here they are ..

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

still warm up here at the moment, so not performing as well as the summers I took off (obviously) but will post up my review when the weather gets bad which will not be long I'm sure! :yes:

Are they better than Nankang's normal ditch finders?

I've had Nankang NS2s before Babs and they were ace... Have you had a bad experience?

Dave, how much tread you got left?

Are they better than Nankang's normal ditch finders?

This is what concerns me about the cheaper budget brands also.

Many on here would not dream of putting the cheap and nasty tyres on during the summer, but when the conditions get a bit tougher and you are relying on your tyres even more than normal then it all of a sudden it is OK, because they are winter tyres :think:

This was one thing that concerned me last year when I bought my Nokian's, I had only ever seen them once before and (wrongly) assumed they were another budget tyre, only after lots of research did the truth come out that they are very highly regarded in Scandinavia (their local market).

BTW this is not a pop at anyone who has bought these budget winter tyres, I am genuinely interested in how they perform when the going gets sh#tty.

This is what concerns me about the cheaper budget brands also.

Many on here would not dream of putting the cheap and nasty tyres on during the summer, but when the conditions get a bit tougher and you are relying on your tyres even more than normal then it all of a sudden it is OK, because they are winter tyres :think:

This was one thing that concerned me last year when I bought my Nokian's, I had only ever seen them once before and (wrongly) assumed they were another budget tyre, only after lots of research did the truth come out that they are very highly regarded in Scandinavia (their local market).

BTW this is not a pop at anyone who has bought these budget winter tyres, I am genuinely interested in how they perform when the going gets sh#tty.

I've used Nankangs NS2s (summer) on more than one occasion and would happily use them again... They are classed as a budget tyre but actually from personal experience, they perform just aswel as some of the more expensive premium tyres...

Yes Damo - in my experience, "ditch finder" is a perfect word for them!

It's not brand snobbery either, my preferred tyre is a humble Falken 452 (got Kuhmos on my Octavia at the moment, which I'm impressed with).

NS-2's were fine in the dry, skittish in the wet and borderline suicidal in the regular "greasy" conditions that the UK gets :wonder:

This is what concerns me about the cheaper budget brands also.

Many on here would not dream of putting the cheap and nasty tyres on during the summer, but when the conditions get a bit tougher and you are relying on your tyres even more than normal then it all of a sudden it is OK, because they are winter tyres :think:

This was one thing that concerned me last year when I bought my Nokian's, I had only ever seen them once before and (wrongly) assumed they were another budget tyre, only after lots of research did the truth come out that they are very highly regarded in Scandinavia (their local market).

BTW this is not a pop at anyone who has bought these budget winter tyres, I am genuinely interested in how they perform when the going gets sh#tty.

even the worst winter tyres will be better than summer tyres... I will review when the conditions get bad... to be fair at the weston meet on the greasy moss covered hill climb, they were way better than the toyos on tiggers car, and the dunlops on Damos and the temp was 19 celcius! obviously they were not as good on the hot dry roads, but they are not supposed to be...

I've used Nankangs NS2s (summer) on more than one occasion and would happily use them again... They are classed as a budget tyre but actually from personal experience, they perform just aswel as some of the more expensive premium tyres...

I've used NS-2's as well, and I agree, they are way better than any "budget tyre" I have used before, and pretty close to some premium brands.. which is why I wasn't worried about buying the winters.

Yes Damo - in my experience, "ditch finder" is a perfect word for them!

It's not brand snobbery either, my preferred tyre is a humble Falken 452 (got Kuhmos on my Octavia at the moment, which I'm impressed with).

NS-2's were fine in the dry, skittish in the wet and borderline suicidal in the regular "greasy" conditions that the UK gets :wonder:

I really didn't have a problem with them...and I was putting 340 lbs/ft of torque out in the fiat, they were fine....

I'll review the winters later.

even the worst winter tyres will be better than summer tyres...

Sorry but that is simply untrue, I have driven on some pretty awful summer/all season budget tyres some of which were lethal in the wet

so I do not believe that is true of ALL budget winter tyres, plus the OE fit Continentals actually performed very well last year in the freezing / icy contritions when I collected the car - a 250 mile drive away! (this was in mid December last year)

So much so that the following morning even checked the sidewalls of the tyres to make sure I was not simply removing some 18" winter / all season tyres and replacing them with 16" winter tyres (whilst it started snowing again)

I will review when the conditions get bad.

