Darkside tire separation

[bigsid1]

Saw this on you tube. There's probably more to the story. It's strange how only one side and all the way around. Almost like something was cutting into the tire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur9nfBpMldQ

[macmac]

I can't see vidio.... If someone feels like relating what ever it is, I might be interested.

[bigsid1]

Hey mac go to youtube and search cartire on motorcycle and its there.

[bigsid1]

I redid the link should work now.

[macmac]

No no no , I am on a dead beat 56 k mo dumb and something is wrong with the system to boot.

I can stay on line for maybe 3 minutes no matter what I do.. Today I installed a new Juno version 6 thinking the old version was no good anymore and still the system just goes off line every 2 to 3 minutes no matter what.

I can't see any vidio no matter how good the link is ever.... it wasn't the link.... I didn't even try it..

[AlabamaNomadRider]

Mac, it looked like someone took a knife to the tire where the tread meets the sidewall. It was split all the way around. It does look like maybe the tire was rubbing on something. It was installed on a GL1800 Goldwing.

[isaiahsdad]

First of all, that could not have "just happened". It had to have happened over a period of time for that much damage. My guess, like others is that there had to be something rubbing on the tire to cut it all the way around like that. It would be interesting to find out the whole story. Just showing a tire, and telling what it was on was not good enough for me. And if there was something rubbing, how is it that he/she didn't notice a noise, or smoke, or even handling problems before the failure. To be that catastrophic, there had to be signs before the failure. There is just not enough information in this video at all. I am however impressed in all the replies under the video. All made sense and did not say anything about running a ct on a motorcycle. Another thing is that even if there was nothing making contact with the tire, which I doubt, this is the first and only time I have seen any type of failure of a car tire on a motorcycle. I am sure that there are many on here that would agree with me, a careful walk around and quick inspection would have prevented an accident in the first place. The first thing I do each and every time I get on my bike is a walk around. Takes 10 seconds and could mean the difference between life and death. Especially now that I am a darksider, I inspect that tire every time that garage door goes up. Like I said, it is a good habit to get into.

Something else that seemed odd is that the person doing the recording seemed to be more interested in filming the dealership than getting all the facts. If anyone knows that dealership, they should give them a call and see if we could get more details. Was it 1 up, 2 up, was the pilot towing a trailer, and I apologize if this seems brash but was the pilot, and or passenger, shall I say, heavier than normal. There are just too many variables in this story that are un answered. I sure would like to hear the whole story, and I am confident that we would find the real answer, and I don't think it would be the tire that failed, but rather was damaged by something else. Just my humble opinion.

[flavor]

I agree that it looks like the sidewall separated from the tread area. If I remember correctly the belt was exposed as well. I'd have to go back to recheck that though. I don't know of anyone that had a tire failure that looked like that.

Maybe someone in the mechanic business that's seen a lot of bad tires would comment on this issue.

[isaiahsdad]

These tires are designed to go on cars, 4000 pound cars, and are designed to take highway off ramps at 60 miles per hour, on the front wheel of the car. Now these figures are very conservative, but the lateral forces that are put on this, and every tire, are far greater than any motorcycle could put on it. Therefor, I stand by my original statement. And the reason for the weight question is that there may be something, a screw, piece of metal, something protruding from the fender, or something, that would only make contact under a full load. Like I said, just not enough information.

[macmac]

What ever it is I am not unduly hampered. I drove right out of a truck tire once, blew the read off like a gun was fired too. At first i thought it was a gun fire.

That tire still held air, and BF Goodrich replaced it for free and with all the other tires on the truck. Bad batch and I had 4....

Once I had a mc tire come a part in chuncks, and then it blew up! There wasn't even any wire on the rim. I didn't go down, but I did ride over my foot http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif

We all need to look at the tires everyday we plan to ride and check the oil too, These are bikes not cars. You are a pilot not a driver in some cage...

Would you fly a plane and not do the walk around?

