20” wheels?
- Thread starter joy
- Start date
jond
Zen MBB Master
bmx bandit
bladderhead
Zen MBB Master
Do small wheels make front wheel spin any more or less likely?
benphyr
Guru-me-not
Theory says that larger wheels have a larger contact patch so they should have more potential grip by the tire having more potential ground contact points than a smallish contact patch would have. Similarly with tread grip Surface shape and confirmity at the very small to microscopic level, except when loose conditions are bad enough for the wheel to float (very rare). Also, they should conform to the surface better, and require slightly less pressure to resist pinch flats given the same tire width, and they will roll over a bump that might bounce a smaller tire and lose traction.
Bigger is better you might think-but only when comparing the same things. There is so much variety available that the use case makes a bigger difference.
Eg. @joy would likely not be able to fit a tire that has close to the same width nor tread pattern in a full-size 584 or 622 wheel on an s40.
Eg. 2. A shorter person going for speed on dry pavement only might sacrifice ease of starting/stopping for long-distance speed gains whereas
Eg. 3. The same person might choose smaller wheels for ease of getting on/off and and wider tires for comfort.
And before I forget small has advantages:
Lighter, stronger, faster acceleration (lower angular momentum), fit in car better, etc.
joy
Well-Known Member
Ok, so I took it out on a paved trail. Definitely slower, but the trail is getting quite bumpy, and it rode over the bumps nicely. On the same trail last week on my Vendetta, I had the chain bounce off almost onto my foot. The wheels with the knobby tires feel heavier than my 700 road wheels. I haven’t really tried them on hills yet, as these trails are rail trails and pretty flat. I am running about 40 lbs, the recommended amount. That’s it for now.
