CumbrianFoz

My thinking was that on surfaces with less friction all the normal considerations of camber etc. will not really apply so much since you'll be sliding before you get much roll and deformation of the tyre. Up here we sometimes get rather longer periods of cold weather, and a bit of snow on the mountain roads is not unusual even with the mild, wet crap winters of the last few years. Your point about tyre temperature is a good one, might be worth looking for some tyres with a poorer rolling resistance rating maybe?

Something tells me this could be different from summer rubber?? any thoughts?

I tried (at considerable expense ) a set of these earlier this year with mixed results . OK, once worn in (which is an exercise in itself, at least 1,000 miles) and up to temperature (see below) they have very good grip wet and dry, braking is also superb. Steering response however is less than ideal: it's rather on the light side and whilst the tread blocks seem very good, the rest of the tyre seems very "wobbly", it gives you the feeling that the tyres are going to fall off the rim on a tight bend even if the tread is showing no signs of letting go. So they get you round the corners, but they don't feel like they're going to - OK for safety, but low on driving enjoyment. The light steering feel might be down to the rather narrow tread width - 180mm on my 225/45R18's as opposed to 200mm on my previous Nokian Z-lines. And they take a LONG time to warm up, likely they'd be great in central France on a summer day, but on a cool damp morning in the North of England, no thanks.