[isaiahsdad]

A good inspection of the tire before you even put it on is also a good idea. Another question I would have to ask this person is how long the bike may have sat before he rode it. Could it have been dry rot caused by lack of use over the winter. Just too many questions. Like macmac said, and as I have used the term for 20 some odd years, we are pilots, not drivers, we need to think like pilots. Pre "flight" walk around is a must.

[isaiahsdad]

Just read this comment left by someone. Have no idea how accurate this is but it is logical.

"The tire in this video is a runflat that had been run for an estimated 200+ miles with low or NO pressure. The rider failed to check the tire when he first noticed it "felt a little different". This is a testament to CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESSURE and CONDITION on a regular condition no matter what type of tire you run. If this was posted in attempt to discredit those to chose to Darkside, please check the facts of the incident. "

[dogdoc]

Any tire on any vehicle can go and go quickly if it seperates. it doesnt matter what tire is on what vehicle. This is not enough to say CT are good or bad on motorcyles. jury is still out till somebody crashes a bike due to the tire. :-)

[macmac]

Oh so it was a run flat and run for over 50 miles which makes it junk, with little to no psi...

Now that makes sence.. A run flat is designed t run flat for 50 miles and then be trash canned.. You don't run flat 50 miles and just add air.. It is total junk then..

Thinking before this was a normal car tire i would be hard pressed to see a 1,000 pound bike harm a tire when the tire was made for a car.... The tire carries about 1/2 the bike, and is why I used 1,000 over our apx 900 pounds because i don't know what a wing and other heavy bikes are, BUT ours are amoung the most heavey made not counting v 8 engine bikes.

Yeah pre flight inspection is a good idea... Getting lazy about it isn't.

If that happens to be too much bother perhaps driving a cage is better.. You need not be a tech to do a preflight. You just look at oil tires and air psi, and other related things, and get TOOLS and make sure things are snug...

You don't need to be a tech to test for snugg either, you just need eyes and tools that fit.

Wipin off bugs i find all sort of things I would either loose or have to fix...

Once I helped a guy with a Harley who had just one nut and bolt left of 5 holding on his rear sproket. Now he didn't loose all the 4 other nuts and bolts at the very same time. He was friggin too damnned lazy to look the bike over and it about killed him and it about ruined a good bike.

That chain stopped right now all gagged up on the driving sproket, and was wedge between the rear driven sproket and the frame which was a good thing..

The bad part was that bike came right around tail end first, but somehow he didn't wreck the whole bike, just one whole side of it was wrecked.. Not a big deal since there is lots of harleys.

The guy was all about how Harley did this and didn't do that but it was his own fault for not going over the bike. Harley wasn't riding the bike he was.

[Jared]

CT failer=1
MCTire failer= Countless.

I'm still a believer! I put my Dunlop on in June and have been all over the place since then. East Coast to West Coast, Rockies, Smokies, and even on the sand at Daytona. The tire handle superior to anything else I have ever used.

[Top Cat]

CT failer=1
MCTire failer= Countless.

I'm still a believer! I put my Dunlop on in June and have been all over the place since then. East Coast to West Coast, Rockies, Smokies, and even on the sand at Daytona. The tire handle superior to anything else I have ever used.

Are you retired with a healthy 401K ?

[Yellow Jacket]

Oh my gosh! I had a two month old Goodyear Eagle on my pickup that totally disintegrated at 70 mph on the Interstate. When I got from the far left lane over to the right hand shoulder the entire tread was gone. Nothing but part of the sidewalls left.

I guess I better not buy anymore of those gosh darned car tires! Uhhhhh, gee. I wonder what I can use now? Don't think I can put motorcycle tires on my cars or trucks!?!?

[Jared]

Are you retired with a healthy 401K ?[/quote]

No, I wish. Quite the contrary. My wife and I are both full time students and both of us work part time. She will be starting law school in the fall and I begin my MBA in the spring. We live a very humble, college student type life.

