darkside questions

Granite man on HSN asked;
My wife just got her license and we've purchased an '83 Honda Shadow VT500C for her riding pleasure. It has a few issues we are fixing. One is the rear tire. Is there any reason a novice would not want a car tire on this bike, providing that it can fit one? I want her to be as safe as possible. We get some wet roads here in Michigan and traction is a big issue. And we also have lots of sandy corners here too - can anyone speak to that? Can I put a car tire on the VT500C? If so, how do I figure/translate to the size I need? And who will mount it? The recommended mt size by Honda is: 130/90-16 M/C 67H, the wheel size is: 3.00 x 16. So do I just look for a tire identical to this? Is there a range of different sizes possible? Thanks for your help. I think I want to do this with my '82 Goldwing too.

I (note I, meaning my opinion and take it for what it's worth approx $.005) would not put a brand new nervous rider who is going to be timid to begin with on a tire known to cause some variation and degradation of low speed handling. That said, a tire that narrow, of which I have no experience, I would suspect would minimalize these noted drawbacks to a CT. If the husband/significant other were an experienced rider and could find a tire that would fit (guessing that will be tough in that size) it could be entirely possible for a new rider to learn on a CT and then, if warranted, would be a lot easier to transition to a MT..... if that makes any sense..

I totally agree. My thought would also be that if a person learned to ride on a ct then that is what they would know and switching to a mt would feel strange, (and probaly unsafe).

Jerry

Quite the opposite response from me, put a new rider on as much rubber as possible. Although it will be hard to find a 16 in tire narrow enough to fit the bike I think. I would definately darkside her if I found a tire to fit.
The whole going to a bike with a mc tire later and relearning...... well it's a new bike and she would be relearning anyway.
JMHO and like all opinion is only worth what ya wanna pay for it.

See you out there
Smokey

Nodac and Unk Jer.
I believe that if the tire was found to fit that bike. She would learn well with the CT to the point where she would not even know the diff. A tire that narrow would not behave badly in slow parking lot speeds and you or me would / could not feel the diff in between the two tires. Like said my opinion is worth. .005 cents. Also I have no problem with suggesting that she should go for it as the benefits of the CT outweigh the stinkin MT for sure.

Peace and ride safe yall.
Moon

Thats what I said guys...........

Jerry

smokey2255 wrote:Quite the opposite response from me, put a new rider on as much rubber as possible. Although it will be hard to find a 16 in tire narrow enough to fit the bike I think. I would definately darkside her if I found a tire to fit.
The whole going to a bike with a mc tire later and relearning...... well it's a new bike and she would be relearning anyway.
JMHO and like all opinion is only worth what ya wanna pay for it.

See you out there
Smokey

+1 I kinda think like Smokey!


.

OK yall.
My bad. Seems like the general consis is "Just Do It."

Just go for it, if you do it, do it good !
Besides, girls don't seem to waist time anymore with nothing.

Badmoon wrote:Nodac and Unk Jer.
I believe that if the tire was found to fit that bike. She would learn well with the CT to the point where she would not even know the diff. A tire that narrow would not behave badly in slow parking lot speeds and you or me would / could not feel the diff in between the two tires. Like said my opinion is worth. .005 cents. Also I have no problem with suggesting that she should go for it as the benefits of the CT outweigh the stinkin MT for sure.

Moon

GraniteMan here.

Thanks for your thoughts about this. If I can find a CT to fit we're going to go that direction. Only caveat is that the tire size calculator doesn't work, at least not for me, so I don't know what size CT to look for to replace the 130/90/16. Can anyone help me figure out the size(s) I could possibly use for this application. Thanks much. Once I wear out the MC tire on my Goldwing, it's going over to the "darkside" too. Also, where do I go to get it mounted?

Cheers!
GMan

If you can get it to fit the rim and clear everything, a 195/60 16 has an identical diameter to the 130/90. Unfortunately there are so few options for 16" rims that are small enough for a motorcycle. Everything else I'm looking at is an inch taller or shorter than your stock tire. 185/55 would be 1.2 inches shorter in diameter, but shorter might be better, depending on how tall the rider is. That would be a 4% increase in rpms, which isn't unreasonable.

