Winter wheels fitted today.

[sapphireblack]

Finally, after many delays, well over a year, some serious indecision, and another rims swap, they're on for the first time. (Pics now up)

So, this wheel set are identical to the summer set in satin black, but in winter spec have 285/40/20 all round on the staggered rims. The rears look a little unusual though no moreso than more conventional square winter set ups.

The ride is noticeably nicer. Pressures are something of a guesstimate, my door plaque shows 2 bar front and rear with 1-2 occupants. BMW show a pressure of 2.5 bar for this tyre on an F16 so im starting there and will see how they wear. One very notable thing was weight. With the non runflat ☆ marked Pirelli 'winter' spec, lifting them onto the hub was very much easier.

As an aside, having taken the Continentals off tyre wear is dead square, no feathering or outer edge wear.
**
(The rears look a bit pinched, the consequence of reducing from a 315 tyre to a 285 tyre, not so much perhaps but enough to notice when being so used to the 315 section. A 285 is the minimum on an 11" rim and the maximum on a 10" rim. Now with a square set-up on ☆ approved Pirelli's, bring on the inclement weather )

[Leslie]

That time of year again think I will hold out a little longer

[StuBeeDoo]

I put mine on last week. I usually reckon to have them on November to mid-April.

[Leslie]

15c today here but chat of a cold spell towards the end of the month

[Jayx5]

There's a full set of winter wheels near me for sale with barley used continentals on them, I'm tempted as my front tyres are starting to wear on the outers, it would save them for a few months.

[Leslie]

I fitted mine today on the x5 e70, 20's with winters back on and the 21's (style 215) I took off are 38.9kg rear and the fronts 33.9 !. Either I am getting weaker or the e53 jack I use is getting harder to wind up , the most difficult part of the job I find, I bought an electric impact gun to remove the bolts but it struggled.refused to undo some of the bolts , supposed to be rated for 400nm so a bit disappointed with it tbh
Running 38 front and 40 rear which is maybe a tad too high , can't remember what I was running when I took them off maybe 37F / 39R psi ? These are not runflats and when i ran ordinary tyres at 32 psi front they were chewed of in 5k

[X5Sport]

News articles are suggesting a shortage of grit and gritter drivers which could make this season more interesting

I still can’t get the right sizes for mine in ‘approved’ rubber (RFT or otherwise) and BMW have now told me it could impact the warranty if I fit anything else!

[sapphireblack]

Its time to buy another square wheel set then imo. If the rear sizes are an ongoing problem, thats your only solution, aside from going for "square tyres" on staggered wheels.

[X5Sport]

That’s where my mind is going too, but no spare cash just at present. Just finding two of the right rims would help. People still want a lot of money even for just rims. Time to start the hunt again methinks. I think mine are Style 258 so a pair of rear 9J 19’s with the right offset. I know that new they are £500 each - so that’s not happening!

Sets do come up on eBay occasionally, but not so often for the X6/E71 sadly.

[sapphireblack]

That’s where my mind is going too, but no spare cash just at present. Just finding two of the right rims would help. People still want a lot of money even for just rims. Time to start the hunt again methinks.

The rear offsets are dramatically different, 18 vs 48 but you'll now that, so it renders 4 x front rims unworkable in reality. I've seen countless sets of type 257s on eBay mostly with tyres for not large amounts. I have a single rear wheel of that type which you could have FOC, if you can find another. They wont match your front set but would solve the problem.

[Wayfarer]

Had my winter wheels fitted yesterday, summers polished and put away until next March.
That will probably ensure a mild winter with little snow

[StuBeeDoo]

I put mine on last week. I usually reckon to have them on November to mid-April.

Had my winter wheels fitted yesterday, summers polished and put away until next March.
That will probably ensure a mild winter with little snow

I've been keeping an eye on the 16-day forecast for a couple of weeks. It's currently saying that the weather is going to remain mild with few, if any, frosts around these parts.

As I'm impatient to get my money's worth out of my summer tyres so that I can replace them with another set of CrossClimates, and bearing in mind that I have another 600+mile journey to do in a couple of weeks, I'm sorely tempted to put them back on next week.

[sapphireblack]

Doubt you'd come to any grief if you swap back now ☺

If i'm honest i regret buying my very expensive winter spec Pirelli's based on this winter so far. Now that i have summer and winter sets and a third wheel set without tyres, the temptation to buy an all season tyre set is strong, but if i do i write off the summer and winter sets and lose a fortune if selling them

[X5Sport]

I haven’t needed mine really since 2017. We might get a burst of snow I suppose, but it’ll probably just be for a day or two.

[Leslie]

As long as you are not going to the highlands I'm sure you will be grand ,I ran summers in winter so i could use them up to fit a proper set of winters on my 20's . I have found the ride quality is so nice though on 20 winters now compared to 21 summers that id be tempted to keep the winters on