We plan our trips well, and do a lot. We traveled 6K miles from Utah to Florida and up the east coast to the smokies all for under $1000. We stayed with my folks in Florida and with a few friends along the way, but besides that we camped for the most part-- usually costing around $12-20. When we ate out, we tried to eat at places like Subway instead of places like Outback, etc.

By the way, we have completed our undergraduate degrees with no help from either of our parents and without going a single penny in debt. http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif It's called living within your means, and money management. http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif

[flavor]

Both you and MAC made the best point about checking your bike before riding. My guess is there must have been some sign of an issue before the tire just gave out the way it was put on u-tube.

I've never seen, or even heard of a tire failing the way it was shown.


Just read this comment left by someone. Have no idea how accurate this is but it is logical.

"The tire in this video is a runflat that had been run for an estimated 200+ miles with low or NO pressure. The rider failed to check the tire when he first noticed it "felt a little different". This is a testament to CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESSURE and CONDITION on a regular condition no matter what type of tire you run. If this was posted in attempt to discredit those to chose to Darkside, please check the facts of the incident. "

[trosco]

If we have anyone in our group from Arkansas maybe they would check out via visit to dealer? If dealer is really concerned about the risks of darkside'n they share all they know. In the video (though it's hard to see) I noticed a few things. Tires a Dunlop 195/55/16 and I think it said SP50 or SP30 (not 5000) but it is definetly marked WINTER TIRE in big bold letters. With such a easily available size odd that a winger would choose that? There is considerable wear, (close to 50% it looks like) and inside you can see the casing is broken up which would indicate the tire was run some distance flat. I don't know if that is a model that could have been run flat design in the past but I googled Dunlop and checked and didn't find any run flats in their winter models or any run flats in that size. So it would be nice to know more?

[isaiahsdad]

Kind of wierd but i just watched the video again and for some reason this guy deleted all the comments under the video, including mine. Also, if you watch some of his other videos, he is just a little abusive of his Goldwing. Just my oppinion. I would still like to hear the whole story on this.

[macmac]

I can't see this vidio.... I stated that... Still working with my connection issues and if thyey are fixed I still doubt i can see this on my system anyway..

However from what you guys tell me, as close as i can relate is a car tire that leaks and isn't fixed, with some time will do this very thing. A car radial will split from running it low, filling it up and running it low more. You do that enough and the carcass will break free.

What ever this is, is a gross excuse of negligence, that could have been dealt with long long before the tire failed.

My take it this is supposed to have happened of the instant. Once second the tire was top notch "A" Ok, and the next it failed which can't be true.

[Yellow Jacket]

Alright. Here are the comments that the guy who posted this video made (in yellow). He is not the one that had the tire failure. He was at the dealer and asked about installing a car tire. The dealer presented this tire and claimed that it had come off a "wing."

This whole thing is nothing but hearsay.

That tire could have come off anything.

It's entirely possible that the dealer bought that tire from an auto tire shop just to convince his customers not to consider going to a car tire.

P.S. Sure seems kind of coincidental that the dealer had a failed tire in the back which was exactly the same tire that this guy was thinking of putting on his bike!

DJFireUSA
June 07, 2009


Here is a short video of a Dunlop Wintersport 3d Car Tire located at a Honda Dealership I had rolled into during a cross-country trip.

After months of friends pushing me to try the dark side, I had finally given in to the Dunlop Wintersport 3D. When I asked the dealer about putting on a car tire they said they had one in the shop that had failed on a guy's wing.

Turns out, the same model I was thinking about using was laying back in the shop will a full failure. The guy went down and was hurt, but he will live to ride again. His big was damaged, but I do not know to what extent.

If you are a darksider, please think about this before you put on your next tire.

As for us, we will be sticking with motorcycle tires, despite the extra cost. It's worth the extra cost for us to run a tire that is designed for motorcycle use.

