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Old 01-23-2014, 02:25 PM   #97 (permalink)
P-hack
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard View Post
Small bumps count, too.

Why does the VW XL1 use similar tires? And every solar racer ever made?
you reach a point of negative returns when considering inertia vs diameter. I would be more inclined to think that increased bearing drag is more of factor in RR of smaller tires.

The xl1 uses 15" tires, the bridgestone ecopia solar racer tire is 14" (and meant for lighter vehicles). There isn't a simplified "bigger diameter" is better generalization here. Application (such as vehicle weight) are an engineering consideration and tires are full of engineering compromises. If we try to oversimplify it, it is like selling vacuum cleaners by the number of wall amps they consume.

Like I said, tire width/diameter/etc depends on the application:


We don't know anything about how these tires will perform on a random vehicle.
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