Ride comfort from 18'' hairpins

[patrolman pete]

After just enjoying a near 1000 mile trip around Scotland in my Connie auto one thing that spoils the driving experience is the ride on the 45 profile tyres on these hairpin wheels that the car came with when I bought her just over a year ago. I'm sure if I ran over a coin I could tell if it was heads or tails. Is this fairly normal for these wheels ? My tourer is fitted with 16'' unions and it soaks up the bumps with ease and gives a lovely ride unlike the Connie which crashes and bangs. Not wanting the faff of swapping my wheels from car to car to see if there is a difference, I was thinking about looking for a set of serpents which are 17'' and would like opinions of how these wheels perform as they look quite an attractive wheel.

[kelvo]

lower profiles will always give a harder ride because the walls are much stiffer. A 60 profile for example will have a lot more "flex" in the side wall than a 45 profile and so give a more supple ride.

I'm not sure what profiles would be fitted to 17" wheels, I know 18" run with 45 profile on the ZT and I certainly found that the Mk1 ZT could rattle your fillings on rough roads.

[Vossy]

Originally Posted by kelvo

lower profiles will always give a harder ride because the walls are much stiffer. A 60 profile for example will have a lot more "flex" in the side wall than a 45 profile and so give a more supple ride.

I'm not sure what profiles would be fitted to 17" wheels, I know 18" run with 45 profile on the ZT and I certainly found that the Mk1 ZT could rattle your fillings on rough roads.

Confirmed! Harsh isn't a strong enough word sometimes

[patrolman pete]

So it appears that the only good thing about the wheels is the looks as I've had plenty of compliments about them but I'm struggling to live with them. Surely someone has the 17'' serpents fitted and can advise on the ride to help me decide Oops ! Someone did whilst I was typing this out !��

[Arctic]

Hi Peter.
Another good wheel to look out for are the star spokes 215/50/17 you will get a nice ride from those as well.

[bendrick]

Originally Posted by patrolman pete

So it appears that the only good thing about the wheels is the looks as I've had plenty of compliments about them but I'm struggling to live with them. Surely someone has the 17'' serpents fitted and can advise on the ride to help me decide Oops ! Someone did whilst I was typing this out !��

I've got 17" serpents on mine the tyres are 225/45/17

Unfortunately I've no idea what your definition of what a harsh ride is compared to my own and to be perfectly honest in all my years of motoring I used to just get in a car and drive it round quite happily until joining this forum which altered my previous blissfully unaware of any much difference driving experiences to the now delights of constantly worrying about tyre brand, spring set up, wheel size comfort experience etc etc etc.

I'm now reduced to a constant state of worryment about whether my car ride is too harsh, too soft, too slow, too fast, too bouncy, too smooth, too hesitant, too just about everything.

I almost yearn for the good old days when I used to just get in, turn the key and drive around quite happily in blissful ignorance.


I didn't even know that a smaller wheel can possibly give a softer ride until Jules mentioned it when I took the car with it's already fitted 17' serpents for him to give a check over.

I now seem to live for the day that someone can swop over my wheels for some 16" or even 15" ones temporarily just so that I can satisfy myself that I'm not missing out on a much smoother softer cushioned drive so that I can be released from the imagined hell of my 17" serpents. Or whether the difference would be so minimal that I wouldn't even notice anyway.


Mind you having just changed all my rear suspension I do genuinely feel a more refined ride has resulted but am fearful that the £hundreds spent has induced an imagined improvement that really isn't there.


So I'm awfully sorry but I can't really say anything much more than the ride on my 17" serpent wheels seem fine to me but I've no idea whether it seems harsh to anybody else, you're quite welcome to pop round to go for a spin in my car if you're as tortured as me about matters that I didn't even know existed before this forum.

[slovcan]

Originally Posted by bendrick

I've got 17" serpents on mine the tyres are 225/45/17

Unfortunately I've no idea what your definition of what a harsh ride is compared to my own and to be perfectly honest in all my years of motoring I used to just get in a car and drive it round quite happily until joining this forum which altered my previous blissfully unaware of any much difference driving experiences to the now delights of constantly worrying about tyre brand, spring set up, wheel size comfort experience etc etc etc.

I'm now reduced to a constant state of worryment about whether my car ride is too harsh, too soft, too slow, too fast, too bouncy, too smooth, too hesitant, too just about everything.

I almost yearn for the good old days when I used to just get in, turn the key and drive around quite happily in blissful ignorance.


I didn't even know that a smaller wheel can possibly give a softer ride until Jules mentioned it when I took the car with it's already fitted 17' serpents for him to give a check over.

I now seem to live for the day that someone can swop over my wheels for some 16" or even 15" ones temporarily just so that I can satisfy myself that I'm not missing out on a much smoother softer cushioned drive so that I can be released from the imagined hell of my 17" serpents. Or whether the difference would be so minimal that I wouldn't even notice anyway.


Mind you having just changed all my rear suspension I do genuinely feel a more refined ride has resulted but am fearful that the £hundreds spent has induced an imagined improvement that really isn't there.


So I'm awfully sorry but I can't really say anything much more than the ride on my 17" serpent wheels seem fine to me but I've no idea whether it seems harsh to anybody else, you're quite welcome to pop round to go for a spin in my car if you're as tortured as me about matters that I didn't even know existed before this forum.

That was AWESOME!

[first-things-first]

lol @ bendrick

I drive a ZT with the 18 inch grid spokes (225/45 tyres XL rating). I use the "father" method of determining ride comfort. On my FIAT Coupe he would say that "he can tell if it was a 5p or 10p" (code for "harsh" ). Now, the ZT on these wheels should get such a coded reference, but he likes it.

I have sports comfort suspension as it a late MK 2 model, so softer than earlier models. The tyres must have stiffer sidewalls due to the XL rating. I keep the tyres at 2.2 bar all round as per the manual.

I hate a bone hard ride (I drive on the road, not the "not bothering" ), but accept "pitter patter" of big tyres on road surfaces that are nowhere near up to smoothly surfaced. I like control from my suspension, but with compliance as you when you go round a bend you can often find lumps and bumps, potholes, etc. and want to feel the tyres gripping and handling the imperfections, not skipping over them and placing you off line.

I think you need to find members local to you who can give you a lift to see how they "feel" to you.

Maybe lower pressures might help a little. I fully agree with bendrick that it is down to individual interpretation, as I am used to sports suspension.

One last thing - did I not read somewhere that modern tyre designs are mostly all about control, handling, emissions, longevity (depending on marketing or vehicle). All this at the expense of ride comfort as sidewalls are stiffer because of these regulations and car designs (trend towards heavier vehicles, due to crash regs)??

[75driver]

It’s probably common sense that the lower profile will give a harsher ride, but it’s not enough to compare one car to another, by tyre profile alone, unless both have same spring and damper set up.
Both my saloons, on 16” unions have front springs, by Suplex but of different model numbers.
The silver car has taller springs, and glides over certain road bumps that the gold car crashes into.🙄


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[Catman]

[QUOTE=I was thinking about looking for a set of serpents which are 17'' and would like opinions of how these wheels perform as they look quite an attractive wheel.[/QUOTE]


Serpents run with 225/45r17 I have them on my conni, I wouldn't call the ride harsh at all, very good road holding and stability though.