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 Post subject: Tire Selection
PostPosted: August 28, 2008, 10:14 am 
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Joined: August 8, 2008, 9:25 am
Posts: 26
How much "tire" does one need with the bike builds? It looks like people don't do anything different with tires and wheels, just stick with the same recomendations.


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PostPosted: August 28, 2008, 11:39 am 
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Joined: March 7, 2006, 6:15 pm
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Location: Northridge, CA
I'd say it depends on the use of the car somewhat more than just the plain choice of engine, even with the weight differences.

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PostPosted: September 1, 2008, 2:08 pm 
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Joined: October 15, 2007, 3:24 pm
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I'm running 205's on a 6.5 rim. Not quite ideal but its what i had on hand. You can run soft tires because of our cars light weight they will last a long time. Eventually i'd like to run 225's on the rear on a 7.5 rim but they are hard to find in 15''. I think for track work u'd want to run the softest tire you could afford. Ex: toyo ra1 r888 kuhmo V series even hoosier dot tires.


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PostPosted: September 1, 2008, 2:44 pm 
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Joined: August 8, 2008, 9:25 am
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I was thinking of going with 16 inch wheels and running the Yokohama AO32R's. I had these on my NA Impreza a few years ago and ran them all the time. (It was my "daily driver", but I didn't drive daily) And they lasted to my best ability to estimate, over two seasons about 8,000 miles. I bought them used, with only one tire not still showing the secondary rain grooves. I think this is the 3/32 tread depth (what they would be shaved to for straight circuit use), and I used them all the way to bald. THey were very durable, I was worried at first about how tough they would be but the tire has a very heavy caseing, had stupid stiff sidewalls and felt clearly heavier than the stock tires in the same size.

Of course I don't know if this tire is available anymore. :roll: It use to be available in soft and hard compounds, and now it looks like the AO48 is the replacement and they have more sizes available. I was thinking of trying these with 205 in front and 225s in the rear.

These are available in 15 and 16 rim size (and taller if that suits you).


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PostPosted: September 1, 2008, 3:33 pm 
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Joined: April 23, 2006, 8:26 pm
Posts: 6410
Location: SoCal
Section 8 wrote:
I had these on my NA Impreza a few years ago and ran them all the time... I was worried at first about how tough they would be but the tire has a very heavy caseing, had stupid stiff sidewalls and felt clearly heavier than the stock tires in the same size.

That's about every reason to not use them on a 1000lb BEC... You're going to have a devil of a time getting any heat into them so the softer the better. You don't want a heavy carcase, stiff sidewalls, or anything else that'll act rock-stiff on a superlight car.

OTOH, if this is for the street only it opens up a lot more possibilities.

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PostPosted: September 1, 2008, 5:01 pm 
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Joined: August 8, 2008, 9:25 am
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Yes, its a street car.


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