For a practical example, let’s say you are lucky enough to own a 2018 Lexus GS350. When you can manage to pull the ladies off you and your car long enough to get online, you start shopping for some new badass wheels. You’ve got the stock 17″ wheels on there now and you want more.
So, you look at 18″ inch wheels and you are obsessed with the Cruiser Alloy Obsession. The bolt pattern, backspacing, and offset are a perfect match. You love the way those mirrored spokes extend to the rim and the black accents are the bomb. But what’s going to happen to your OEM speedometer if you go up to 18″ wheels? Will you attract as many cops as chicks because you can’t gauge your speed? At 17″, each revolution is covering 53.41 inches of road. At 18 you’re up to 56.55 inches. That’s almost 6% more with only one revolution.
Here’s what you do so that changing the wheel size won’t affect the speedometer. You’re going to change the standing height of the tire. In other words, since you added an inch to the wheel, you can subtract an inch from the standing height of the tire. With a softer sidewall, you may even find that Lexus even handles better.
But what if you want to go even bigger and more badass? Maybe you decide to kick on the afterburners with something from the new Center Line lineup from American Muscle. Maybe something like the Center Line Afterburner in 20″. Screw the mirror finish, let’s go for an awesome gunmetal black finish and a hellah wicked spoke design like no other. Now you’re talking. But are those extra 3 inches going to ensure that you’re always speeding? Instead of 53.41 inches you’re covering 62.83 inches or almost 15% more! Nope, you aren’t going to let that extra size bother you. That’s because you are going to make sure that changing the wheel size doesn’t change the speedometer. You’re going to wrap those bad boys in a set of low aspect tires.
Center Line Wheels American Muscle 671GM SM2 Afterburner on Lexus GS350
Center Line Wheels American Muscle 671GM SM2 Afterburner on Lexus GS350
The aspect is the second number in a tire size. For example, you score the Ironman iMove Gen2 all season tire in a 225/35/20 size because you don’t need winter tires where you live and you aren’t going off-roading in your GS350. You’re safe with this tire because the first number is the tire width in millimeters and the last number is the diameter in inches. That middle number is the ratio of the sidewall to the tire width. And, 35 isn’t large. Chances are, you are riding on 50s or 45s right now. The smaller the number, the lower the profile. Don’t ask why the width is measured in millimeters and the diameter is measured in inches. Don’t go there. Just know that as the diameter of the wheel goes up, you are going to decrease the standing size of the tire by the same amount and go for a low aspect tire.
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