Motor cycle tires... whos ran them?

Looking at maybe putting some on the front of my 29 sedan. I bought some 18"s for the front and 20"s for the rear, want the big and little's look so Im trying for like a 26" tire up front. I see Coker has some but they are calling them motorcycle tires. Just wondering if anyone is or has used them and if they have had any problems. Thanks for your input... pics would be nice

 

why would you run a m/c tire on the front of your car. they dont have the load capacity to carry your car. what happens when you slam on the brakes, all of the weight of the car slams forward. and when you swerve to miss something is the sidewalls of the tire up to turning your car. in spite of the fact i run a car tire on the back of my goldwing. that tire is complete overkill. theskinny little things you are planning on trying are probably one step from a moped tire.

 

They ran motorcycle tires on cars back in the day too..

Whether they were safe or not, I can't tell you.

 

If I'm not mistaken, these are motorcycle tires on the front.

 

One of my most favorite things ever.

John Idol's.......

 

I ran Daytona motorcycle tires on 18" Hallcrafts, when I first built my T Bucket. They worked good, but my T is a lot lighter than your sedan. I'd run that by a cycle shop before I put those on a car.

 

The sedan is an open wheeled car, no fenders with a small block. I would say more like your T bucket than you would think. I have seen cars like Ricky Bobbys and it looks like he is running them but I haven't actually talked to anyone who has ran them. Thanks for all the input.

 

Looks cool, whats really safe about a hot rod in the first place?!?!!?

 

I'm thinking about the weight. I can and have, lifted my body off by myself. It's 'glass. How much do you think your sedan weighs? Going straight would probably be okay, but that's a bit of weight you'd have to stop or slow down in a turn.

Why not score a used pair and try it out.

 

I have a pair of 16" harley wide whites on some space saver rims that fit perfect. They are a 6 ply tire, much heavier made than an equivalent car tire. I say run 'em. I ran mine on the heaviest car I had at the time ('74 Lincoln) to see if they would hold up and they did just fine.

 

Here are a couple examples. I plan to run them on my T coupe.

 

I ran them for thousands of miles on the front of my 27 touring with a W Motor. . 5.10x16 Generic import tire. Worked excellent.

 

117, I was looking at the exact front ones on the black sedan in your pic. I think they have somewhere around 750lb rating.. Thanks Tman. Anybody else??

 

here comes the Safety Nazis

 

they ran them back in the day. the tire beads where the same on a bike tire and car tire. now thee are a few that make the bead different.the few that tried that here found that the bike tire leaked around the bead and also i know of 2 cars that the bike tire bead collapsed in a turn.it can and is still done just make sure the bead is seatin g on the car rim exactly where its suppose to be.and has a high load rating...

 

Put a tube in it.

 

Think about how the cornering forces act on a tyre when it's on a motorbike gound around a corner.

And think about the same on a car on its tyres.

I suspect a car puts a lot more lateral force on the sidewalls when cornering, even more so if braking AND turning.

 

when i bought my 29 roadster it had Harley dual white walls on the front, been on there for a long time, changed them out

 

Coker has a tire that I'm going to use. It's a Excelsior vintage tires. 450 - 18
4 1/4 x 27 1/4 tread width 3 1/2 $ 155.00 each

James

 

I’ve got them on my modified, the are Dunlop 402 130/16 on space save spares. I don’t have too many miles on the new car, they came out of the used pile at work. I mostly put them on for rollers. From what I can tell so far they leak and they go square while it sits. They take a few miles to get round again, I don’t know if that indicates they are over loaded or just the fact they are nylon and bias ply. I also have radials on the back, though they are truck radials and are fairly heavy ply. I know you shouldn’t mix radials and bias so far they handle ok but I think I’m going to get so 165 r15 to replace the bike tires. The thing that bothers me is the fact that bike tires are made to take all the weight radialy not laterally. Dunlop’s are well built tire, I’ve seen them get guys to the shop with some amazing damage, but how far do you want to push the margin of error especially with my wife or daughter or son in the car with me, not to mention the by stander.