Mac, I took some screenshots of the video for you since you can't get it to run on your high speed modem.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/retsiem/Miscellaneous/CT1.gif

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/retsiem/Miscellaneous/CT2.gif

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/retsiem/Miscellaneous/CT3.gif

[isaiahsdad]

I tend to agree with you on that Yellow Jacket. It is not beyond reason that the dealer did just that and he very well could have gotten it from a used tire shop, or even from the side of the road. Tire sales could have been down due to so many Wingers going to a ct. Anything is possible, at least as possible as the tire actually coming off of a bike.

[Cajunrider]

Are you retired with a healthy 401K ?

No, I wish. Quite the contrary. My wife and I are both full time students and both of us work part time. She will be starting law school in the fall and I begin my MBA in the spring. We live a very humble, college student type life.

We plan our trips well, and do a lot. We traveled 6K miles from Utah to Florida and up the east coast to the smokies all for under $1000. We stayed with my folks in Florida and with a few friends along the way, but besides that we camped for the most part-- usually costing around $12-20. When we ate out, we tried to eat at places like Subway instead of places like Outback, etc.

By the way, we have completed our undergraduate degrees with no help from either of our parents and without going a single penny in debt. http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif It's called living within your means, and money management. http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif[/quote]

Congratulations to you and your wife. It's apparent that both of you are mature and wise young people. Good luck.

[Top Cat]

It's called living within your means, and money management

Now there's an interesting concept. Only problem with it is if I do I won't have as much fun as I'm having now http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif

Seriously Utah, congrats on all you and the wife have accomplished so far and good luck in the future.

[flavor]

Good job Bob


Alright. Here are the comments that the guy who posted this video made (in yellow). He is not the one that had the tire failure. He was at the dealer and asked about installing a car tire. The dealer presented this tire and claimed that it had come off a "wing."

This whole thing is nothing but hearsay.

That tire could have come off anything.

It's entirely possible that the dealer bought that tire from an auto tire shop just to convince his customers not to consider going to a car tire.

P.S. Sure seems kind of coincidental that the dealer had a failed tire in the back which was exactly the same tire that this guy was thinking of putting on his bike!

DJFireUSA
June 07, 2009


Here is a short video of a Dunlop Wintersport 3d Car Tire located at a Honda Dealership I had rolled into during a cross-country trip.

After months of friends pushing me to try the dark side, I had finally given in to the Dunlop Wintersport 3D. When I asked the dealer about putting on a car tire they said they had one in the shop that had failed on a guy's wing.

Turns out, the same model I was thinking about using was laying back in the shop will a full failure. The guy went down and was hurt, but he will live to ride again. His big was damaged, but I do not know to what extent.

If you are a darksider, please think about this before you put on your next tire.

As for us, we will be sticking with motorcycle tires, despite the extra cost. It's worth the extra cost for us to run a tire that is designed for motorcycle use.

Mac, I took some screenshots of the video for you since you can't get it to run on your high speed modem.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/retsiem/Miscellaneous/CT1.gif

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/retsiem/Miscellaneous/CT2.gif

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff109/retsiem/Miscellaneous/CT3.gif

[macmac]

Thank you Bob.....

Well well well.... http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif This tire has great center tread and hard worn edges.. I know what a wing is, and unless you lay down to look at the tire you can't see the tire.

Many wingers place their junk in the varrious saddlebags and trunks and leave it there, adding weight.

To reduce weight they tend to ride in tanktops, shorts and sandals.

Being dressed this way they never get down and look at the rear tire..

I have seen lots of wings with dangerous tires because i get down and look. I know of wings that went that last ride too, and the tires no matter what kind come apart.

I will bet money this tire a winter type tire, has stiff side walls, and it was fairly new on the bike, but it went dead flat and the rider never knew it.

The side walls hung in there well enough to support the bike and how I know is the tread at the side walls. A properly inflated tire wears the center out first, and the edges don't get like that.

The wear is classic for a tire run with too low pressure which eats the edge tread, and actutally raised the center tread right off the ground, so it is reduced wear in the center line.

One time I ran over some unknown object on a Dunlop touring mc tire. I was 2 up on my 1981 850 yammi, and I had no idea I was riding a flat.

