July issue in Rider magazine

We must really be gaining attention if a major motorcycle mag will devote 6 pages telling all the word how a CT will not work on a MC. Of course they used as the experts tire manufacture reps. Of course they didn't try it out for themselves. This is coming from a mag that admits loading the bikes on two up trips that exceed the load capacity of the MC and find no fault with that.

yeah, nothing slanted about their views there

See you out there
Smokey

Isn't this the rag that gives away free subscriptions????

Dont really care what the Mag says have not bought it yet and probably will not. But Thanks to yall that I would not go back to MT on the back. Rode a thousand miles in one day and love it after I adjusted suspension and tire press in front and rear. Frt has 33 and Read has 38.

have not seen the article and for what i've heard dont care to...but if i did would probably have to read it in the LIBRARY AND THEN USE THE ARTICLE TO FINISH THE PAPER WORK PART OF THE VISIT...................27,000 miles PLUS AND COUNTING.... ESKIMO

I have read the article and it's full of unsubstantiated scare tactics. Using a flat topped eraser to equate to a ct on a motorcycle is pure bunk. A very biased and poorly written fairy tale.

The truly open minded will read below and understand my reasons for my choice. I don’t expect to change anyone’s position, just provide a couple things to think about.

First, think about car tires. They are cylindrical; circumferentially they are round and inside to outside they are the same diameter. So when mounted on a car, the contact patch is just a line of no thickness where the tire hits the ground right? Of course not. Pneumatic tires flex and give and the bottom of the tire flattens out depending on air pressure and the weight loading on that wheel. The ideal contact patch ends up being a nice rectangle.

SIDE WALL FLEX IS A NORMAL PART OF PNUEUMATIC TIRES.

Now, think about the forces at work in a dynamic situation rather than a static view. The tire is the one thing that connects the car to the earth. It makes it speed up, slow down and turn. Anytime you want to change the attitude of the car, you are creating a force that is trying to rip the tire from the road.

When you turn the steering wheel, the car still wants to go straight ahead while the tire wants to stay planted to the road. You are literally trying to rip the tire between the road and the wheel. An exaggerated example. Watch a stock car race. Since they only make left turns, when they are at idle, you can see the right front tire is visibly canted in at the top (they call this camber). That’s so when they charge into the corner and turn left, the tire actually stretches right to left and compresses the left side sidewall while tensioning the right side sidewall. The centerline of the wheel actually offsets from the centerline of the tire.

Now think of a motorcycle. When static, you can’t lean the bike over and have it stay put. Gravity pulls it to the ground. But when moving, leaning occurs at every turn. Just like in a car, the weight and inertia of the bike is trying to stay straight toward the outside of the turn while the contact patch is trying to stick to the road and hold to the inside of the turn. The inside (of the turn) sidewall is compressing while the outside is in tension, effectively bending the contact patch away from the plane of the motorcycle.

Most motorcycle tires are more doughnut shaped or a torus, rather than cylindrical. Just like a car tire does not contact the road in a narrow line, the motorcycle doughnut does not contact the road at a single point. With the same size tire, you can see a large variation of the cross section shape from one brand to the next. The different shapes appeal to different riders in different applications. The perception is that this shape allows the bike to lean over on the tread. But in fact, most street bikes rarely ever wear their tire on the edges. They usually wear a narrow strip down the center. Because of the forces above, the tendency to pull the tire under in a turn (or more correctly, for the tire to stick and the forces trying to push the bike straight ahead) are flexing that tire to keep in contact. The primary reason of having a pneumatic tire is to allow this compression/tension/flexing to occur in order to maintain the contact patch and subsequently road holding ability.

The rear tire choices for my GL1500 (160/80-16) are limited to:

Avon Venom
Dunlop Elite III
Dunlop K177
Bridgestone EXCEDRA
Shinko
Metzeler ME880
Dunlop Wintersport, Run-On-Flat
Austone Taxi
Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max
Michelin Pilot (no longer available)
Federal Formosa (no longer available)

I have not tried all these alternatives but I have used many motorcycles and made the choice based on my own experiences and extensive research of anecdotal success. There is no qualitative comparison of these few alternatives so all we can do short of trying each option ourselves is to read and judge other’s experiences and make adjustments to ourselves.

I selected the Austone. First, let me say I do everything within my control to NOT find the limits of traction. Since I have not found the limit of any of the choices, I can not and will not quantitatively claim that one is better than another.

So, I have chosen a motorcycle tire for my Honda Goldwing that is more cylindrical in shape than torus (yes, it is a motorcycle tire since it’s on a motorcycle!). My judgment is based on a qualitative belief that bigger is better. Therefore I chose this because it creates a bigger contact patch. Because the contact patch remains large when turning in normal road use. Because the large patch should more readily deal with the multiple variations of the road surface. The larger contact area will distribute the forces over more surface area so the tire should not wear as fast. Because this tire has a higher load rating than others of the same size.

This tire is DOT approved, has the correct size, the correct load range and correct speed rating for my bike. I have used it on highways, back roads, steel deck bridges, dirt roads, potholes, tar snakes, and about every other situation one may encounter. I’ve dragged pegs many times and this tire has yet to disappoint me. It is a flatter cross-section motorcycle tire and that, thus far, better meets my needs than any other tire I have used. When the time comes to replace this tire, I may choose differently but it will be a choice based on thousands of hours and thousands of miles of experience, both personal and anecdotal.

While I may participate in some good natured ribbing about cookies vs. spontaneous combustion, I do not think for one moment that my choice is the correct choice for everyone nor do I look with disdain on those that don’t do as I do. Others will choose a different cross-section motorcycle tire. What drives their decision are the factors most important to them. I am not here to convince them they are wrong as it’s a personal choice. All I ask is that you don’t insult me by belittling my decision.

swsvending wrote:We must really be gaining attention if a major motorcycle mag will devote 6 pages telling all the word how a CT will not work on a MC. .

I know that I am spending about $1,000 per year less on motorcycle tires, if there are only 1000 other darksiders not spending the same amount, that's $1,000,000 less in sales

sooner or later as darksider numbers increase, someone will notice in the pocketbook