The knuckleheads on NPR are right. Guess those MIT degrees were some good, after all.
Some high-mileage rated tires are very low in long-chain carbon molecules so they will wear longer. The lowered carbon content of the tires causes them to be a better insulator of static elcitricity than a conductor.
I had this problem on my old 93 Exploder when I installed some budget high mileage touring tires on it. Got shocked for years. Finally got sick of the tire's performance overall and replaced them with Michelin LTX M+S tires. The static problem went away.
Steve