The hole in the tire was apx 3/8", a real big hole most guys here could run their little finger into!

How I found out I had a flat was I came to a red light and decided to horse around and leave a little rubber when the light turned green.

I tried, and not much happened at all. The wheel turned inside the tire, was about it, but the bike still felt fine other than that and i thought I blew the clutch.

It was another 10 miles to walley world and I rode that solo, not a problem, stuffed 8 plugs in the hole, blew the tire back up and rode 2 up 75 miles home on a 3 day weekend Sunday. The tire was still leaking, I didn't go over 35 mph, and I did stop everyso often to add more air. As soon as the local tire store was open I had a near tire.

If you run a tire with a side wall so stiff no air is needed to hold the bike up off the ground and then you don't bother to check air pressure no less than every other day, this sort of thing can and will happen.

I am sure that this tire had nearly no air pressure and heated up at the contact points (the edges in this case)

Any tires with low air heat up from flexing the carcass. You add heat and more flexing the side walls and things break down.

A mc touring tire has a stonger side wall and flexes less with no air, but it will still heat up and flew somewhere and do this same thing given the chance.

This happened over weeks of time at the very fastest...

The owner may not have known he had a air loss and maybe he did. The evidence is right there to read..

If he didn't know then he wasn't doing a walk around worth the doing, and if he knew he had a leak he was putting the fix off because changing a tire on a wing is no fun either.

That tire wasn't great one 1/2 hour before it did this.

[blowndodge]

100% correct Mac. Excessively riding on a "ride flat" tire without knowing it does exactly what that picture showed! Excessive edge of tread wear and a new looking center section.

This will also happen without a run flat tire. I've seen knuckleheads drive a mile after a total blowout on their tire on their cages and rip right through the tread like a knife cut the tread off!

[macmac]

Once my wife called me to say her car has no power. It took me 1/2 hour to get to where she was, and there was no tire left to fix... http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif

It was a Saab 900 and she had no idea a whole tire was gone. That was a almost new studded snow, a set of 4, and somewhere she picked up a leak, and drove that tire right off the car.

On my way to see I saw hunks of tire, hoping that wasn't her tire, but alas it was.

[lonewolf]

I have a guy i ride with, and sent him these links. he has owned goldwings for years, and is very active on the goldwing forums. he told me today that there hasnt been one single mention of this on his forums !!! HMMMM!!!!

[cnc]

Well I don't know much about darksiding and I am certainly not against it, but here are a few points to consider. It is a winter tire.
Here in Quebec they passed a law forcing all motor vehicles to have winter tires from Nov to March.
The newer generation snow / ice tires, which this appears to be ( Not to be confused with a Mud and snow tire ) are made up of softer compounds to grip the ice and do run a lot hotter on pavement in hot summer conditions. The biggest concern about passing this law was a greater number of people who would not bother change back to summer tires in the spring on there cars. I remember reading the dangers of doing this, besides wearing out tires fast over the summer and not gripping the road as well as a summer tire at higher speeds, was a greater possibility of de-lamination and / or blow outs due to over heating.
Do people use winter tires to darkside?
It would seem to me that you would not get as much mileage out of a winter CT as a good summer CT installed on a bike anyway and isn't that the reason to darkside, get better mileage than the soft compound MC tire?

[dkdixie]

Well I don't know much about darksiding and I am certainly not against it, but here are a few points to consider. It is a winter tire.
Here in Quebec they passed a law forcing all motor vehicles to have winter tires from Nov to March.
The newer generation snow / ice tires, which this appears to be ( Not to be confused with a Mud and snow tire ) are made up of softer compounds to grip the ice and do run a lot hotter on pavement in hot summer conditions. The biggest concern about passing this law was a greater number of people who would not bother change back to summer tires in the spring on there cars. I remember reading the dangers of doing this, besides wearing out tires fast over the summer and not gripping the road as well as a summer tire at higher speeds, was a greater possibility of de-lamination and / or blow outs due to over heating.
Do people use winter tires to darkside?
It would seem to me that you would not get as much mileage out of a winter CT as a good summer CT installed on a bike anyway and isn't that the reason to darkside, get better mileage than the soft compound MC tire?

