I had that on my motorbike, I was coming round a right-hand corner, behind an old BMW, when the road suddenly turned black and steamy! The BMW had blown its engine and deposited all the oil from the engine on the road! The bike made an almighty tankslapper, the handlebars slapping into the tank on the left and then the right and back again. But I managed to hold it and powered through it, got the bike going straight, just before the next corner. Prayed that the left side of the tyres were clean, rolled of the power, slammed the bike into the bend... The office was only about 200M further on.
I walked in and asked the security guard to call the police. He told the police that the oil slick on the bend must be bad, "he's as white as a sheet!"
Winter tyres are useful from October to March EVERY year.
I would agree, if you were talking about SNOW tyres, you would only need them for a couple of days every year or two, but WINTER tyres are useful in WINTER, which includes snow and ice, but not exclusively. They cope with heavy rainfall better as well as colder conditions (below 8°C).
As we said on the other thread, Winter Tyres are useful in winter. Winter happens every year. Normal summer tyres stop working effectively below 8°C, which used to cover several weeks of driving to work every year, when I lived in the UK.
In snow they are good, but snow tyres would be even better - my new house is at the bottom of a steep hill, after over a week of snow and no gritting (they only keep the main roads here, side roads are the responsibility of the residents, so the best thing is to keep it churned up), it is now compacted snow and ice, very slippery, my girlfriend pulled up yesterday and got out the car - which hadn't wheel spun and nearly fell flat on her arse, her snow boots didn't find any grip! Driving out yesterday, I pulled away with some light wheelspin and the car slid slightly down the camber, before it dug in and I just drove normally out of the road (about a 25-30° uphill).
Also, because everybody has to use winter tyres, the snow doesn't get compacted to smooth ice as quickly as in the UK, because you don't get idiots sitting there wheelspinning it into a mirrored surface! It does get icy here, but it isn't generally as smooth, so there is still some grip and the winter tyres offer some grip on ice as well, but snow/ice tyres would be better, as the studs dig for extra traction.
Kinda cool.
