200/50 r18

[Jeffmorgan77]

Hey fellas. I don't know jack shit about tire sizes. I have a 2020 vmax and I want to put a wider tire on back. Right now it has the stock 200/50 r18. I was looking online for a 240/50 r18. Can't find it. I saw 240/40 r18. What size do I need to go wider only. Not shorter or taller. Thanks.

 

[Fire-medic]

The issue with a wider tire is it may not lay as it was designed if the wheel isn't wide-enough. By 'lay,' that is the footprint and the profile of the tire as it was designed. Too-wide a tire on too-narrow a wheel will cause increased wear, increased heat/friction, and decreased handling due to a distortion of the 'lay' of the tire.

In 'the olden days,' rims were labeled for width by 'WM #' designations, the higher the #, the wider the rim. A bias-ply tire rim WM-3 designation would take a 4.25-4.50" tire, and that was a Big Tire/Wheel combo. That was only a 2.15" wheel! WM-4 was a full 2-1/2"

You can see tubeless wheels (MT) have a safety rim inner 'bump' not-there on the tube-type wheels (WM) See the Continental Tire link, below. Some MT wheels have a five-degree taper of the bead surface, see p.54 here: avon-tyres-moto-guide-2019-us-lr.PDF (avontyres.com)

combination-of-tires-rims-and-tubes--pdf--data.pdf (continental-tires.com)