Tyre Rim Protector

[pazz]

I thought I'd ask a question before I order a new set of tyres.

At the moment I have a mismatch on the car after I swaped a pair of Contactsport 2's for some Falken FK452's. But I'm a little concerned as to the lack of rim protector on the FK452s. At the time I had only the cash for some mediocre tyres (I'd only just bought the car) so I went for the best bang for buck tyre on the market - the FK452.

As you can see the FK452's dont seem to have a rim protector, they dont extrude the alloy rim like the conti 2's do that I currently have on the front.

FK452's


Continental ContactSport 2's


I'm considering either a set of Conti's 2 or 3's or Goodyear Assymetric's? Can anyone confirm if any of these have rim protector's?

[winrya]

I can confirm the goodyears have a nice big rim protector on them

[pazz]

Theres no doubting that the FK452's look the part but (I dont mean to sound like a sissy) its always useful to have a plan B.

[DubwayDan]

ive just bought a full set of toyo t1-r's and they have quite a big rim protector, ill try get a pic 

[182_blue]

My Goodyear asymetrics have a good rim protector (hard to see from the top, but you can see the rubber sticking out at the bottom of the alloy)

[pazz]

The Conti 2's seem to bulge out from the rim (you can see this from the pic I've posted), its almost like they appear to be a wider tyre (even though they are both 225) to the FK452's.

[BeezerDiesel]

I've got Conti 2s on the back and Conti 3s on the front (couldn't get hold of any more 2s when I needed some new rubber and couldn't afford/justify 4 Conti 3s). I've got 8'' wide rims and the 2s look like the fit sqaure but don't offer that much rim protection, however the 3s have mahoosive big fat bands of rubber over the lip of the rim making the tyre look like it has a slight stretch even and I would think it would take some clumsy parking to scratch a rim with those on. I'm not going to experiment though.

[The wheel man]

I wonder how much the rim protector actually does?  Ive always thought that a small bit of rubber would be hard pressed to stop a rim hitting something with the weight of a car behind it......

Anyone know anything about this / experience?

[182_blue]

I wonder how much the rim protector actually does?  Ive always thought that a small bit of rubber would be hard pressed to stop a rim hitting something with the weight of a car behind it......

Anyone know anything about this / experience?

i know that the large rim protector on a conti 3 tyre wont protect a rim at even a very very slow , very very light meeting with a curb   (my old BBS CK's)

[pazz]

I wonder how much the rim protector actually does?  Ive always thought that a small bit of rubber would be hard pressed to stop a rim hitting something with the weight of a car behind it......

Anyone know anything about this / experience?

You've never had experience of hitting a kerb? That surpises me.

With the Conti 2 setup I showed above, you'd be pretty careless to kerb the rim. You'd have to be flat up against the kerb.

[Ifti]

I think the 452's look nicer on the wheel though TBH.
I also dont really think a rim protector really does a hell of a lot - just be careful when parking by a kerb!

[182_blue]

I wonder how much the rim protector actually does?  Ive always thought that a small bit of rubber would be hard pressed to stop a rim hitting something with the weight of a car behind it......

Anyone know anything about this / experience?

You've never had experience of hitting a kerb? That surpises me.

With the Conti 2 setup I showed above, you'd be pretty careless to kerb the rim. You'd have to be flat up against the kerb.

i must have been careless then  , no offence but i did mine and im far from careless (in my own humble opinion as i really didnt want to ruin a £400 rim !!), ps kerbing doesn't just involve parking, mine was done leaving a bloody stupid car park in Nottingham where the kerbs are very high, and very tight to turn in, as said mine was done at no speed at all and only very very lightly touched the kerb and it still marked the alloy, not bad, but bad enough for me

[pazz]

I think the 452's look nicer on the wheel though TBH.

They do look a lot nicer in the flesh.

I went for the Assymetrics @ £121 each fitted at a local garage who have always been careful to not dammage the rim. You always know when a tyre shop will take their time to fit tyres when they show you the condition of the rim (edge etc) before fitting the tyre to make sure you are aware of any damage before fitting. So you can compare before and after etc.

[pazz]

i must have been careless then  , no offence but i did mine and im far from careless (in my own humble opinion as i really didnt want to ruin a £400 rim !!), ps kerbing doesn't just involve parking, mine was done leaving a bloody stupid car park in Nottingham where the kerbs are very high, and very tight to turn in, as said mine was done at no speed at all and only very very lightly touched the kerb and it still marked the alloy, not bad, but bad enough for me

That point was not aimed at you. I was simply comparing my experience of the conti 2's with the FK452's shown in the pics above.

What was the tyre/rim setup? You also said conti 3's, I'm on about conti 2's. I've had 2's and 3's on my A4 and the 3's didnt seem to fit in the same way, with less of a square shape.

[182_blue]

they were 19", and they looked about the same as the conti 2's


you can just about to make out the rim protector here