new tyres in Oldham, it is likely you are going to buy them in sets of 2 – or maybe even 4 – at a time.

 
Although this is pretty depressing news – it does make perfect sense.

 
The wheels and tyres on either side of your axle are travelling along exactly the same road… in exactly the same conditions… for exactly the same number of miles. So it shouldn’t be surprising when they wear down at about the same time.

 
More often than not, the front tyres will wear out quicker because they are the ones doing the all the work. The majority of modern cars are front wheel drive, so they do the “pulling” – and of course they also do the turning too.

 
So it may surprise you to hear you should never buy new tyres for the front of your car!

 
What are you on about – I hear you say (or maybe what are you on…) – but no it is perfectly true.

 
You see all leading manufacturers and safety organisations recommend always fitting new tyres to the rear of your vehicle – and moving the existing rear tyres to the front.

 
This is the best advice whether your car is front or rear wheel drive, because it reduces the risk of aquaplaning – and a serious accident – on wet roads.

 
Some tyre dealers will only fit them to the rear – and even though it is not the law, this is what your local Oldham Tyres dealer will recommend too.

 
To understand why this is the best advice and why you should always insist on new tyres being fitted on the rear… watch the video with the rather delectable Vicki Butler Henderson, below…

Only your tyres are under serious pressure at Oldham Tyres...

Checking tyre pressures is something most of us only do if one of our tyres “looks” flat – or we are going on a long journey.

 
It’s crazy really… we might clock up thousands of miles over a few months from lots of short trips around Oldham, but we only remember to check our tyres pressure when we have to go and visit Aunt Mabel – 100 miles away!

 
(We will also check the oil, water in the radiator and windscreen wash at this one time too!!)

 
But tyre pressures should be checked at least once a month AND before a long journey. An under-inflated tyre means it will overheat – which in turn can lead to;
 
- the tyre wearing out more quickly – and becoming damaged more easily
 
- the handling of the car on the road being affected – becoming particularly unstable and dangerous when cornering or braking
 
- fuel consumption increasing

When it comes to checking your tyre pressures, there is something I expect you will be very surprised to hear.

 
The tyre pressure levels quoted in your owner’s handbook, or printed on a little plate mounted inside the driver’s door – are the inflation figures for a COLD tyre.

 
A cold tyre is a tyre that hasn’t been driven for at least 2 hours – or that has driven less than 2 miles at slow speed (ie in city traffic).

 
This means that 99% of all drivers check their tyres when they are warm – and are not taking account of the different reading a warmer tyre will give.

 
So what is the solution?

 
Well you can either buy a hand held tyre pressure gauge to keep at home (around £10) – or you should add 4 PSI to the figure shown in your manual – when you check the tyre pressures on your “warm” tyres at your local service station.

 
Then as you drive around Oldham, you can be sure your tyres are not wearing out too quickly… your car will handle safely on the road and… you are saving money on your fuel consumption too.

 
For more information on making your tyres last longer and being safer on the road – pop in to your local Oldham tyres dealer
 

Get your tyres checked for free at Oldham Tyres

When the time comes close to buying new tyres, most of us will always think “Oh, there’s still a few more miles left in those yet”.