I'm considering putting 17" wheels on my new MC. However, I read in another thread that that might adversely affect the acceleration on an MC as it doesn't exactly have all the HP in the world.

Does anybody have some experience in going from a 15" to a 17" wheel on the MC???

I'm also considering a 16", although I'm not sure the looks are that different from the 15" to warrant the cost...

 

when i had my 02 MC before, went from the stock 15s to a 21lb 17" rim. damn right acceleration was slow

 

Keep your stock wheels since you wouldn't want to make your MC any more slower than it already is.

 

That's what I fear. What if the 17" rims were around 16-17 lbs. Would this really make a positive difference?

I notice you have an MC also. Are your rims 17"?

 

I recently sold my R50 but I had S-lites (obviously not the lightest wheel) and it was an absolute dog. The ride was incredibly hard, even with non runflat tires. The handling on sharp curves was nice though, especially with the S-sway bar. I'd stick with a wider 16".

My $.02

 

Thx for your $.02 - I really appreciate it!

 

How about a wider tire...maybe a 205/55/15 instead of a the stock?

 

I think you can only reasonably go up to a 195 series tire on the stock 5.5 inch wide wheels. I read somewhere that you want the wheel width to be 70-100% of the width of the tire with 90% being optimal. A 5.5 inch wheel would be just less than 70% of the width of a 205 series tire while such a wheel would be 72% of the width of a 195 series tire.

I am considering going to non stock 15x6.5" wheels. I believe using the above70-90% range, a 6.5" wide wheel can run anything from the stock 175 series tire (which I would keep on the wheel at first) to a 225 series tire. But first, I want to see the wheels in person. I've never seen the Rotator Spokes after going to 2 dealers and spotting Minis on the road for the past 6 months...

Who knows, I may love 'em!

 

I've actually become pretty used to my Rotator spokes. And I haven't seen another set of them around here in over a year of ownership. I put 195/65 tires on them and have had no regrets. Acceleration is just fine!

 

For me I'm waiting until summer to get the wider tires. The 15" stock should be fine for winter.

Everything I put on the Clubman, I will pull off...I'm on a lease.

 

Thx for sharing your experience! I'm curious why you didn't go with a 195/60 or a 195/55 tire...wasn't your stock tire a 175/65?


WRT the lease, do you ever check if you have to return the same tire size/wheels etc.? I'm actually picking my Mini up in the next few days on a lease as well and haven't confirmed the answer to this yet...

 

Sorry I must have been spacing when I wrote that earlier. I'm running 195/60s, not 65s. Yeah my OEMs were the 175/65 summer tires. FYI the 195/60 size is almost exactly the same diameter (24.2) as the OEM 16" size tire (24.4).