Cupping is a wear pattern rather than a fault in the tyre, and it announces itself as a droning hum that rises and falls with road speed. It happens when a wheel is not being held firmly against the road, usually because a damper has worn, so the tyre bounces very slightly as it rolls. Each bounce takes a little more rubber off at the same spot on each tread block, and the tyre ends up with a scalloped pattern of high and low points around it.
The reason it belongs in a conversation about night work is that you cannot hear it in traffic. During the day around here there is too much going on. At one in the morning on an empty road, the same car sounds like it has something badly wrong with it, and that is when people ring. Half the time the tyre is the symptom rather than the cause, and replacing it without dealing with the damper simply starts the same process again. We will tell you that plainly, run a hand across the tread so you can feel the scalloping yourself, and let you decide what to do about it.
Bank holiday Monday, the school run, half past eleven at night: tyre trouble has no sense of timing, and neither have the places that are shut when it happens. The phone is answered round the clock and a van is dispatched round the clock, to Kentish Town, Tufnell Park and everywhere between, every day of the year including the ones nobody wants to work. A the Fortess Road area cul-de-sac or a Highgate Road main road, tell us which. A tight terrace in Leighton Road terraces or a narrow bay on Highgate Road is usually workable. A NW5 address in Tufnell Park and one in Gospel Oak are the same round.
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Kentish Town Road and Highgate Road carry buses and traffic from early until late, and that noise hides a lot of tyre problems. The moment the streets empty out, usually well after midnight, everything the car has been doing quietly for a month suddenly becomes audible. A droning hum discovered at one in the morning is almost never new, and it is worth having looked at properly rather than hoping it goes away once the traffic comes back.
A driver came off a late shift and rang about a droning noise that had appeared on Highgate Road at midnight. It had almost certainly been there for weeks, hidden by traffic.
Running a palm around the tread of a tyre near Tufnell Park found the high and low points immediately. That is quicker and more convincing than any explanation.
A cupped tyre changed at the kerb off Fortess Road with a clear word about the damper, so the replacement stood a chance of lasting.
A droning or humming that changes pitch with road speed rather than with engine revs, and it usually gets worse as you go faster. It is easy to mistake for a wheel bearing, which is another reason to have somebody actually look.
Because there is nothing else to hear. During the day the noise is buried in traffic. On an empty road at one in the morning the same tyre sounds alarming, which is why so many of these calls come in overnight.
It will fix the noise for a while. If a worn damper caused the cupping, the new tyre will start cupping too, just more slowly to begin with. Replacing the tyre is worth doing and it is only half the job.
We can tell you whether the tyre is cupped, which you can feel yourself once somebody shows you where to run your hand. What is causing it is a suspension question, and we would rather say that honestly than sell you four tyres.
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