Hey,

I have a couple of questions (new Fit owner here so please bear with me. )

1) While glancing on wheels compatible with the Fit on Tirerack's website, I noticed many of them require hubcentric rings (example: SSR Competition wheels). My question is what aftermarket wheel brands out there are hubcentric? In the event I decide to upgrade my wheels, I would want wheels that don't require me to use hubcentric rings.

2) Do all OEM Honda wheels compatible with the Fit not require the use of hubcentric rings?

Thanks,
Navin

 

what are hubcentric rings???

 

Some wheels have a larger or smaller inner hub than the factory honda wheels. Hubcentric means the hub hole on the inside of the wheel matches up to the hub on the mounting surface(brake rotor or drum). If it's too large, you can have some slop with the wheel. If it's too small, it won't seat right and would have to be machined larger to be safe.
Hopefully, that makes sense without pictures.

 

Definitely see EXWRX's post above mine for a great explanation of what hubcentric rings are. Basically they are used to ensure that the wheel fits properly around the hub on your car (see the circled red area in my attached pic below). The hubcentric ring would be placed around the circular hub, ensuring that the wheel will fit snugly around the hub. A hubcentric wheel will not require the use of any hubcentric rings...

 

I don't really see the advantage of using wheels without the requirement for rings, well performance wise anyway. The one exception being they are a pain in the a$$ to take off.

I can only assume that Honda OEM wheels specific to the Fit would not require them.

 

Less of a hassle having wheels that are already hubcentric (i.e. those wheels not needing hubcentric rings) since you don't have to worry about the following scenarios:

1) Hubcentric rings accidently breaking upon removal from the hub (this happened to me when I needed to remove my old set of Lowenhart wheels wrapped to 18" tires (my summer setup which required hubcentric rings) before putting on my hubcentric OEM BMW wheels.

2) In the event you break a ring, you can't just buy one ring... you have to buy a full set.

3) Can be difficult to find the exact replacement hubcentric rings for your specific aftermarket wheel (again this happened to me).

4) Eventually I purchased metal hubcentric rings because I figured they wouldn't break like the cheap plastic rings, but they BEND and eventually I had issues with the wheels not fitting snugly around the hubs and had issues with shaky steeering wheel, etc.

Bottom line for me, based on my own personal experience, is that it's less of a hassle getting wheels that are already hubcentric.
My 19" BBS RS-GT wheels that are my current wheel setup on my BMW, are hubcentric wheels (thank God!).

 

I have the HFP wheels, which don't require the rings. Look nice, but are a little on the heavy side at almost 18 lbs. Path of least resistance as I got a smoking deal on them. Before I bought them though, I looked at a lot of wheels and I didn't see any aftermarket wheels that fit the Fit which didn't require rings.

 

Actually a pretty good point, I didn't consider the hassle if you broke one.

The ones that come with my wheels seems to be pretty sturdy, they were a bit stiff to pull off, I had to use pliers . The pair I have has a 1" wide grooved grip on the front that really bites into it without damaging it. Even then it still slipped off once in a while (similar to below).


One thing I am going to do when I put my summer's back on is apply a bit of grease to the ring so it comes off easier later on. I have a feeling if I had left it on for more than a year I would have broke it trying to get it off.