I read a lot the same type of reviews about that ribbed tread from the Firestone, looks were the only positive I heard from them. Which is one of the main reasons besides the styling that I finally decided against them, the black wall on my bike seems to push it a couple of decades backwards in looks than the white walls did.
Besides the wandering and tendency to follow grooves, I read about slippage in corners; as if they had hit bad sand or gravel patches on regular tires. That could of course be road oil hanging out in those giant grooves on the tire too, slowly seeping back out long the linear edges lubricating the whole thing, instead of just a couple of knobs.
I like to hug the outside corner of the road and lean inside and throttle it out straight back into my normal lane position of comfort; when in the twist...so that and the Firestone's would have been a bad combo for me. Especially; if I actually hit sand in a corner on a tire that feels like it's already in sand in corners. I try to avoid situations that make my ass try to inhale my shorts in an attempt to suction cup onto the seat.
I tried to ride my Benly like a relaxing cruise machine 100% of the time, but it's too much fun of a bike and old habits can be hard to break...so it's about a 80/20 mixture...not too bad
I hope everyone waiting gets them sooner than their current quoted times. It's a shame to hear how Coker has been handling the situation; it's not like they were oblivious to the demand for those things, when they decided to start a run.