Actually cnc, CT's are softer than M/C cruiser tires but that's only one reason to run ct's.
Mileage is a factor, no doubt about it. Better in the rain, more contact surface in curves, cheaper, improved ride, better braking are a few of the other reasons.

[macmac]

Why that wing had allegedly a winter tire on is never going to be answered.

That and why it was abused.. That tire had a lot of good tread in the center and that tread in the center should have worn first. The facts are the edges wore first, which indicates low or no air pressue. Any Chiltons for any car has a page in the back to show this is true.

[Top Cat]

Well I don't know much about darksiding and I am certainly not against it, but here are a few points to consider. It is a winter tire.
Here in Quebec they passed a law forcing all motor vehicles to have winter tires from Nov to March.
The newer generation snow / ice tires, which this appears to be ( Not to be confused with a Mud and snow tire ) are made up of softer compounds to grip the ice and do run a lot hotter on pavement in hot summer conditions. The biggest concern about passing this law was a greater number of people who would not bother change back to summer tires in the spring on there cars. I remember reading the dangers of doing this, besides wearing out tires fast over the summer and not gripping the road as well as a summer tire at higher speeds, was a greater possibility of de-lamination and / or blow outs due to over heating.
Do people use winter tires to darkside?
It would seem to me that you would not get as much mileage out of a winter CT as a good summer CT installed on a bike anyway and isn't that the reason to darkside, get better mileage than the soft compound MC tire?

Actually cnc, CT's are softer than M/C cruiser tires but that's only one reason to run ct's.
Mileage is a factor, no doubt about it. Better in the rain, more contact surface in curves, cheaper, improved ride, better braking are a few of the other reasons.

Now I'm really confused. If a CT is SOFTER than a MT how does it get more milage ???

[macmac]

I don't think DK is saying you get more milage with a car tire. I find the SP 5000 eats apx 2 mph, but that trade off is well worth the other bennies DK mentions which i get as well.

My 06 1600 set up the way it is gets 40 to 44 mpgs. If i ran a taller tire perhaps 195/65 R16 it might improve 1 maybe 2 mpgs.

[cnc]

"Actually cnc, CT's are softer than M/C cruiser tires but that's only one reason to run ct's.
Mileage is a factor, no doubt about it. Better in the rain, more contact surface in curves, cheaper, improved ride, better braking are a few of the other reasons".

Ok, But running a winter CT?

[blowndodge]

Me thinks TC meant more mileage longevity Mac???

[mtn1600]

A bike tire has about a 1" (?) wide contact patch going straight down the rode. The car tire has several inches. The same load is distributed over a much bigger contact patch so there is less wear.

Also, with a nearly round cross-section the motorcycle contact patch slips a little bit as it contacts the road, widens out and retracts as the tire rotates (I think). Look at a MC tire with some miles on it on a bigger bike. A lot of them will have lost the circular cross-section and are nearly flat in the center of the tread.

That's my theory on why CTs last longer even though they are a softer compound than MC tires.

I think the darkside forum has something on the hardness of the rubber on the two. Someone used a durameter (hardness tester) on several MC and CTs and the CTs were significantly softer.

Leo

[lonewolf]

ok , i retract my previous post, it did show up on the 1800 forum ! and it was do to neglect. he never checked his air pressure, even after it feeling weird to him. he was with a group, and even after stopping for fuel, he still didnt check it. he stated that he didnt want to hold the rest of the group up! tried posting the link to the 1800 forum, but couldnt get it.

[dkdixie]

A bike tire has about a 1" (?) wide contact patch going straight down the rode. The car tire has several inches. The same load is distributed over a much bigger contact patch so there is less wear.