Thanks, I will look forward to it

Thought about putting mine on but decided to wait till it gets colder, might aswell finish wearing out the kuhmos i put on in april so i can go straight to falkens next april. Only problem i find with kuhmos is they wear out very quickly

Also, Fatty has issues with his 452s on his Octy in the Winter. I say he just can't drive

Sorry but that is simply untrue, I have driven on some pretty awful summer/all season budget tyres some of which were lethal in the wet

so I do not believe that is true of ALL budget winter tyres, plus the OE fit Continentals actually performed very well last year in the freezing / icy contritions when I collected the car - a 250 mile drive away! (this was in mid December last year)

So much so that the following morning even checked the sidewalls of the tyres to make sure I was not simply removing some 18" winter / all season tyres and replacing them with 16" winter tyres (whilst it started snowing again)

Thanks, I will look forward to it

you are saying "simply untrue" and then compairing budget summers! lol.. its not the same.. I totally agree, some budget tyres are simply dangerous, I have no problem with that, I think the nankang NS-2's are the best of the bunch and as I previously stated I have used them to great affect and was very happy with them...

winters, even cheap ones (as shown in my pics) have sipes on all the tread blocks, the simple fact is, snow grips snow better than rubber grips snow, the sipes fill up with snow, which is why this works, a winter tyre should just look full of snow when driving on snow as for the colder weather (no snow) , winter tyres have a softer compound and more movable tread blocks, these perform better in the cold than summers... you "simply cannot" say these wont work better than summers in freezing conditions by saying you've had bad experiances with "budget" summer tyres... its a completley different kettle of fish. I would accept it fine if you'd said said you had used them before. a winter tyre is NOT a summer tyre, its a completley different construction, you cannot compair. no summer tyre can offer the right compoun/sipes/tread blocks to be as good....

I bought on these reviews..

Nankang SV2 Reviews

Given 83% (breakdown) while driving a Mazda MX5 (175-65-14-H)

Driving on mostly country roads for 1,000 average miles

Fitted these to my 1997 MX-5 (rear wheel drive, open diff so easily stranded) just before the recent snow. Grip on cold wet roads is stunning compared to summer tyres. On snow, the upshot is that you shouldn't get stranded on ploughed roads but you do have to be careful; try accelerating out of a corner in second gear and you may well end up facing backwards - I did. I'd say these tyres on snow give you about 25% of normal grip, which is enough if you're careful. Break away on snow or ice is reasonably progressive if you keep the steering angles down; the car will spin before you can correct it if you use too much right foot on full lock. I managed to do some fairly graceful fishtailing in the work car park one morning once I'd got the hang of it.

tyre reviewed on January 3, 2011

Given 88% (breakdown) while driving a Mercedes Benz (185-55-15-)

Driving on mostly town for 3,000 easy going miles

No Comments Left

tyre reviewed on December 21, 2010

Looking to buy the Nankang SV2? Click here to search for the best price for the Nankang SV2 or any other tyre.

Given 93% (breakdown) while driving a Mazda MX5 (195-50-15-H)

Driving on a combination of roads for 500 spirited miles

Have had these for a few weeks now on my old MX5 so can't comment on wear, but as for the rest...

In normal cold-weather conditions they're perfectly good; not the last word in grip (which is more fun anyway) but they work well enough and much better than the Bridgestone ER30s I had on before. In the wet they seem almost better than the dry; probably perception but they certainly hang on very well.

This morning, however, I had to clear three inches of snow off the top of the car, and drive three miles to the train station on compacted snow, ice, and slushy roads. I feel that winter tyres are there to give you a greater margin of error at all times, but after a bit I just drove normally: they were disturbingly good. I even pulled into a carpark of compacted snow for some "scientific grip testing" and had to really provoke them into sliding... truly impressive.

tyre reviewed on December 20, 2010

Given 84% (breakdown) while driving a BMW 330 d sport auto (225-45-17-)

Driving on mostly country roads for 100 spirited miles

Fitted to 'the worst car ever made for winter driving' the Nankang Snow tyres got me everywhere in the last week on snow and packed ice proving that you don't need to spend over £75 per corner on anything fancy. I've been running them all through a mild Autumn too, and they were great with no signs of wear. Fantastic tyres, highly recommend them.

tyre reviewed on December 7, 2010

Given 89% (breakdown) while driving a Citro�n berlingo (205-65-15-T)

Driving on a combination of roads for 1,000 average miles

Cheap tyres but do the job here on the east coast of Scotland.Makes the hill up to my house easy rather than park a 1/4 mile away and walk up.Main roads a dawdle if ploughed and ok on hard packed stuff with a little care.First time on winter tyres and I wish I had done it years ago.Only had them a short while so no real idea of long term wear etc.

tyre reviewed on December 1, 2010

Find these reviews useful? Why not add your own tyre review and help others pick a tyre!

