I followed another bike a short while today and I noticed something strange with his rear tire. The tread pattern was noticeably different. It had 2 grooves near the center of the tire tread. I suspected it was a car tire so I watched as I followed.
I have seen car tires mounted on bikes before but never saw one on the road from behind like that. I knew I would not consider a car tire as a replacement but I had never visualized how bad it looked. When the bike leaned it had to lean "UP" onto the edge of the flat tread tire then it was rolling on what appeared to be a knife edge as he rolled around the curve. There was certainly not much contact patch available for traction while leaned over. Also he was not all that stable leaned over. He looked to be fighting the controls.
This may be great at a dragstrip where the only corners are getting back to the pits but it looked very unsafe on the road.
I believe the short tire life of bikes leads people to make some very bad decisions. I know that many riders buy the sticky rubber for fast riding but when it wears out so fast it leaves them riding on nearly worn out tires after just a few thousand miles. Some people need to change tires more often than oil. Something just seems a little backward there.
Anyway after visually watching I would strongly discourage others from trying auto tires on a bike.
Brad
I have seen car tires mounted on bikes before but never saw one on the road from behind like that. I knew I would not consider a car tire as a replacement but I had never visualized how bad it looked. When the bike leaned it had to lean "UP" onto the edge of the flat tread tire then it was rolling on what appeared to be a knife edge as he rolled around the curve. There was certainly not much contact patch available for traction while leaned over. Also he was not all that stable leaned over. He looked to be fighting the controls.
This may be great at a dragstrip where the only corners are getting back to the pits but it looked very unsafe on the road.
I believe the short tire life of bikes leads people to make some very bad decisions. I know that many riders buy the sticky rubber for fast riding but when it wears out so fast it leaves them riding on nearly worn out tires after just a few thousand miles. Some people need to change tires more often than oil. Something just seems a little backward there.
Anyway after visually watching I would strongly discourage others from trying auto tires on a bike.
Brad