Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with something I’ve been putting off – figuring out what “profile tire” actually means. I’ve seen the term thrown around, but never really understood it. Time to get my hands dirty!
Digging In
First, I grabbed a few tires I had lying around in my garage. You know, the usual suspects – a couple of old ones from my car, and a spare motorcycle tire for good measure. I wanted to see the differences firsthand.
I started by just looking at them. Like, really looking. I noticed the sidewalls had all sorts of numbers and letters. It was like a secret code!
- I saw things like “205/55R16” on one, and “120/70ZR17” on another. Total gibberish at first.
- Then I remembered seeing something online about these numbers, so I did a quick search.
I began to understand that the number after R in some tires represents the aspect ratio of the tire, that is, the relationship between the tire section height and the tire section width.
I compared the tires side-by-side. The one with the “55” looked, well, a bit taller and narrower than one with a lower number. Now I can understand.
So, after all this hands-on stuff, I feel like I finally get it. “Profile tire” isn’t some fancy, complicated thing. It’s just a way of talking about the tire’s dimensions and how it looks and probably handles. I’m no expert, but at least I’m not totally clueless anymore!
