“Good Tires, Bad Wipers, Great Stereo”
Todays weather started with light snow and progressed to heavy rain; when I headed north into New Hampshire to visit a supplier, I met freezing rain (and two cars spun off).
In todays rain I found that the Trico Innovision wipers (see here) are not much use at speed in heavy rain! Unlike the factory wipers, the Trico’s have a tendency to lift off the windshield at speed, significantly reducing visibility 😦
My old stock wipers will be re-fitted in the morning – I will just deal with ice on the frames like I used to.
Happily, the Pirelli PZero Nero tires (see here) performed very well in todays wet weather, with no hint of loss of traction.
They are not perfect in snow – I had to take a run up my road when it was snow covered recently – but I think they are a great all season compromise.
The other thing I enjoyed during the trip today was my Kenwood stereo & Keg (see here and here; being able to drive for hours while only ever hearing music that I like, with no need to change CDs, radio stations, etc, is excellent!
M&I / GBMINI 
Ian,
I’ve found the PIAA Silicon(e) wipers available (among other places, I’m sure) from http://www.mossmini.com to be highly effective, especially with rain and even with a snow/ice mix we got the other night down here in CT. They do not lift off the windshield at 75 mph (don’t really know about faster than that). Downside is they cost an arm and a leg ($19!, refills $7)
Ian,
I wondered why not just install and ipod? Does this KEG thing have better display capabilities through the MFS than the ipod? It seems like a lot of trouble with all the mounting
& other stuff. How do you add music to the KEG and do you have to remove it each time?
I’m sure there must be a good reason being the electrical dude you are.
I was recently told that the PIAA blades are the best. I wish I had known about them before replacing my stock blades with more stock blades. My stock’ barely lasted a year…and that’s here in SoCal. As soon as this rain havoc clears up this would give me a good reason to go to Santa Barbara & Moss to buy some. It’s a nice drive and I can see the La Conchita disaster.
+++RB
Kenwood Keg … bought two years ago; at that time the only sensible solution for lots of music on the road, if you wanted to be able to read the track title, etc.
With the iPod, you can presumably mount it so you can read it (unless, like with the MINI interface, the display is disabled).
There are a few iPod solutions that display on aftermarket radios (Alpine?) but I have not yet read that they are perfect.
For me, the Kenwood head unit + Keg simply works the way I expect.