Car tire

[gmonty]

For fear of starting an all out forum war I am wondering what ya'll have experienced or heard about putting car tires on gl1200's?

The reason I am looking at this option is that I tow a trailer on a daily basis for work(about 400 pounds loaded). I have had no problem with power or braking. Once I got the trailer tongue lengthened and the trailer stopped swaying I have never once felt unsafe.

The one thing I have noticed over almost 4k miles, the tire that was on the bike was about half used, is the tire is almost bald now. Considering that this is my "work vehicle" i want to find a solution as far as tires go that will last much longer than my current tire because time getting my tire changed is money.... and money spent on said task and the tire, is money.

[twocams]

You know Im the guy that always feels sorry for the machine. Guess cause Ive worked on vehicles for some 55 yrs now.
But when someone takes an old bike that should be enjoying its retirement yrs and uses it for a work horse....makes me sad.
So your pulling 400 lbs + the 200 that you weigh. That,s say 600 lbs. That,s hard on the engine, transmission,differential, clutch and sounds like tires too. My advice, get a Can-Am Spider or a newer work horse. And enjoy the Wing after work.
Just go to the junk yard and pick up a used car tire for $5-10

twocams

[SilverDave]

There are fitment issues with going DS with most car tires on a 1200 rim .. Car tires don't exactly fit .
Looks like the most successful have milled a few thou off the rim :

http://mcdarksiders.forumotion.com/t439 ... g-darkside
and
http://mcdarksiders.forumotion.com/t535 ... de-15-tire


There are also dangers of dark siding ANY motorcycle :

http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/5-g ... cycle.html
http://trafficsafe.org/index.php/traffi ... side-1683/
http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/mounti ... -shop-talk

But many people do go Darkside... so " Its a free world " as long as you are aware of the pros and cons ..

Excellent engineering article here :
http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/10- ... -tire.html
<<< sadly Saunders site was recently hacked, and all the important diagrams about beads and rim angles are missing .
If Saunders site gets it fixed ... worth reading !! >>>

...( and once i used to ride with shorts and a light T on hot summer days , and now I am ATGATT with full body armour ... so I cannot criticize too much if you want to good darkside ..

Whatever you choose... Ride Safe !!!

SilverDave

[brianinpa]

I have a 165/80 R 15 on my 87. Before that, the wheel and tire were on my 81, and before that the wheel and tire were on my 84 Standard. I have close to 13,000 miles on the tire with many more to go.

There are two ways to mount it... lots of lube with lots of air pressure (80+), or... remove some metal from the wheel. I machined some of the wheel to get the tire to seat the bead easier. I can do it with less than 40 PSI of air.

[Ohara]

I am interested in dark siding my 1200's. Do you remember how much material you had to remove? Also which brand of tire are you using? Sorry to be a bother. Thanks.

[brianinpa]

There is a ridge on the wheel that act like a bead lock. I had to remove that from both sides. There aren't many tires in that size. The brand is "Classic".

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.js ... on&partnum

[Ohara]

Thanks for the info,the price is right.

[Rusty Bike]

Car tires are very common on the Valkyrie board. A lot of riders run them.

[gmonty]

I am supposed to be getting my tire in today. I am in the process of taking the rear wheel off. I will post an update when I finish with the installation to let everyone know how it works out.

[twocams]

I just hope you put tire and wheel in a cage or tie them down good while putting air in them. Did you see the man and his son lying on the floor of his shop. When they should have used a cage while inflating a truck tire. You could see the tire cage in the shop and both of them on the concrete floor dead in the news paper photo.
But thats OK your just grinding a little off a aluminum wheel and putting a tire on that dont fit Wonder how your bike acts at 75 MPH when the rear tire goes BAMM! No I dont care what ya do.

[brianinpa]

Good to know you don't care. The feeling is mutual.

[gmonty]

I can finally post my update. I decided to end up removing a small amount of material from the rim to get the tire on. I ended up buying a nexen 165 80r15. I have since put about 200 miles on the tire and could not be happier. It handles slightly differently at slow speeds but it feels planted. It has been raining for most of the miles and I can without a doubt say that it makes me much more confident in the rain. It is like night and day from riding in the rain on a motorcycle tire.

In general it handles just as well in the dry and better in wet conditions. It is slightly taller than the mc tire I had which I think makes the majority of the difference in the handling feel. It is a much smoother ride. The enlarged contact patch is confident inspiring in all conditions. Over all I think it has been worth it.

[paneled]

thanks for the update of how it handles and feels compared to the
mc tire, and its performance in the rain.
it`s nice to hear a review on how it turned out instead of what
the rest of the motorcycling public thinks you should or should not
do with your own motorcycle, again thanks, convinced me on going
the dark side.

[Rednaxs60]

I am a fan of a CT on these bigger touring bikes. HD used to have a CT installed right from the factory a few years back. A friend of mine installed a CT on his Triumph Rocket. He is very pleased with the ride and bike performance. As an older gentleman, his idea of scraping the pegs is if it falls over in the garage.

Another issue with the 1200 rear wheels is the bearing issue. A fellow over on the NGW forum looked into this and has determined that a 1200 rear wheel can be machined to take two wheel bearings similar to the 1500 model. Here is the forum thread: https://ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... 27#p296127

Here are the pictures in question:

1200 rear rim machined to accept two bearings

1200 rear rim with dual bearings installed

The premise behind machining for two bearings is quite good. With one bearing, only part of the rear rim hub supports the wheel. With two bearings installed, more of the rear rim hub is used - much like the 1500.

Cheers

[gmonty]

I would like to say that while I did get the tire on the 1200 wheel, if I were to do this again I would do the conversion to the 1500 rear end and wheel to save time. I would also still have a stock 1200 wheel if I ever wanted to go back to a smaller mc tire

[brianinpa]

That's a benefit of having had several different 1200's. Spare parts are plenty...

[AZgl1800]

There are fitment issues with going DS with most car tires on a 1200 rim .. Car tires don't exactly fit .


Excellent engineering article here :
http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/10- ... -tire.html
<<< sadly Saunders site was recently hacked, and all the important diagrams about beads and rim angles are missing .
If Saunders site gets it fixed ... worth reading !! >>>

SilverDave

Actually, the missing pix are unrelated to the "Hacking scare", of which, as the chief moderator, I have not heard of a single instance of a user's password being used by someone else.... be that as it may, the IT techs at Motorcycle.com decided to simply delete all passwords for us @#$%^
and that created one hell of a mess for me.

The pictures disappeared when Motorcycle.com purchased the Steve Saunders SSGWF website and then later they transfered the entire forum over to a different Operating System and new servers in their own neighborhood.

The conversion process was not without its' bit of confusion and a lot of upset users.... some left SSGWF and never came back.