CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's that time of the year, when Greater Cleveland's cars and potholes come together to form a giant percussion section.

It's a drumbeat that stimulates the economy, batters home finances and burnishes the image of sunnier climes.

"This year is not as bad, but I do notice the deterioration of the roads," said Kurt Gyorki, owner of Lakeshore Automotive in Cleveland's North Collinwood neighborhood.

Gyorki said there has been an uptick of late in everything from complicated chassis repairs, damaged tie rods and ball joints -- key components in cars' steering systems -- to the more pedestrian blown tires and bent wheel rims.

He and other automotive surgeons said Saturday that the problem begins to set in during November and December, when freeze-thaw cycles chew up the pavement. By the first months of any new year, they said, the roads are ready to chew on passing cars.

"You can just tell the cities that can't afford to fix their roads," said Gyorki. "Drive up and down South Taylor in Cleveland Heights and you'll see."

He said his part of Cleveland that is bad is a stretch of Lake Shore Boulevard east of East 152nd Street, "where there are potholes big enough to swallow cars."

And things could get worse. The current cold temperatures could be followed by a springlike warm-up midweek.

The manager of Best Buy Tire and Automotive Service, closer to downtown, said he has noticed damage to cars a lot more in the past month.

"In the last three or four weeks, there have been a lot more cars coming in with blown tires," said Doug Novosel, fleet manager of the shop on Superior Avenue in Cleveland's Midtown area.

The phenomenon is called impact breaks, Novosel explained. As cars thump through potholes or slide into curbs, the banging can separate a tire from the steel wheel rim.

"It's good for business," Novosel said, "but not for our customers."

Another malady from curb-tire confrontations is a bubble that can develop on a tire's sidewall.

"It's like an aneurysm," Novosel said. "You never know when it's going to burst."

Business also has been booming at Spremulli Tire in Rocky River.

Sidewall damage and impact breaks are the most common winter car ailments, said Mario Spremulli, who runs the business with his brother, Anthony.

The combination gas station and Goodyear franchise is big enough to draw clientele from a swath of the western suburbs, but much of the trade from pothole attacks is from the immediate area, said Mario Spremulli. Customers get instant flats and go to the first available garage.

Motorists are not the only victims of damage to tires during the winter, said Ken Hagedorn, at Century Cycles on Detroit Road. He contends bicyclists have an even tougher time.

Commuters are the most vulnerable, Hagedorn said, because they are among the most frequent riders, "and the roads get slightly worse as you get closer to downtown."

The Rocky River shop probably gets more road-damaged bikes than the other two Century Cycle stores -- one in Medina and the other in Peninsula -- because it is the closest to a large urban center and the population that goes with it.

So do Hagedorn and the Rocky River location see road-damaged bikes in the hundreds this time of year?

"Well over the hundreds," he said.

To contact this Plain Dealer reporter: jewinger@plaind.com, 216-999-3905