Road Star tire info

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After reading posts here on this website, I became a Darksider. Wow! I'm all excited. I haven't gotten out on the road yet as I just got my tire mounted today. Plus, I decided since I had to move the fender anyway, I would go ahead and have some cracks in it repaired. And since I was going to have it painted, I might as well take off my gas tank and have it painted, too, with some ghost flames. So, more than you needed to know.

Now, I would post pictures but I have never been able to post them on a website, so I'll just have to tell you what's up. First off, I did have a Metzeler 880 with a width of 150 mm. 150x80x16, actually. The tire measured 6" in section width. I also have spoke wheels that are 3.5" in width. When I got my new Dunlop SP 5000 in 195x60x16, they were 8" in section width. My fender inside brace was only about 7.5" of opening. Squeezing the Dunlop down to 3.5" made the width change to only 6.5" section width, so I had room to spare.

The dealer only ran the air up to (if I heard him right) about 50lbs to make tt seat. It does have a tube in it. I wanted to get a new radial tube, but the dealer said one for that size would wrinkle up too much and the valve stem was too small, so he left the old one in. It's seated right out to the bead okay.

Then I compared the contact with the ground. This was with a 11,000+ miles stock mc tire off the rim to a new Dunlop on the spoke wheel. Tire height was almost equal. When vertical, new had slightly more tire on ground. At 20 degree lean, old had about 3/4" on ground, new had 1". At 40 degrees, old had about 1/2", new had 1". On my cruiser, I can't imagine leaning with the rear more than 40 degrees, and while that, the new had about 3X as many grooves on the ground contact point--the stock has tread spread much further apart. At 40 degrees, the new was still on the bottom tread as the tire was slightly rounded from bending to conform to the 3.5" rim.

I'll report back when I get moving on the road, but it will have to wait until I get my gas tank and fender back on in two weeks.

RonK

Congrats and thanks for the report! Interesting!

You said 11,000 miles on the old MC tire? Damn-it. Best I could do was 5500. That car tire will prolly will dry rott before the bike gives up the ghost. Sounds cool. Post pics when the tins make it back from the painter.

Peace
Moon.

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Bad...,
Will do. I could have stretched another thousand out of them, but the center grooves are just barely visible. I am currently putting on about 30,000 miles per year on my bike. Like I want to change tires three times per year?...Not!

Anyway, I am learning to do it myself. The actual switching on the rim costs between $10. and $20. , depending on where I take it, so that's okay. Tire shops have the equipment already. But it's the other $120., or so, for the bike dealer to do the switch that bothers me a lot. Plus, I realized my wheel wasn't very straight, apparently. That may be why my bike always seemed to be leaning to one side.

I'm not really sure just how I should make the wheel straight. Maybe I'll start a thread on that.

RonK