Also, with a nearly round cross-section the motorcycle contact patch slips a little bit as it contacts the road, widens out and retracts as the tire rotates (I think). Look at a MC tire with some miles on it on a bigger bike. A lot of them will have lost the circular cross-section and are nearly flat in the center of the tread.

That's my theory on why CTs last longer even though they are a softer compound than MC tires.

I think the darkside forum has something on the hardness of the rubber on the two. Someone used a durameter (hardness tester) on several MC and CTs and the CTs were significantly softer.

Leo

That's correct on the hardness test. I'm trying to find the link.
I do remember most m/c tires had a harness factor in the mid to high 70's.....almost all CT's were in the mid to low 60's.

There are a number of Darksiders running winter tires, I assume, because of the softer compound.
A popular winter tire is the Bridgestone Blizzak.

[macmac]

Yes a Ct will last a lot longer, and yes, since it has more traction it will eat a mpg or two.

Why a winter tire I don't know, but the fact it is, means nearly nothing.

Neglect is the cause, and any tire, even a mc tire will delaminate with no air given time.

The stress is right where this tire failed, when any tire runs flat. A great deal of materials folded repeatedly will fail this same way. Sheet metals, sand papers, and just lots of thing will fail by folding. Just examples. We tend to hope folding sand paper will cut it it clean.

With bent sheet metal we hope to get rid of the part once folded.. http://s2.images.proboards.com/grin.gif

If this tire was folded with abuse and neglect, it wouldn't have failed, and like I said had it been a mc tire the same thing would have happened. The difference is that would not have made any story. That happens all the time.

[flavor]

Harder or softer? Correct me if I'm wrong but my thinking is that the flat side of a car tire is harder than a motorcycle vs. the side softer on a car tire than a motorcycle tire. Aren't the sides of a ct less plys as well.

When I went to the sp5000 my gas mileage seemed to improve instead of decreasing. I'm back up to 37 to 39 MPG.

[dkdixie]

Here's the published results of Durometer test:



A Durometer measures the softness of tire rubber, the softer the tire the lower the number.

Durometer Readings: (all readings taken on same meter)

BFG Touring TA 67 Goodyear Triple Tread 69

General Altimax HP 61 General Exclaim 63

Nexan 2000 68 Continental Conti Pro Contac 64

Dunlop Sport 5000 62 Bridgestone Potenza EL400 61

Firestone F560 68 FuzonZRI 67

General Diamonback 66 Riken Raptor 60

Falken Ziexx 512 60

99% of all OEM rear M/C tires were 69-72

[macmac]

Jim maybe the Sp 5000 is taller than what you had on back??? If so that could explain better mpgs. The sp 5000 is the same height the brick I took off was.

If i go with a 195/65 R 16 that might get me a little better MPGs..

[flavor]

I had a 180/70 on rear before. Don't know it measures up. Now a 195/60

[metalman]

I've had a CT on the Nomad for a year and have had no problems. I wonder if the CT on that 1800 Wing had a problem because the bike was ridden as if is were a sport bike? It's a heavy and powerful motorcycle, and when leaning and accelerating at the same time, there have to be tremendous forces on the edge of the tire. I don't believe a car exerts the same degree of force to the edge of the tire. I cruise with my Nomad and am not worried about chewing up the edge of the tire, but I will remember to check it every time I ride.

[isaiahsdad]

The lateral forces put on a ct on a car are far more than a motorcycle could ever put. A motorcycle rolls onto the edge of the tire and a car pushes the tire and prevents the tire from rolling up. The side wall is the only thing that keeps the tire from failing. That, in my opinion is what makes a ct better in many ways than mc tire. It can take forces far greater than what a motorcycle can put on it. Even a Goldwing. I have seen some serious Goldwing riding in my days, I have seen people race Goldwings on road courses and do things that I never thought possible with such a large and heavy bike, but I have never seen anything that could cause a mt, or even a ct to fail. This is only my view, and in no way should effect any one else's decision to put a car tire on a motorcycle. The speculation continues....