Smaller wheels. It's the way forwards.

Corvus · Post by **Corvus** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 5:12 pm

http://charming.awardspace.com/otto_die ... orque.html

This guy says that smaller wheels increase the forward thrust.

True?

My own thoughts are "yes and no"

Merecat · Post by **Merecat** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 5:40 pm

Maybe, but with a smaller wheel any gain in tractive power would be negated by the loss of top end speed.
and with a passage like this:

And how much torque is there on engine shaft? Well this depends on your engine capabilities and how much throttle you give.
Engine capabilities are described with torque curve. Torque curve tells what is the maximum torque (that is, ‘on full throttle’) the engine can produce at any given engine revs.

Which I disagree with, I lost interest and stopped reading.

Ill keep with the wheels I already have

conkerman · Post by **conkerman** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 6:38 pm

+1.

A small change in gearing.

Compared to the aggro finding tyres I'd look at other ways to do it.

slparry · Post by **slparry** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 6:50 pm

The Japanese widely went down to 16" wheels in the 80's and I for one hated them, they always seemed prone to feeling like they were tucking under.

The current 17" seems a much better compromise

Corvus · Post by **Corvus** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 5:35 pm

Merecat wrote:Maybe, but with a smaller wheel any gain in tractive power would be negated by the loss of top end speed.
.........

That was pretty much my "yes and no".

You'd have to raise the transmission gearing to achieve reasonable speeds, which would negate the mechanical advantage of the smaller rolling radius. Keep the gearing low and you risk breaking traction anyway.

But I think the guy is right to draw our attention to it when considering what tune we are going to play with our hp formula.

Phil Thomas · Post by **Phil Thomas** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 6:16 pm

With the state of the pot holed roads around here, smaller wheels would be a disaster.

Regards to all,

Herb · Post by **Herb** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 6:45 pm

slparry wrote:The Japanese widely went down to 16" wheels in the 80's and I for one hated them, they always seemed prone to feeling like they were tucking under.

The current 17" seems a much better compromise

Ahhh, but 16.5 might be better still, like the MotoGP bikes.

slparry · Post by **slparry** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 7:12 pm

Herb wrote:
slparry wrote:The Japanese widely went down to 16" wheels in the 80's and I for one hated them, they always seemed prone to feeling like they were tucking under.

The current 17" seems a much better compromise
Ahhh, but 16.5 might be better still, like the MotoGP bikes.

Possibly, but balanced out that we need more stability than those guys .... maybe ... ish