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      08-14-2016, 06:55 AM   #23
Pristineship
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Drives: F48 X1 X line sDrive 20i
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Slovakia

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I work for R&D Continental, I can explain to you at length why all RF tires will puncture more easily, but let's stick to the easy "explain like you're 5" - an 18" wheel with optimal air pressure is "touching" the ground with about as much space as a soccer ball. Now, if you put your foot down on such ball, it will deform and the space in direct contact with the ground could easily quadruple for a fraction of second.
Basically the same thing happens with a tire if you hit a pothole. With a runflat tire, because of reinforced sidewall (normal tires have usually 5 to 7 rather thin wires used as reinforcement, RFT have a very complicated metal form that you wouldn't be able to deform with your own body weight. If a RFT tire hits a pothole, you have a fraction of space to "spring" the sudden pressure, so if normal tire can basically use about a third of the tire to bend and compress, you have 20% of that with an RFT, the pressure on the material is significantly higher, and the reinforced sidewall itself if damaged can cause a tear, internally, you could not even notice the tire is damaged.
RFT, and especially tires over 18" are referred in rubber business as "printing money" tires, but nobody, absolutely nobody who understands what RFTs really are is putting RFT on their car.
You can praise them all you want, but they simply are a very expensive piece of equipment that is not worth the extra.
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