 

Food for thought here, do what you want.

My uncle has been involved with tire design for the last 30 some odd years and also an old school hot rodder back to the early 60s. Hes also a motorcycle enthusiast. He graduated high school In 1964.
I asked my uncle about running MC tires on the front when I was looking for tires for my radir 12 spoke (18x3). His opinion is HIGHLY valued by tire manufacturers so I value it too.

Here's what he told me.
MC tires are designed completely different and with generally a higher speed rating. Motor cycle dynamics are quite different than automobile dynamics. The weights and forces of a maneuvering motorcycle are transfered thru the motorcycle tire always thru the center of the tire to the center of the bike. A motorcycle never has a shearing or perpendicular load on the side wall, if it does the ever happen the bike ends up shiny side down. Motor cycles do not turn like cars, the wheel leans and is actually pointed slightly the opposite way of the turn direction.

Car tires need to transfer a perpendicular side load back to the spindles and push the straight line momentum of the car into the direction of the turn. The suspension works as its designed but the force takes a path thru the spindles and that's 90* from the original load path.

So, for situations where your car acts as motorcycle, motorcycle tires are perfectly suitable. Light weight, Straight line, high speed where front traction and contact patch isnt the biggest concern. For any situation that begins to ask the motorcycle tire to act like a car tire be prepared if it doesn't act like a car tire. This would be cornering or turning the car under speed. If you could get the front to steer like a motorcycle it would better but the rear would have to follow along with the same idea like two motorcycles riding side by side carrying a car body.

He mentioned the high caster crazy camber flop on the old diggers as about the only you could get those to turn a corner too. They got the front to act like a motorcycle just to get it around a corner at low speed.

 

I would say no, read Tardel's book on buiding an A- V8,he tried them- then found out they don't work too good.


Ago

 

I have 18 x 3 cycle tires on my T-Bucket, but would NOT use them on anything weighing more than the actual tire is rated for. The whole turning issue isn't the problem, the design of cycle tires is very much different than automotive tires. Sidewall construction limits weight capacity.

 

toxic, those are the exact tires I was looking at buying. I will Coker tomorrow and see what they say. Those arent a motorcycle tire, but I think they have a 750lbs rating. Thanks for all the info guys!

 

Hi
The load and speed index is: 69P this book I have don't say what load 69 is but speed is P or 93 mph.
I like the looks of the tread and square edge on the tread. Its not a rounded tread like a MC tire.
James

 

I believe 69= 325kg which is roughly 740lbs and p= 94mph.

 

I ran them on my T also. I was warned that they weren't designed for side loads. I was able to break spokes on my Halcraft wheels and never had a moments problem with tires. but then I never have been big on listening to experts.

 

Yep look just like the 5.00x16 I used to run on my bike.

I put a 5.00x16 car tire on a bike once, it was way too stiff.

I have seen motor cycle tires running on the front of light cars before, I cannot say if they were safe any more than Tx speed can but I have seen it done and get driven more than on and off of a trailer so they must work at least a little bit.

 

Very good information! I used to own a motorcycle wire Wheel company and my partner also was one of the largest manufacturers of Car Wire wheels at the time (about 12 years ago). The other thing that should be included in this is that the safety bead and the actual rim diameter is NOT the same for car and bike rims - a small amount, but enough to cause the tire to slip on the rim under hard braking.
But hey - all the "Experts" on here are gonna do what they want and aren't really looking for facts anyway, just affirmation that when they do something wrong it's really OK

 

hotroddon, 31vickey, thanks guys for the info. i rememeber reading something about this many yrs ago but couldnt re-call what some of the differences were.but this did jog the memory some.i do know that the beads were different and work different. i also thoght that the bike tires were off a little on sizes but wasnt sure so i couldnt write that down. i do know i seen a couple guys with ruined sidewalls on the front tires on the hotrods with bike tires. now i know why!