Purchasing Tyres Based On Your Needs

One question our customer service officers in Tyrepac often ask our customers is, “What is your preference- quiet (comfort), or wet performance?”

There is unfortunately a trade off between wanting a quiet tyre, which generates minimal road noise, and tyres which gives good wet weather performance (generally noisier).

Directional design




As highlighted, tyres designed with grooves in a directional manner disperse water in the most economical manner. Outwards and away from the direction of travel to give you better wet weather performance. And in-order to ensure maximum volume of water dispersal, grooves has to be as wide as possible. However, this also generates road noise, particularly on dry road conditions, since air is trapped, compressed, and released - which results in “tyre noise”

Designs such as these cater to consumers who can tolerate road noise, and look for wet performance more than riding comfort.

There are exceptions in directional tyre design, which are meant for a quiet and comfortable ride. The way to judge would be to see how “wide” the grooves are.

Symmetrical design/ wave design, non-directional design



Symmetrical designed tyres have grooves arranged in a wave like manner, and usually have smaller lateral grooves cutting the tyre design, to further break up road noise.

Tyre designs such as these are quieter since priority is not in wet weather performance, but rather providing a quiet ride. There are again exceptions, when wider grooves are built-in to cater to wet weather.


Asymmetric design



Asymmetric designed tyres are a combination of comfort and wet weather performance- by having tyres designed combining the principles of wet weather, and principles of comfort. Half the surface of the tyre tread is designed for wet performance, while the other half is for comfort.

Asymmetric designed tyres have gradually grown in popularity in recent years, and are now readily available, but with a small premium in price.

The next time you need a set of tyres, don’t just accept what you are told. And to the many lady drivers who commonly have to “ask my boyfriend/ husband”, you now can instead educate him about the basics of tyre designs.

Happy motoring!

Ler Hwee Tiong, Managing Director
Tyrepac Pte Ltd