Greetings All,

I'm looking for a new set of tires to go on the stock wheels of my DD. While browsing tirerack.com looking for information on the Ecstas, I happened to come across the following tire test results: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=97

I was extremely surprised by the results of that test. It would seem to me, according to the text of the report (and according to the numbers tabulated for the dry and wet slalom, lap, bracking, and cornering tests) that the Fuzion tires seemed to perform comparably to or better than the Kuhmos in tirerack's tests.

Thus, I was curious about whether or not anyone has had any experience with the Fuzion tires, and if so, what their impressions were.

(Also, about how long do a set of Kuhmos usually last?)

Thanks in advance...

Fuzion is a sub-brand of Bridgestone, most if not all of the Fuzion tires are made in Japan at the Bridgestone production facility IIRC. The ZRi is actually a pretty nice tire. The 2 tires you picked are both very good for the $$.

My preference goes to the Kumho SPT, I love that tire for the $. It's cheap, it's kinda noisy, it grips really well in the rain and I feel it is more balanced at the limits of adhesion (autox conditions) and I generally prefer a predictable tire to anything else.

EDIT: both tires should last about 15-25K miles depending on how well you take care of your tires and how hard you drive them.

kumo = flat spots

kumho + cold weather = flat spots

Fixed that for ya. They're no different than 90% of the performance tires on the market. Cold weather makes the tire have a temporary flat spot that goes away once the tire warms up. As the car sits overnight the part of the tire that is touching the ground gets colder than the rest and it becomes more stiff until driving the car heats the tire to a point where it becomes more compliant.

Unless you meant: kumho + no abs = flat spots

My old DD Civic used to roll with some seriously flatspotted SPT's on the front. Got so bad I had to replace them. My advice, remember to never drag your front tires 100+ feet with the brake pedal to the floor in a non-abs car.

Fixed that for ya. They're no different than 90% of the performance tires on the market. Cold weather makes the tire have a temporary flat spot that goes away once the tire warms up. As the car sits overnight the part of the tire that is touching the ground gets colder than the rest and it becomes more stiff until driving the car heats the tire to a point where it becomes more compliant.


I'm in FL. My Kumos have flat spots EVERY morning when I drive it. My garage is always in the 72-80 F range. It takes about 5 minutes for them to warm up and turn round again.

I had Goodyear F1's, the stock tires, and even cheap General UHP tires, and none had this issue.

I just got the Ecsta SPT's last week...haven't noticed any flat spots yet. I like them so far, the are a lot quiter than the Potenzas too