How wide is the rim? I think that might be the biggest sticking point for this project.

You can get a Comtrac in 175/75/16 and 185/75/16 I'm running a Federal 175/60/16 on a 3.5 inch rim on the Nomad. The rpm's are up slightly, but after 3000 miles it's no big deal.

MT

That 175/60 is a good option. A little less than an inch shorter than stock, and as narrow as you'll find a ct for a 16" rim. Now you just need to figure out if your swingarm and fender will clear a 6.89 inch wide tire.

After mounting on the 3.5 inch rim, it's right at 6.00 inches. The mounting on the rim, which is 2" narrower than the recommended car rim, pulls the sidewalls in, which narrows the tire. After mounting mine was between 1/4 and 3/8 inch shorter than stock. I believe that the swingarm is the same as my Nomad. I'll check on that.

TM

Ps according to the micro fiche it's the same part number for the swingarm. It should fit nicely.

Oldsmobility wrote:If you can get it to fit the rim and clear everything...
How wide is the rim? I think that might be the biggest sticking point for this project.

I think the rim size is 3.00x16 - that's a number from the sidewall and on the rim too. So I assume this means the rim is 3 inches wide - Yes?

Thanks for all these size considerations. Do you think we can get any of these on this rim? The diameter difference of say 1.2" only makes for a little more than a half inch height difference. Right now the springs in back were lowered for previous 5'2" owner - My wife 5'9" likes the ride now, so I'll just raise the shocks to get her back to it. Do I get more height clearance for tire by doing that?

Thanks!!

MAS Tequila wrote:After mounting on the 3.5 inch rim, it's right at 6.00 inches. The mounting on the rim, which is 2" narrower than the recommended car rim, pulls the sidewalls in, which narrows the tire. After mounting mine was between 1/4 and 3/8 inch shorter than stock. I believe that the swingarm is the same as my Nomad. I'll check on that.

TM

Ps according to the micro fiche it's the same part number for the swingarm. It should fit nicely.

Do you think it will fit okay on a 3" rim? Sorry, I'm not following the swingarm part number issue - mine is an '83 Shadow VT500C. Would you clarify? Thanks. D.

Sorry, the swingarm comment was for another thread. Too many conversations at once. Yes it should fit a 3" rim, mine is on a 3.5" rim.

MT

I did some hunting in hopes of finding something you could use. Only thing that comes close and would probably fit that I could find were spare tires(145/80R16), but NOT what you would want to use. They are minimal tires with limited speed and weight restrictions and not much useable tread. There may yet be a similarly sized tire out there somewhere, but I would also exclude trailer tires for the same afore mentioned reasons. Sorry it's not much help, but at the very least we do try to help each other out here.

Ride safe

Mike B. (Rochester Hills Michigan) Double Dark Side Rider
(I ride with a 155/80R12 car tire on the back and Pirelli
Diablo 150/70-13 scooter rear tire up on the front of
_'After Midnight'_ my 2004 Honda Reflex Sport.)
-> 4000 trouble free miles so far with this set of tires. <-


**** While knowledge has power, It is what you do with what you
know that is important.
It gives the knowledge validity and demonstrates it's worth.
Use it wisely. **** (I wish I knew more)

MAS Tequila wrote:Sorry, the swingarm comment was for another thread. Too many conversations at once. Yes it should fit a 3" rim, mine is on a 3.5" rim.
MT

Thanks for the clarification and final thought about the 3" rim. I'll give it a go with an used tire first to see about fit. Then if all is swell, I'll go with a new ct. Thanks again.

bandito_two wrote:I did some hunting in hopes of finding something you could use...it's not much help, but at the very least we do try to help each other out here. Ride safe
Mike B. (Rochester Hills Michigan)

Hello fellow Michigander:
Thanks for the digging around and making an attempt, I really do appreciate the helpfulness everyone shows here.