Big rims craze came from SoCal. Interesting thing about southern Ca. is no deep freezes in the winter. Just a rare occasion of light frost. Most of the rest of us that don't live in the far south have roads that get frozen in the winter. This causes frost heaves which lead to pot holes.

Big rim & short sidewalls are great for smooth roads, not so great on non-smooth roads. Someone needs to develop a rule for minimum sidewall height for tires vs.max pot hole depth & frequency.

Too short of sidewalls+potholes=bent rims. Nobody wants to talk about that.

And

I

I live in Indiana, the roads take a pretty good beating here in the winter. I am a little older so my taste in wheel and tire combos don't include the wagon wheel rims w/ rubberbands for tires but I do like a moderately low profile look. Besides just trying to avoid potholes I tend to like about 4" of rubber around the rim and I have purchased tires that have bead protectors. Between those three things I've not bent a single rim. Honestly, I've had more trouble with 2"-3" changes in road surface height where DOT contractors have ground the surface down ahead of resurfacing. Those seams run across the entire road leaving no place to go to get past with little or no warning. I thought the shocks were going to come through the hood on my '88GT once, but no damage. That was with 215/45-17 tires on the front.

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RickN
White 88GT 5spd
White 85GT Auto

Also, if one has severly reduced suspension travel w/ springs and other mods, hitting the bump stops when rolling over potholes can have a similar effect.