205's on the front?

[Mickrick]

Anyone fitted 205 55 R13 CR500's on the front?

I was thinking of fitting these with 245 55 R13's on the rear.

 

If so, how did you find them, with regards feel? Heavy steering maybe?

 

My theory is, same diameter as the 195 45 R15's and 245 40 R15's, but with a slightly larger contact patch on the front, plus that nice progressive feel of 13 inch, and maybe the slightly larger contact patch at the front may reduce understeer a bit?

Would the extra 10mm of tread width make the steering much heavier?

 

Opinions on a postcard please. 😬

[Panto Si]

Saw these sizes on a 7 in France a couple of weeks ago. Have to say, it looked a bit too big on the front and out of proportion with the cycle wings!

 

Also, will it actually give a bigger contact patch? Obviously the tyre is wider, but as the pressure is spread over the width, what you gain in width you must lose over the length of the contact area?

 

I'd also expect to feel a lot more 'tram lining' with wider fronts.

 

Beaulieu #28

[Mickrick]

Good point, but maybe the higher profile may cancel the tramlining back out?

Lower profile tyres as I understand it, are more prone to tramlining.

I suppose it's a case of suck it and see.

If you've seen them fitted, then at least I'll not be alone in getting it wrong! 😬

[Panto Si]

Click on the link below and look in 'my caterham', I've put a picture of the French 7 there. The tyres look HUGE! 😬

 

Beaulieu #28

[Mickrick]

They look like Yoko's? Not CR 500's. But I suppose if they are 205's it doesn't matter.

I agree they don't look right. But the car's also narrow track?

I don't think they'll look to bad on my car, as it's an SV with CSR wings.

[Shaun_E]

Most of the Class 5 sprinters (and a few class 3 and 4) are running 215/50R13 Kumho Ecsta V70a on the front wheels. We are using 7.5 inch wheels (8" is recommended by Kumho) with the same backdepth as the caterham 6" ones. They don't make the steering any heavier and tramlining is nowhere near as bad as with 185 Yoko A048Rs. You will need wider front wings - either CSR style or RiF and some others do wider normal style. Turn in seems slightly improved but the biggest improvement is under braking.

 

Yellow SL #32 - member of Drowned Rat Racing

[Gridgway]

I had yoko 032 205s on the front of my SLR when I had it. Worked ok.

Graham

[Myles]

I've got 205 021s front and rear on the Westie. Aside from the convenience of being able to swap wheels when touring*, the only thing I've noticed (I think) is that the extra width ain't much fun in standing water. Having said that, I've not tested the Caterham and Westie back-to-back on the same tyres (or at all, to be honest - the Caterham is currently broken...)...

 

 

* (I keep running out of rubber on the Caterham on the international tours - and with different front and rear widths, am usually stuffed...)

 

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[Mickrick]

Thanks for the replies So not as daft an idea as I thought.