Will 16" Bridge Spoke wheels give a more compliant (less harsh) ride than any of the factory 17" wheels. Handling is not an issue for me, just a softer ride. Perhaps someone has experience with this wheel comparison. Than You.

 

Yes, the 16" will give a softer ride. However, if ride quality is important I would suggest looking into replacing the runflat tires with regular tires.

 

The general accord is that run flats are the biggest portion of the problem - But the general accord is that the more rubber between the rim and road is better for ride quality.

 

Let ME ask a question, would 17s of 18s with good quality NON RUN FLATS be smoother/better ride than the 16s WITH runflats?

 

Interesting question, and one that I attempted to answer for myself....

I have an '09 Clubman S that came with 16" Bridge spokes and runflats, at about 3000 miles I put on my 17" S lites with Kumho non-run flats. I can't say I felt any difference in the ride quality, but the handling was sharper and better - which I put down to the Kumho tires vs the OEM Conti runflats.

Point is, it will all depend on your tire choice, IMHO.

 

Hmm, thanks Dave - anybody with 18"s care to comment? haha, also - dave, what tire specifically did you get, and how much was the set of all 4? Thanks :-D

Jeff

 

It is hard to compare as most people switch from poor oem tires to quality tires. My 17s ride very well - easily as good as my 15s oem -- So tire or wheel ? both ?

 

Yeah I know - just hoping to find that perfect person that jumped from 16"s with run flats to 18"s without, LOL - right now i'm leaning towards 17"s without RF tires though.

 

As long as we are comparing ride quality,my 07S with 16' rims and JCW Suspension,rides a lot rougher then my 08S Clubman.The Clubman has 17' rims and TSW lowering springs,both cars are equipped with runflat tires.Q

 

Bump bump...
Hi Folks,
Hope someone is still monitoring this- I'm in desperate need of tires for my 09 clubbie S with 16" wheels. I'm currently running the OEM Continental Runflats (I think they're procontacts?) 195/55/16. I've called tire rack for quotes (my MINI dealership wants two arms, two legs and my first born for a set of 4 tires) and they suggested the Bridgestone Potenza G 019 Grid (a non-runflat tire) which I'm interested in. We don't get much snow (maybe a full inch cumulative all winter), but we do get rain, and I live in teh country and drive about 100miles a day with kids... without kids I'm driving back roads (read twisties) and driving them very, uh, spiritedly (is that a word?)...
My local tire place will only put OEM's on Mocha, but there's another tire place recommended by Tire Rack about 20 miles away (told you I was out there).
Big question- does anyone know if there are any suspension issues for our clubbies if we switch from OEM's to non-runflats...
Oh, and disclaimer here- my husband told me what to ask... all I know is my tires are bald and I'm not feeling too safe driving my kiddos around like that (we just got over 3" rain in one day, which has been typical recently)...

Thanks-

 

There are no suspension issues. In a way, you will have a softer suspension -- that is, the tires are part of the overall suspension of the car, and non-runflats are generally softer in the sidewalls than runflats are. But this isn't any kind of problem. Most people find an increase in ride comfort with no other tradeoff (other than the possibility of having a flat tire). Non-runflats are also much less expensive than runflat tires.

For an area with heavy rain, the most important thing is going to be having FULL TREAD DEPTH on the car. No matter what tire you go with, the more tread you have, the more deep grooves for water to escape. With any tire, the deep water performance goes down as the tread wears down. So get those bald tires off there post haste!

--Dan
Mach V

 

Thank you so much Dan,
I'm calling tire rack today and setting up an appointment with the tire place far, far away. The rep at tire rack did recommend a product called continetal compi comfort kit, which seems to be a modern betterer version of fix-a-flat and supposedly even works with runflats. Around here, picking up a nail is the biggest concern (we had a tornado come thru about 2 years ago and after heavy rains, all sorts of stuff washes into the road way).

Another quick question- somewhat related- would I notice a handling difference, say on the Dragon? I'm guessing that with the softer ride, even in sports mode it will require a tad of compensation? I have some Dragon-esque back roads here that I, uh, enjoy...

Thanks again and I'm getting those baldies off asap! (oh, and just for reassurance sake, I've got a Ford F350 I've been using in the bad weather, altho with the winds we've got and the higher profile of the F350... well, it's all a trade off!)

Happy Holidays!
~Vivi

 

I can only speak from experience but after I dumped the runflats and got some comperable all-seasons I have noticed a huge difference in grip. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming that the more flexible sidewall of the non runflats provides that grip.

 

Yes Replaced my OEM 16" with factory runflat with OEM 17" General non-runflat...about 30% more "Comfort" ride

 

My dilemma is, I just got my MCCS w/ the 16" all-season runflats... and now:

Do I keep (for summer) and get snow tires w/ new wheels?
Do I keep (for winter) and get summer rubber w/ new wheels? 17?

Ideally I wish I found someone that said "oh great give me the 16 all seasons here have these 16 winters", or "i want your all seasons have these 17 summers"... otherwise I feel like Im wasting money...

 

we have the Potenza's and live in an area that gets up to 70" of rain some snow and has major twisties for the last 6 miles up to the house. daily drive is about 120 miles. So far the tires have done well in the snow and really well on the wet and debris strewn roads in rainstorms that have dumped up to 8" of rain in 24 hrs

 

actually when i went from the runflats to the potenza's on my clubman (16" bridgespokes) i think the added softness affected the turn in. kinda like you turn the wheel and then you could feel the car thinking about it before committing. next time i get tires i'm going to go down a size or two on the thickness ratio.

 

I use the runflats for winter and put my 17" Kumho all seasons on for the rest of the year - it works out to about 3 -4 months on the runflats, and the rest of the year on the Kumhos - the only real reason I'm doing this is that the Kumho's are about 2/3 worn, otherwise I'd run them year round. The runflats are a bit stiffer, but I haven't noticed that much difference in ride quality - but the Kumhos are a better tire all around - more grip, smoother yet sharper turn-in and quieter

I bought a set of Nitto Neo Gens for my '03 MCS and they seem to have much deeper tread - TNMama I'd consider a set of them for your clubby, all season, high performance and non-run flat, good in the rain and snow and seem to grip like mad when driven in a spirited manner, based on a recent trip on some Northern Arkansas back roads.

I agree with the poster who said the Clubbies ride a bit smoother than than a coupe, I definitely can see a difference in my two cars......

Tires are a very personal choice, what seems to give good results to one will be totally unsuitable to another - there is no blanket answer for everyone, so all you can do is put up your $$ and try them.

TattedXB, the Kumho's I bought from Tire rack and were about $500 shipped and installed at the local NTB. The Nitto Neo Gens I bought from the local NTB store, and after some comparison shopping on the net, they matched the best price I found, so they were only about $425 installed - a pretty good deal IMHO. Both sets are 215/45-17's and both are Ultra high performance all season non run flats. Since that's a slight oversize from OEM, it actually got my speedo to read correctly!

 

Geography plays a big part in getting rims and tires...most of my friends are running non-runflats; 205/55/16...runflats are bricks.

If I lived in my home town in South Carolina...I would run 17" or 18" rims...but not in NYC area.