Against all our bemoaning of the passing of an age, last week I decided I
needed to get new tires for my BN7 (named Rachel) before trekking the 1800 or
so
miles up to Nelson and back. The old Dunlop SP20s are pretty much treaded out.
So I went in to see my friendly local tire outlet, Skip's Tires, in Los
Altos. Sure, he said 165R15s, no problem. Kelly metric radials, 165R15 86S.
Speed
rated to 116 mph.
Balancing wire wheels, likewise no problem because his brand-new digital tire
balancer comes equipped with centering cones for just such an application.
So, giving him a day to get the tires from one of his other stores on the SF
Peninsula (he runs a four-store chain in Los Altos, Sunnyvale, San Jose, and
Santa Clara), yesterday I dropped off the wheels while I had the car up on
stands to change the oil. Four hours later, I had the new tires on the wheels,
balanced neatly with the weights on the inner rim, and was ready to put them
on.
Total cost for four tires, mounting, balancing, and disposal of the old tires
(we reused the old tubes and bands, which were in good shape): $296.49.
So, even in this day and age, one can get proper tires, properly mounted, for
an Austin-Healey 3000.
Cheers
Gary
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