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Car tires on bikes

Lawdog314

Lawdog314

Active Member
Was cruising around on the web and saw an article advocating putting car tires on the rear wheels of bikes. Seemed mostly the Gold Wing crowd was doing it, due from what I could tell cost. Seems crazy as can be to me. I ain't no mechanic but I have a basic understanding of physics. Seems a motorcycle tire is designed with a whole different set of load factors involved.

Seems positively suicidal to me. I know when my rear tire starts to get flat in the middle from use, it handles... Well, like a cow on roller skates. I imagine starting with a car tire that would be as good as it gets.

Not on my machine!:23: Anyone heard of such nonsense?
 
Yup, 2 different animals IMO. The construction of the side walls are WAY different not to mention the speed ratings
 
This has been discussed before on th forum but was unable to find it. Ever notice how a motorcycle tire has the tread going up the sidewall? Thats for cornering. Now look at a car tire and the tread stops on the edge of sidewall. I see no way you could lean a bike over cornering with car tires on it.
 
not only is the sidewall geometry and rubber compounds different therein bead size and geometry are two different animals. Suicide on a bike in my opinion. My friends own an Indy shop and get some good bulletins from drag specialtues. Tire inflation bulletin shows internal temperature charts for underinflation. You would be amazed. Over 200 degrees difference in temp at 10 lbs under inflation.
 
They call themselves "darksiders". I cannot speak from experience because I have never tried a car tire on a motorcycle, so I do not know what the handle characteristics are like. However, many of the people that run the car tires ride many, many miles every year.
 
If you do a search you can find a lot of video's of the tires as they go through the Tail of the Dragon. If I could fit one on my 99 Ultra I would do it.

Toby
 
It looks to me like there is as much contact on a curve as a MC tire has. And 3 times as much on the straight. That's why they can stop soooo much faster. That and the fact that CT's have softer rubber.
 
blademan said:
It looks to me like there is as much contact on a curve as a MC tire has. And 3 times as much on the straight. That's why they can stop soooo much faster. That and the fact that CT's have softer rubber.
Click to expand...

Softer rubber? Really? I thought that was the given reason for shorter MC tire life? That they used softer compounds because cornering grip is so important in a MC application?
 
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