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Practical considerations
Posted by Noel (more from Noel) on Sat, 1 Jun 2013 12:20:50
In Reply to: Re: why 17, Snowmobile 
[Profile/Gallery]
, Fri, 31 May 2013 08:55:03
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Where a rim bends is more a matter of what you hit and how you hit it. 17" tires have much shorter, stiffer sidewalls so there's less "rim protection," and the most vulnerable part of the rim is the inside because there's less support. Still, most of us have bent an outer lip at one time or another. :-/
A 17" tire and rim can give you crisper turn-in and better steering response, but the price you pay is in greater chance of damage. It just goes with the territory. I live in NH and our less-than-great roads are why I'm not running 17" rims or 50-series tires on our cars.
One way to go is a 16"x 7" (or 7.5") rim and a very high performance, summer-only tire, like a Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 or Dunlop Direzza Z1. This can give you most of the sharpness of the larger rim/tire but be more forgiving on bad roads. On the downside, they wear out fast.
The reality for most of us is that unless you're doing measured tests or timed laps on a track (and are also an extremely skilled driver) the difference between a 16" and 17" rim is more imagined than real. Of course if you're mostly going for looks, then you'll want the 17".
Just my $0.02.
Posts in this Thread:
- 17" steel wheels, steve, Thu, 30 May 2013 19:48:03
- Beater alloys a better choice, Noel, Fri, 31 May 2013 06:38:17
- why 17"?, Snowmobile , Fri, 31 May 2013 06:26:04
- '02-03 Aero rims aren't terribly rare..., B Millar , Fri, 31 May 2013 05:06:39
- Re: 17" steel wheels, pete
, Thu, 30 May 2013 20:08:37- Re: 17, steve, Thu, 30 May 2013 20:50:09
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