Steve,

The foam tires are definitely lighter than their rubber counterparts. You can purchase foam tires with the tread lines in them if you want. Personally since all but two of my airplanes not scale I choose not to worry about it. I select tire size with consideration of prop clearance and the ability to more easily fly off our grass strip.

Take a look at using a silicone rubber cone for your starter it causes less of a buildup on the spinner. I clean my spinners after several flights. If the spinner is not aluminum its going to wear to some extent from use with a starter. The only other choice is using a chicken stick.