16" radials

[bally]

I have seen a couple of cars recently sporting Michelin X 16 radials which look nice and retro but must handle quite nicely. These only seem to come in 185 width so I was wondering if anyone has them on stock 16" beetle rims and how they handle and what compromises do you get - do they rub the arches, reduce turning circle etc:

Cheers,

Dave

[mandraks]

in your picture they are in fact 175 wide. 175/80/16 diameter is about a half inch more than a stock 5.00/5.25 16 tire.

i bet they fit the rims and i would not be surprised if they did not rub just a tad on the inside. I had some winter bias plies on my old bug, 5,60 15s, and they did rub occasionally. never a problem, put 10s of thousands of miles on it.

tire does look nice
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regards

Uli

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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel

[Martin Southwell]

However nice they are, at nearly £200 per tyre http://www.vintagetyres.com/item/288/550r16---175-80r16-michelin-x--car-tyre--road--radial or £1,000 for a set of five, for most of us you would struggle to justify the outlay for something that sits around in the garge for most of the time, and that will need replacement at some stage!

[tisius]

take a guess at what new (Michelin) 16 inch bias ply tires cost.....
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[Kjell Roar]

I sold Michelin tyres many years ago, and we was told that Michelin could produce any tire they had produced before, on special order.

But it comes to a price, and maybe a year delivery time for the most special tires.
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[Standardfahrer]

I have them in 5.00/5.25 with white walls on my split beetle.
I don't have a direct comparison on this car, but they seem to be "harder" than the bias plye tyrers on my other split.
The tire wall seems to be smaller too.

Marcus

[mandraks]

the sidewall on a bias ply is basically 100% of the width of the tire. the Michelin X is a 80% tire. the sidewall is 80% if the tire width.

makes sense that the sidewall would be shorter, and in general bias plies are a good bit "softer". they run with a lot less air in them
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regards

Uli

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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel

[beetleseb]

175/80/16 are quite easy to get hold of in the UK. They are a stock taxi tyre size and start from £50 a rim.

I've seen them on barndoor busses and on one bug with barndoor rims. Look great but 3" may be a bit tight.

I could do you a deal on the crossplys you have tucked away tho

Seb
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[beetleseb]

Oh and tyre traders have Michelin at £85 in that size

Seb
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[allsidius]

175/80 are too big in circumference. You would want 145s for the 16 inchers.

The sidewall of the old 5.00 16s were 5x25,4 = 127 mm (width and sidewall are equal on crossplies). To get the corresponding radial, you need to divide by 0.83 which is the default ration of a radial tyre, you get 153 mm. So, 155 R 16 would be the closest size. Now we all know that VW put 155 R 15 on late 60s beetles, which would be a little too skimpy, at least compared to the original 5.00x16 wheel radius. With the introduction of the Zwitter, the tyre size changed to 5.60x15, which is the closest to the theoretical 5.5 wide tyre you would need to compensate for the 1 inch smaller rim. So, the 5.60x15 is a tad bigger than the 5.00x16 of the Splits.

Back to the radials, my 1973 1303 instruction manual still quotes 155 SR 15 for the beetle, although 165s would correspond better to the original wheel diameter. So, to decrease the side wall when going up to 16 inch rims, you need to subtract app. half an inch from the width, ending up with 145 SR 16 (you need to give or take a little when calculating tyre sizes). I don't know if you can get it, but 175s with default ratio (0.83) are certainly way too big by almost 2 inches on the diameter.
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[beetleseb]

Not 100% on the maths but if you look at the rolling diameters of the 5.00/5.25 tyres on vintage tyres website and the 175's there is as little as 5mm in it. It would only be the width I'd worry about on the 3" rim

175 are 690mm

Waymaster 5.00/5.25 are 685mm others are a little smaller but only 680mm or so
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