Thought about putting mine on but decided to wait till it gets colder, might aswell finish wearing out the kuhmos i put on in april so i can go straight to falkens next april. Only problem i find with kuhmos is they wear out very quickly

I killed a pair of KU31's in 5K lol

Also, Fatty has issues with his 452s on his Octy in the Winter. I say he just can't drive

They were practically bald mind lol

Whatever .....**** you

I expected my ku39's to last me at least a year

Whatever .....**** you

Sorry but that is simply untrue,

To back this up:

My research this summer showed that Sunny came bottom of most tests and reviews. They were better than the worst summer tyres in snow though but other summers outperformed them in snow.

I eventually bought some Avons.

Here's a brisky discussion on the sunnys

http://briskoda.net/...0-winter-tyres/

Do update us though on your experiences.

To back this up:

fair enough but I still wouldn't compair the nankangs with sunny's, just for the fact that the NS-2 is the best "budget" tyre I've ever tried..

biggest thing really is that even in 19 celcius, on hot dry roads they comfortably let me out perform a mark I vRS in the corners, traction ect (at WSM) and in the hill climb section (rarely used steep uphill road covered in moss and grease, massively slippery, felt almost icy!) out perform another mark II vRS on dunlops, I'm not too worried....

I will review when this massive freeze hits us in a couple of weeks! lol...

If I'm wrong I'll eat my hat, but if they were that bad, I would have noticed a massive drop off in the current weather compaired to my summers, and I haven't!

TBH it does sound like you will not be disappointed, which is great news for everyone as it looks like there are some decent budget winter tyres worth using

I have seen many budget tyre companies come and go and whilst their tyre patterns may look the same as a premium brand what lets lets them down is their construction and compound

When I used to rally was a classic example, Michelin used to produce a range of (competition use only) tyres called the SB, TB and PB the difference between them just was the compound - SB was the hardest for hot days or very abrasive surfaces, then the TB for intermediate (wet roads) and a softer compound, to the PB for torrential rain and standing water, you could almost peel the tread off these they were that soft .

These tyres were the benchmark and what a lot of teams used because they were so good, then came along some identical looking budget brand (I forget the name now) company and from a distance there was no difference .... oh boy though they were much inferior to many premium brand road legal tyres (like the Yokohama's)

So just because a winter tyre looks 'right' (has all the correct sipes needed) it doesn't necessarily mean they will be better that the premium summer tyres available, which is where these reviews are all important

The brand name Sunny, on a winter tyre never looked good idea to me anyway

The Auto Express tyre test was a good read, though more a test of 'performance'.. I've bought the Nankang SV-2 which came out bottom of the winters merely due to cost. Even at £94 they were £70 cheaper than the nearest rivals. Got the 15inchers for £49.50.

They didn't fair as well as others in the wet, but then this suggests they'll still be better than the standard Dunlops on my Monte. The big shocker was that, from 25mph, by the time the Nankangs had stopped, the Conti summer tyres were still doing 22mph?!?! Having had issues stopping in the snow before, this is of great comfort to me.

I wasn't after a 'performance' winter tyre, merely something that will give me more control than the person in front crashing while on summers. Yes there are better winters, but then there are also better summers than my Dunlops. I know the limits of the tyres on my car and do my damndest to ensure I don't need to overstep them! If driven appropriately, I'm sure (as has been said) almost any winter tyre will keep you safer than a summer tyre in adverse conditions

Matt

well the nespaper tells me today siberian weather is on the way, so time will tell!

hopefully all will be well

another good review from last years bad weather

http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=22302.0

well the nespaper tells me today siberian weather is on the way, so time will tell!

hopefully all will be well

Well one newspaper's main headline was we will have a big chill with lots of snow in October. Erm, what happened.

Well one newspaper's main headline was we will have a big chill with lots of snow in October. Erm, what happened.

8th Warmest October on record, and warmest since 2006.

Al.

lol... true... like our 'BBQ summer' 's I suppose

8th Warmest October on record, and warmest since 2006.

Al.

I've seen a forecast for the second half of Nov that means that the winter tyres will get an outing in the snow (especially if you live down the east coast of the UK)>

I've seen a forecast for the second half of Nov that means that the winter tyres will get an outing in the snow (especially if you live down the east coast of the UK)>

Mine are ready and waiting to fit - for the Superb, wife's Cee'd and Old's Sportage. - 1st sign of the frosty or white stuff, and they'll be on!

Al.