Innovation: Advanced tire sensors

Image courtesy of Continental

Regardless if you are in a car, a motorcycle, or a bike, the only thing that keeps you connected to the road are the tires. Those little contact patches of rubber can make or break everything from the ride, handling, acceleration, and braking. On whole, most Americans probably spend very little time thinking about the tires that their vehicles are riding on. Most car owners buy a car with the factory tires and drive them until their mechanic tells them that they need to be replaced, at which time the owner pays to have them swapped out. Of course, monitoring tires can sometimes be as easy as looking at the tread wear indicators on the tire, but only if you know what to look for. And that TPMS system in your car will only warn you if your tire pressures are getting low. However, what if the tires pressure sensors, those federally mandated electronic monitors attached to the tire valve stems, could do more that just tell you if your tire was going flat?

Image courtesy of Continental

New advanced tire sensors are being developed that are sensitive enough to be able to determine the minute changes that take place in the tires rotation characteristics to be able to detect tread wear over time and its effect on the rolling diameter of the tire. The obvious application here is to be able to more easily tell owners when their tires are approaching a condition that it would be unsafe to drive in inclement weather. However, with just a little bit of coding in the background, it would also be able to discern things such as uneven wear that could signal problems with the suspension or even help owners with proper tire rotation schedules. Best of all, with in-car telematics getting better every day, all of this information could be available to you via an app on the smartphone you already own.

Currently, Continental is the only tire maker focused on developing these more advanced sensors, but over time, it would not be surprising to see this technology start to proliferate to other manufacturers as well.

Product Review: BF Goodrich g-Force Sport Comp-2

With the rear tires on my S2000 going bald, and Dunlop no longer making their Direzza Z1 Star Spec tire, I needed to get a whole new set of tires. My original plan was just to get the Z1's replacement, the Z II. After some thinking, I decided on a different path. I had originally installed the Z1 Star Spec tires on my car with the hopes of finding time to do autocross, or even participate in a track day event. Unfortunately, my busy schedule never allowed me to partake in any automotive sporting events, which meant that replacing my current set of aggressive summer tires with another set of aggressive summer tires made no sense.

Considering my new driving needs, I was looking for a summer tire that still offered excellent dry and wet weather grip, but had a longer tread life and a slightly lower rolling resistance for better fuel economy. This essentially ruled out all aggressive summer tires, or what Tire Rack likes to call, "extreme performance summer tires." I had thought about going back to the OEM tires, the Bridgestone Potenza RE050, but despite being a less aggressive tire than the Dunlops, the tread life was actually shorter than the Dunlops. The Bridgestone tires are also needlessly noisy and expensive.

Image courtesy of Motor Trend

When East Brother was still driving his 2006 Acura TSX 6-Speed, he had mentioned that he chose the BF Goodrich g-Force Sport as his summer tire of choice. I also remember him saying good things about the tire. I decided to take a look at the g-Force Sport's successor, the g-Force Sport Comp-2. I was lucky enough to find reviews of the tire written by fellow S2000 owners, and the reviews seemed to be positive. With a much higher tread wear rating than the OEM Bridgestone tires, or the Dunlop tires I had on my car, as well as being quite affordable, it seemed that I had found my tire. I had hoped to order the tires from Tire Rack, but due to the poor shape my rear tires were in, I felt it necessary to get the tires changed out before it was suppose to rain in a few days. I called a local tire shop in Redondo Beach and got the tires mounted to my car.

Driving 101: Winter Driving Tips

With all of the crazy winter weather we have been getting in much of the US lately, I felt it would be appropriate to start our Driving 101 series with some winter driving tips. Growing up in Southern California, the closest we came to winter weather was a little bit of hail on the rare occasion. However, in college, I had my first experience with true winter weather when, during a particular cold snap, I experienced a run-in with the side of a mountain after hitting a patch of black ice high up in the mountains. Following that experience, I made it a point of learning how to handle myself in even the worst conditions and was ultimately able to get to a point where I felt like I could tackle most any winter driving condition.

What follows are some of the lessons that I learned and are focused on not only keeping you and your passengers safe, but also making sure that the road conditions are safe for everyone else using the roads.

Long Term Test: 2007 Honda S2000 Post #3

Third Update
Current Miles: 63,263

A few months ago, my fiancee and I decided to celebrate her birthday by heading down to Oceanside, CA to celebrate with some friends. From where we are located, it is an hour and a half drive along the southbound 405 freeway, connecting to the southbound interstate 5 right along the coast. It is a beautiful, but long drive that I would normally have absolutely no problem handling it in my S2000. Of course, circumstances were quite different this time.

I had started feeling a little sick, although I shrugged it off, thinking it was probably allergy related, and we took off anyway. Of course, I was very wrong about what was happening to me. As we progressed further, the body aches began. About half an hour out from our friend's place, my body was in excruciating pain. Every bump we went over felt amplified five times, shooting pain up my spine and throughout my entire body. Unfortunately, my fiancee does not know how to drive a manual transmission, so I had to pretty much tough it out until we got to our friend's place. By the time we arrived, I was pretty much ready to fall over and sleep. There were definitely two lessons I learned that day: 1. I need to get around to teaching my fiancee how to drive manual, and 2. we should probably just drive my fiancee's Fit when I am sick since the S2000 is pretty rough on the body.

Long Term Test: 2007 BMW K1200S post #2

Second update
Current miles: 23,065

With just over 23,000 miles, the K1200S has been nearly flawless. The power is still utterly intoxicating, offering speed on demand anytime I want it. The versatility is amazing, as I have used the big Beemer for everything from canyon carving in the mountains of New Hampshire to picking up groceries from at the Chinese grocery store in Downtown Boston to day tripping down to Cape Cod for whale watching. In every situation, the bike proves that it is capable of everything I have to throw at it and I continue to explore the limits of its usability. As I ride pretty much year-round, it has experienced temperatures ranging from well down into the low 30s all the way up to well into the high 90s. No matter what the temperature, the bike is comfortable and offers a sense of stability and security that my much smaller Kawasaki Ninja 650R was unable to provide.

Of course, as with any high performance vehicle purchased pre-owned, it has not been entirely without issue. Last fall, the battery started to struggle to provide sufficient amperage to overcome the resistance in the wiring, leading to challenges starting the bike when the engine was hot. That created a few embarrassing moments at gas stops when I had to push start the bike in order to get it going and on more than one occasion, had to jump-start it to get it running. Luckily, a swap of the battery from the older and less efficient lead-acid variety to the new
AGM model used on current BMW motorcycles more than cured the issue. I have also taken to pulling the battery and storing it on a trickle charger anytime I expect to be unable to use the bike at least once every 2 weeks. The battery issue also created a minor problem with the electronically adjustable suspension, causing the damping setting to get stuck. Luckily, it was stuck in SPORT mode so I was still able to really enjoy the ride, though I do admit that I missed the other damping options on some of the longer trips.

In July, when I had the bike's inspection brought up to date, the mechanic doing the inspection notified me of a few items that needed to be addressed in the near future if the bike was to remain safe on the road. This is what prompted my detour to MAX BMW during the Kancamagus Highway trip. While I did not get the service performed that day, I did collect enough information to feel confident that these were the guys I wanted to use when it came time to have the service done.