Are wider tyres better ?

Yes, wider tires are safer, especially if wider than the gaps you may fall into, more rideable on less than hard surfaces, more grip, and keep better contact with the ground at speed.

And there is no reason wider tires should be slower at touring speeds. On the contrary. They should be tougher and more puncture resistant than an equivalent narrow tire, so you can use a lighter and faster casing.
 
Wide tyres have some drawbacks as they are more prone to aquaplaning due to the lower weight per square inch of the contact patch.
 
Yes for sure, see the guys in those big BMWs with 2ft tyres sliding all over on the snow.... They become like ski's.
 
Yes for sure, see the guys in those big BMWs with 2ft tyres sliding all over on the snow.... They become like ski's.

It's worth checking out the WRC cars tyres and see how narrow the tyres are fitted when there is snow and ice on the stages.
 
One thing that I feel many overlook OR fail to understand when fitting wider tyres with the same Aspect Ratio (AR) as the stock tyres is that the AR is a % of the tread width and that WILL INCREASE the ROLLING DIAMETER which will in turn cause the speedo to read lower than the actual road speed leading to infringement notices / fines and loss of points.

FYI with my old car when the diff ratio was changed I changed the speedo drive gear to correct this and cross referenced it with a dash cam satellite speed reading on a long straight road @ a steady 100kph and there was only 1 kph different between them.

With a wider tyre you can use a lower AR to get the speedo to read more accurately
.
Tyre companies will have a chart that will show the ROLLING diameters of all the sizes so you can compare the RD's of the stock and wide tyre's RD's to get them as close as possible when upsizing.
 
One thing that I feel many overlook OR fail to understand when fitting wider tyres with the same Aspect Ratio as the stock tyres is that the AR is a % of the width and that WILL INCREASE the ROLLING DIAMETER which will in turn cause the speedo to read lower than the actual road speed leading to infringement notices / fines and loss of points.

FYI with my old car when the diff ratio was changed I changed the speedo drive gear to correct this and cross referenced it with a dash cam satellite speed reading on a long straight road @ a steady 100kph and there was only 1 kph different between them.

With a wider tyre you can use a lower AR to get the speedo to read more accurately
.
Tyre companies will have a chart that will show the ROLLING diameters of all the sizes so you can compare the RD's of the stock and wide tyre's RD's to get them as close as possible when upsizing.
There are a couple of really useful online calculators available to, I used them a few times. I wanted to run cross climate tyres on the Fabia which were only available in a 45 not a 40 a/r... This brought the speedo reading more in line with real speed. However, and be warned, this was an expensive mistake because on the Fabia, the inner edge and inner wing shape did not allow for the extra bit of rubber, consequently the tyres scrubbed on spring compression.

I had to remove them, but not before fitting the BC Coilovers which lowered the car... Catastrophic scrubbing.

So I ended up with Michelin Sport Pilot 4 which are a 40 a/r (std) but at 17x7 not a lot of tyre choice.

I managed to sell the Cross Climates but at a substantial loss.
 
Indeed it's to get wide grip on the road with an addition to the style quotient to the car. Although the manufacturers don't recommend it to get non specified set of wheels for the cars. But with after market alterations people do get custom set alloy wheels with new pair of tyres. All the best dear.
 
One thing that I feel many overlook OR fail to understand when fitting wider tyres with the same Aspect Ratio as the stock tyres is that the AR is a % of the width and that WILL INCREASE the ROLLING DIAMETER which will in turn cause the speedo to read lower than the actual road speed leading to infringement notices / fines and loss of points.

FYI with my old car when the diff ratio was changed I changed the speedo drive gear to correct this and cross referenced it with a dash cam satellite speed reading on a long straight road @ a steady 100kph and there was only 1 kph different between them.

With a wider tyre you can use a lower AR to get the speedo to read more accurately
.
Tyre companies will have a chart that will show the ROLLING diameters of all the sizes so you can compare the RD's of the stock and wide tyre's RD's to get them as close as possible when upsizing.
There are a couple of really useful online calculators available to, I used them a few times. I wanted to run cross climate tyres on the Fabia which were only available in a 45 not a 40 a/r... This brought the speedo reading more in line with real speed. However, and be warned, this was an expensive mistake because on the Fabia, the inner edge and inner wing shape did not allow for the extra bit of rubber, consequently the tyres scrubbed on spring compression.

I had to remove them, but not before fitting the BC Coilovers which lowered the car... Catastrophic scrubbing.

So I ended up with Michelin Sport Pilot 4 which are a 40 a/r (std) but at 17x7 not a lot of tyre choice.

I managed to sell the Cross Climates but at a substantial loss
 

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