Rain and the car tire

A friend of mine said motorcycle tires are not known for hydroplaning in the rain, but felt that the car tire I now use on my Venture will. Does this sound like it would happen or not??

mastermechanic wrote:A friend of mine said motorcycle tires are not known for hydroplaning in the rain, but felt that the car tire I now use on my Venture will. Does this sound like it would happen or not??

NOPE! Motorcycle tires will hydroplane first before a car tire at normal speeds for rain riding and depending on how much rain grooves are left on the motorcycle tire it will slip and slide on the wet surfaces. Usually the rain grooves are the first to dis-appear on a motorcycle tire, so they hydroplane and slip at any moisture! Now on the other hand a motorcycle tire may be better for the first couple 1000 miles but who rides that way all the time. This info could offset that theory also....the car has at least 20 points softer rubber than a motorcycle tire and thus better grip in the wet! So...I'm saying this is just a myth!

The car tire is a water shedding fool all the way to the end of the use of the tire!....just look at the rain grooves I got. Check out a motorcycle tire and look at the rain grooves...not many and smaller......OK, they are really tiny!




Plus you trust you family to the "lowly car tire" don't you! Even in the rain!

No hydroplaning for me....

Jerry

The way I understand it is, that if you are riding a CT in the rain you will have supurb handeling and traction. Another plus is that if you go up in a ball of flames the rain will put you out.

Talk about safety.
Moon

Badmoon wrote:The way I understand it is, that if you are riding a CT in the rain you will have supurb handeling and traction. Another plus is that if you go up in a ball of flames the rain will put you out.

Talk about safety.
Moon

Thats funny, I don't care who you are.....

Jerry

let me add this. last summer while coming back from canada, i got caught in a heavy rain storm south of knoxville, tenn. cages were solwing down to 40-45 mph. i keep on running 55-60 pulling a fully loaded trailer with my 1999 rs venture. never felt any loss of control with my bfg c/t. would have run the posted speed limit but winshield was steaming up some. just my observations.
best reguards
don c.

gunboat wrote:let me add this. last summer while coming back from canada, i got caught in a heavy rain storm south of knoxville, tenn. cages were solwing down to 40-45 mph. i keep on running 55-60 pulling a fully loaded trailer with my 1999 rs venture. never felt any loss of control with my bfg c/t. would have run the posted speed limit but winshield was steaming up some. just my observations.
best reguards
don c.

Awesome gunboat! Thanks for posting!


........................bobby


.

You wanna talk about running the darkside in the rain..............This summer (well, hells bells, less then a month ago), our HD riding buds and us went 800 miles of cruising. At least 600 of that was IN THE RAIN..............The ONE comment I kept getting form my HD riding buds was 'how much' of a rooster tail that darkside tire throws up.
Not once, as in NEVER did I feel a lack of control/slipping/any kind of oddness with the dark side tire. On the contrary. I felt IT stuck ALOT harder then any other motorcycle tire I"ve ever had on a bike.
Love that DS tire.....................................

Three/four/five times the traction of a mc tire........................

Ct's rule in the rain.......or sunshine

Jerry

Well I'm here to tell you "They" are wrong. Rode from Escondido area on a Sunday and ran thru an admittedly light rain for about forty of the 90 minute ride. I had the last 10 or 12 miles to dry back out. The CT on the rear felt solidly planted the whole trip back to LA. So far no wobble issues, I ride a 07 Roadliner. I have about 2k on a 205/55ZR17 General Exclaim out back. My last ride I was getting back on the 5 and had it over enough to just slightly touch the right side board down and the bike felt great the whole turn ( on ramp ) accelerated right on up to a buck no wobbles shut her back down to a 75 drone and cruized. If this tire lasts longer than the MC tire then I am SOLD. My bike is the nice Blue they made that year.

Plus it's great fun to swing over in front of your friends and drown them with that roostertail. One of my DS friends says it just "all that traction".
I reckon he's right - I never had back brakes in the wet before on the Harleys.

Road through downpours and it never slipped.....total confidence in the ct....

I'm on my 2nd ct. on the back of my v star. NEVER had any issuse with hydroplanning,slipping, breaking traction, etc. with either of my tires. My bike feels like it has much better traction in the rain or on a frosty road. Now, I'm not saying that I'd ride it over Donner Summit with chain controls in effect, but I feel safer running a ct. in the rain than I did when I was a mc. tire. Ken