Lil4X
Elio Addict
As a general rule, larger diameter tires with a narrow footprint have less rolling resistance. That's why you don't see Mud-Grips on a bicycle. At cruising speed the narrower tire also delivers superior aerodynamics too. Now there are limits to this rule, as narrow tires don't often have a lot of load capacity, but if you think about it, at well under a ton fully fueled and loaded, your Elio isn't going to require a big load rating.
Now while I like the look of big wide tires, they come with a lot of downsides that make them a poor choice for an economical urban and freeway commuter. As any engineer will tell you, you don't tinker with one parameter without having to readjust every other - at some point, everything's a compromise.
I seem to remember an interview with Colin Chapman with C/D Magazine back in the '60's or early '70's in which he was asked what would be the ideal sports car. The man who developed the Lotus F1 cars, the Super 7 (now Caterham), the Elan, the Elise, and dozens of other small, lightweight, high-performance vehicles - whose credo was "simplify and add lightness", and who had once opined that the ideal racing car would fall to pieces as it crossed the finish line (otherwise it was too heavy) - thought about it for a moment. His ideal car would be very much like a motorized bicycle, perhaps with more than two wheels, but low, streamlined, and as simple and reliable as could be made. It would be a 1+1, with a small trunk, in other words, an Elio. Who knew?
Now while I like the look of big wide tires, they come with a lot of downsides that make them a poor choice for an economical urban and freeway commuter. As any engineer will tell you, you don't tinker with one parameter without having to readjust every other - at some point, everything's a compromise.
I seem to remember an interview with Colin Chapman with C/D Magazine back in the '60's or early '70's in which he was asked what would be the ideal sports car. The man who developed the Lotus F1 cars, the Super 7 (now Caterham), the Elan, the Elise, and dozens of other small, lightweight, high-performance vehicles - whose credo was "simplify and add lightness", and who had once opined that the ideal racing car would fall to pieces as it crossed the finish line (otherwise it was too heavy) - thought about it for a moment. His ideal car would be very much like a motorized bicycle, perhaps with more than two wheels, but low, streamlined, and as simple and reliable as could be made. It would be a 1+1, with a small trunk, in other words, an Elio. Who knew?
(Fix a Flat), again Ive not investigated the properties of KTB, might I suppose it could be multi-purposed??? That wud be a good thing!
