Geoff had been driving around with some Toyo 888’s up front for a long time, and they were wearing kind of thin. He didn’t think they were that bad though, until he curbed his tires in San Francisco one night and Joe Ayala saw the cords showing. Guess it was time to get new ones!
He called around Hayward and decided the best deals were probably at one of the small independent places. We always pass by Nor*Cal Tire & Wheel on Mission and they advertise their website pretty prominently, so he checked it out. It was full of placeholders like “Your Title Text” and “Text Text Text.” What a winner. Geoff called them up to see what they had.
Geoff: What’s the cheapest pair of 195/50/15’s I can get?
NCWT: Oh we have some Kumhos for $70, mang. They’re really good, mang.
Geoff: Oh yea? How good? What’s the treadwear rating?
NCWT: 400. I said they’re really good, mang.
Geoff: Oh okay…so how much with mount and balance and all that?
NCWT: $160 cash for everything if you come right now.
Geoff: If I come right now huh? How long will it take?
NCWT: Ten minutes, mang. We’re really fast.
Geoff: Huh…okay I guess I’ll see you guys soon.
NCWT: Okay mang.
We rolled up to an open bay and I started the timer. I didn’t think there was any way this would be done in ten minutes.
While we were waiting, I peeked in the main building on the street. It was completely empty! I guess they just keep their wheel displays in it when they’re closed.
After five minutes, Geoff fell asleep.
After seven and a half minutes, they started on the S14. The suspension has so little sag that they didn’t even have to jack it up to stock height to get the wheels off. NICE.
One of the lug studs was the wrong thread pitch. What the heck? Geoff told the guy just cross thread the nut on with the impact gun and he’d replace it later.
Then the guy impacted all the other nuts on too. Great, now we’d have to loosen and retorque them. Geoff’s opinion of the tech dropped sharply.
At twenty minutes flat, they were done. That’s twelve and a half minutes of actual work. Not bad at all for busting the old tires, mounting the new ones, and balancing them! Geoff was happy again.
.:Bohan
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