I care about noise and fuel efficiency. I'm getting roughly the same milage as I got on my eco rated goodyears, my car is 5 db quieter at 70 mph. My old tires used to start squealing on clover leafs at ~40 mph (with lackadaisical line selection) and my new tires don't squeal at 40 mph. I've never taken a clover leaf faster so I don't know the limits, and I get the impression that these tires would wear fast if you drove aggressively, they seem to really dislike any sort of scrub but they have a 50k mi warranty and the tire shop gave me a fair price on tire replacement certificates so they can't be all bad.

I haven't tested these tires in the cold and I don't intend to - I have a winter wheel / tire set with WS80 Blizzacks. The chinese tires seem to struggle with rain but not to the point of reduced safety (at least compared to my old tires).

Lastly, the side wall seems to flex in a very predictable way, I was very surprised by that. The tires are 225/60r16s so the side wall is relatively tall, and the suspension in my car is somewhat imbalanced, the weight transfer can sometimes be abrupt and my old goodyears would flex dramatically and suddenly, these new tires flex very progressively and it's easy to feel what's going on even though my steering isn't particularly communicative (it's a 2001 Toyota hydraulic system). I think it's because my car has double wishbone suspension at all 4 corners and the suspension controls the camber of the wheel very well throughout the suspension stroke.

Thanks! Cloverleaf and noise comparison based on worn old tires though I assume? These days tires last so damn long it's hard to compare like-for-like, I know. Every time I get new tires I'm amazed at how quiet they are. Especially as I've owned certain tires that howl like banshees when worn. (then again, I wear them down too much in the dry season).

Yeah, compared to my old worn tires. However, I had those tires for 40k miles - they were always noisy but their grip deteriorated progressively.

I'm not optimistic about the life of these tires - the warranty is for 40k and most people say they're toast by 50k, my parents exclusively get Michelins and they get about 70k-90k miles out of their tires (although they drive relatively light cars and they drive slowly). I'm not sure the total cost of ownership is as dramatic as the initial price difference but as I've stated prior, I felt confident enough to roll the dice.

Do you think it's fair to say that performance tires just get noiser and noiser? I have a friend with an Evo X and he runs really nice tires but for the last 2k miles, they're like banshees. I don't know how he tolerates it but he also rides a CBR600RR without a helmet or ear plugs (though I repeat myself...) so he's made of stubborn stuff.

I think it just depends on the tire. The specific one I'm thinking of is the Dunlop Star Spec.