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MG MGB Technical - tyre profile

hi all,
i need a couple of tyres on the front of the C. when getting prices they are asking what the profile of the tyre is. on the old tyres it does not give the profile size, just 165 SR 15. iv been led to believe it is 80. can anyone confirm this for me..
thanks bob.
bob taylor

Bob,

I have always heard that the obsolete "SR" designation means 82, so 80 would be as close as you would find to the SR today. Of course if you did the math, you might find a wider tire with a different aspect ratio that would equate to the 82 height of your current tire.

Charley
C R Huff

Bob - most have moved on to 185x70x15 which fill the wheel arch and improve grip.
Roger Walker

Bob, have a look at this weblink from Paul Hunts website. It has some excellent info on tyres and replacement sizes.

http://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/wheelstext.htm#tyresize

For my 1.8 roadster I went for 175/70/14, which have worked well and give a pretty accurate speedo reading.

Andy
Andy Robinson

A couple of things:

The wider you go at the front the heavier the steering gets.

You should not have more grip at the front than the rear.

And the wider you go at the rear, with chrome bumper ride-height, the more the tyres will rub the arches on cornering. 175s rub slightly on mine when touring fully laden.
paulh4

thanks all,
going to stick to 165 80 15. steering not bad with the old tyres so should be better with modern ones. one of the front tyres is 35yrs old.
bob.
bob taylor

"one of the front tyres is 35yrs old"

Must be like marbles on ice :o)
paulh4

This thread was discussed between 14/11/2016 and 16/11/2016

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